“I feel terrible for the families who went through false hopes during the search and rescue efforts,” said James Cameron.
Hollywood film director James Cameron, who directed the 1997 movie Titanic, appeared on CNN Thursday night where he spoke with Anderson Cooper about the Titan submersible and revealed that, on Monday, he began believing that it had imploded.
Cameron addressed Oceangate’s Titan Submersible, expressing his hope that his own thoughts were mistaken. He elaborated that, in his mind, the only plausible explanation he could conceive for the situation was an implosion.
“I mean, obviously, we’re all – we’re all kind of heartsick from the outcome of this,” Cameron said. “And I’ve been living with it for a few days now as some of my other colleagues in the deep submergence community.”
The Titanic director admitted, “I watched over the ensuing days this whole sort of everybody running around with their hair on fire search, knowing full well that it was futile – hoping against hope that I was wrong but knowing in my bones that I wasn’t. And so, it certainly wasn’t a surprise today, and I just feel terrible for the families that had to go through all of these false hopes that kept getting dangled, you know, as it played out.”
He added, “I was out on a ship myself when the event happened on Sunday. The first I heard of it was Monday morning. I immediately got on my network because it’s, you know, a very small community in the deep submergence group and found out some information within about a half hour that they had lost comms and they had lost tracking simultaneously.”
Cameron, 68, embarked on an exploration of the deep sea in the 1990s while conducting research and filming his movie Titanic. He shared his theories with Cooper, aged 56, regarding the challenges that he believes the submarine encountered.
“The only scenario that I could come up with in my mind that could account for that was an implosion. A shock wave event so powerful that it actually took out a secondary system that has its own pressure vessel and its own battery power supply, which is the transponder that the ship uses to track where the sub is,” he explained. “So I was thinking of implosion then. That’s Monday morning.”
James Cameron’s Belief in the “Implosion Scenario”
After conducting extensive research and receiving indications that pointed to a loud noise consistent with an implosion event, Cameron shared the heartbreaking news with his trusted circle of colleagues. He urged everyone to pay tribute to their lost comrades by raising a glass on Monday.
During the course of their conversation, Cameron expressed his earnest desire for a comprehensive investigation to be conducted, ensuring that valuable information is made available to the deep submergence community and other interested parties.
The OceanGate Expedition’s submersible, known as Titan, went missing on Sunday as it ventured into the profound depths of the North Atlantic Ocean to observe the wreckage of the Titanic.
The Titan was equipped with an estimated 96 hours’ worth of oxygen at the onset of the expedition.
On Thursday, OceanGate released an announcement stating that the five individuals aboard the missing submersible had tragically lost their lives, following the discovery of debris indicating a likely “catastrophic implosion.”
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” expressed the company in a statement.
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans,” the statement further conveyed. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
James Cameron Compares The Titanic Submersible to “The Titanic,” Where Warnings “Went Unheeded”
Earlier on Thursday, James appeared on ABS News, drawing a parallel between the catastrophic event involving the Titan submersible and the historic tragedy of the Titanic wreckage, underscoring the theme of unheeded warnings.
“I actually calculated that I’ve spent more time on the ship than the captain did, back in the day,” Cameron revealed. He emphasized his extensive involvement in designing and constructing submersibles capable of venturing even deeper into the ocean than the Titanic wreckage.
Drawing from his vast experience, Cameron acknowledged the intricate engineering challenges associated with building such vessels and the rigorous safety protocols that must be adhered to. He underscored the importance of viewers understanding that deep submergence diving is a well-established field, emphasizing its maturity as an art form.
Moreover, James Cameron expressed that there were genuine concerns about the Titan submersible within the deep-submergence engineering community.
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and many people died as a result,” Cameron said.
He added, “For a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site, with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I think is just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal.”
James also addressed the unfortunate presumed death of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a highly regarded French maritime expert. The New York Times reported that Nargeolet had visited the Titanic wreck site over 35 times.
“For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process,” Cameron said. He and Nargeolet had been friends for 25 years.