Director of the movie Titanic, James Cameron says the search for the missing Titan sub turned into a “nightmarish charade” that extended the agony of the families of the five men lost.
Cameron told the BBC in an interview on Friday that he “felt in my bones” that the Titan had been lost soon after he heard the submersible had lost “comms and navigation” during its descent to the wreckage of the Titanic.
He recalled the focus in the media on the percentage of oxygen left in the sub and the banging noises reported by the US Coast Guard as a “prolonged and nightmarish charade.”
In the news: U.S. Navy Detected Titan Implosion On Sunday, Just Hours After The Voyage Began
“That was just a cruel, slow turn of the screw for four days as far as I’m concerned,” he said. “Because I knew the truth on Monday morning.”
Cameron, who has made more than 30 dives to the wreckage of the Titanic, said he knew an “extreme catastrophic event” had happened as soon as he heard the submersible had lost navigation and communications during its descent.
“For the sub’s electronics to fail and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously — sub’s gone,” he told the British broadcaster.
“For me, there was no doubt. I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position, and that’s exactly where they found it. There was no search. When they finally got an ROV down there that could make the depth, they found it within hours. Probably within minutes.”
In the news: OceanGate Titan Debris Found 1,600 Feet From Titanic Bow After ‘Catastrophic’ Implosion
The filmmaker has been an oceanography enthusiast since childhood and has made dozens of deep-sea dives, including one to the deepest point on Earth — the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean.
Cameron said, “One of the saddest aspects of this is how preventable it really was.”
“We now have another wreck that is based on, unfortunately, the same principles of not heeding warnings,” he said.
The implosion of the Titan submersible that went missing on Sunday was reportedly known to the US Navy the same day the voyage to the Titanic began.
Underwater microphones, the Wall Street Journal reports, which detect enemy submarines, detected the implosion. On Thursday during a press briefing, it was revealed that the Titan suffered a “catastrophic implosion.”
“The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” the Navy said in a statement.
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“While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission,” said the Navy in a statement.
The Navy was aware of the implosion just hours after the Titan began its journey to the Titanic, but U.S. Coast Guard officials on Wednesday said that ‘banging’ noises were picked up, and they are currently searching that area, offering a glimmer of hope.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
But it appears they were.
A U.S. defense official said that when the Titan lost communications on Sunday, they began listening under the sea for signs of what was happening.
According to US Coast Guard REAR ADM John Mauger, the Titan debris was located 1600 feet from the Titanic’s bow.
“This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organisations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission,” said OceanGate in a statement Thursday.
In the news: OceanGate Titan Debris Found 1,600 Feet From Titanic Bow After ‘Catastrophic’ Implosion
During a press briefing Thursday, the US Coast Guard REAR ADM John Mauger said, “This morning, an ROV or remote operated vehicle, from the vessel Horizon Arctic, discovered the tail cone of the Titan submersible approximately 1600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. The ROV subsequently found additional debris. In consultation with experts from within the unified command, the debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Upon this determination, we immediately notified the family.”
On the vessel was Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company leading the expedition with passengers British pilot Hamish Harding, two members of a Pakistani business family Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
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