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In a recent conversation with the BBC, James Cameron, the Oscar-winning filmmaker who made the iconic 1997 blockbuster Titanic, claimed that the recent disappearance of the Titan submersible felt personal and that he could sense the loss “in [his] bones.” He further added how he himself had been to the Titanic's wreckage site 33 times.
The underwater vessel, owned by OceanGate, went missing on the morning of Sunday, June 18, 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive towards the Titanic wreckage. After more than five days of an extensive search, rescue parties involved finally announced that a “catastrophic implosion” during descent is what destroyed the missing submersible.
So far, five major outer fragments of the vessel have reportedly been detected by a robotic diving vehicle, which are lying right beside the Titanic wreckage. No human remains have been traced so far, but the five people on board are presumed to be dead.
“And the first thing that popped to mind was an implosion”: Titanic director James Cameron tells the BBC
Famous Hollywood director, James Cameron, who has made 33 round trips to the Titanic wreckage, first went down in 1995 to capture footage for his famous 1997 film, Titan. Cameron has even penned a book detailing accounts of his expeditions; Titled Exploring The Deep, it includes images, maps, and routes of his dive journey.
In his recent interview to the BBC, he stated that he did not hear about the missing submersible until Monday, June 18, as he was on a ship on Sunday. He further continued that when he found out that the Titan lost both its navigation and communication simultaneously, it didn’t take him long to suspect a disaster.
“I felt in my bones what had happened. For the sub's electronics to fail and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously - sub's gone.”
In addition, he disclosed that as soon as he heard the fateful news, he contacted some of his friends in the “deep submersible community.” In less than an hour’s time, he was apparently provided with all the facts.
According to James Cameron's facts, the submersible was on its descent when it went missing. Additionally, it was at 3500 meters targeting the bottom at 3800 meters. Not only that, but both its communication and navigation were lost. Learning this, he instantly figured out that losing communication and navigation together sans an “extreme catastrophic event or high, highly energetic catastrophic event” was unlikely:
“And the first thing that popped to mind was an implosion.”
Interestingly, after James Cameron’s revelation, it was announced on Thursday, June 22, that the US Navy indeed traced “an acoustic anomaly consistent with an implosion” right after the vessel went missing on Sunday. However, the news was reportedly kept a secret so far to avoid speculations. In fact, the US Coast Guard, which was involved in the search and rescue mission used this particular piece of information to narrow down its initial search radius.
James Cameron further told the British news outlet that the past week has “felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff.”:
“I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position. That's exactly where they found it,” he added.
He continued that all that was left now was for a remotely controlled underwater vehicle to go down and confirm it. The same was deployed on Thursday that “found it within hours, probably within minutes.”
James Cameron also explained how deep submergence diving is a “nature art” and that the 22-foot Titan submersible was not equipped for it, having many safety concerns.
The acclaimed Hollywood director, who didn’t shy away from dropping more truth bombs, said that experts from the submersible community were “very concerned about this sub” and that many even wrote letters to the company (OceanGate) that their expeditions were “too experimental” and that the submersibles “needed to be certified.”
James Cameron also drew a comparison between the 1912 Titanic tragedy and the recent one:
“The (Titanic) 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.”
“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 it’s just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal,” Cameron concluded.
While the Titanic that had sunk on April 15, 1912, killed around 1500 passengers, the Titan submersible that went in search of the ocean liner’s ruins took the lives of five -- French submersible specialist Paul-Henry Nargeolet, American CEO and founder of OceanGate (the company that made the Titan) Stockton Rush as the vessel’s pilot, and three tourists, who each paid 250,000 dollars for the trip.
The tourists were father-son duo Shahzada and Sulaiman Dawood from one of Pakistan’s infamous and wealthiest families, and British billionaire businessman and explorer Hamish Harding.
Incidentally, James Cameron personally knew Nargeolet for over 25 years; the former stated that “for him [Nargeolet] to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for [him] to process.”
