In a recent interview, James Cameron, the director behind the award-winning movie “Titanic,” revealed that he knew about the incident involving OceanGates’ Titan submersible on Monday and expressed regret for not speaking up earlier.
Cameron, who has extensive experience in diving and operating submersibles, shared that he understood the cause of the accident after being informed that the sub’s electronics, communication system, and tracking transponder stopped working at the same time. The authorities confirmed on Thursday that all five individuals aboard the vessel had passed away due to the incident.
On Monday morning, he found out that the submersible was missing. He then contacted his connections in the deep diving community and obtained several details about the dive that the submersible “Titan” was on when it lost contact within an hour.
“And the first thing that popped to mind was an implosion,” he said. “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.”
He criticized the media for prioritizing sensational content to gain higher ratings. Additionally, he asserted that he was aware of the actual facts by early Monday.
“I wish I’d spoken up, but I assumed somebody was smarter than me, you know, because I never experimented with that technology, but it just sounded bad on its face,” he added.
“As a submersible designer myself, I designed and built a sub to go to the deepest place in the ocean – three times deeper than Titanic,” he said. “So, I understand the engineering problems associated with building this type of vehicle and all the safety protocols that you have to go through.”
According to Cameron, no one has ever died during this particular type of underwater exploration before. He also explained that the Titan collapsed because its carbon fiber structure lacks compression strength, despite being tougher and lighter than steel or aluminum.
According to Cameron, the implosion, which is the inward collapse of an object, would have been as forceful as 10 cases of dynamite exploding.
