James Cameron was informed within 24 hours of the Titanic submarine’s disappearance that it had been heard imploding and he “did this whole sort of search over the next few days, with everyone running around with their hair on fire, observed with full force.’ Well that was futile.’
The film director and deep-sea expert, who has made over 30 dives to the wreck of the Titanic, said he was told Monday that the noise of a probable implosion had been picked up by underwater acoustic equipment.
“I tracked down some information that was probably military in origin, although it could also be for research purposes – because there are hydrophones all over the Atlantic – and got confirmation that there were loud noises indicative of an implosion,” said he told CNN.
He said he wasn’t surprised as he felt the OceanGate Expedition submarine’s carbon fiber hull, named Titan, was fundamentally unsuitable.
Cameron, director of the hit 1997 film Titanic, said his dives were conducted in a ceramic submarine, which was better able to withstand the intense underwater pressure.
James Cameron told Anderson Cooper on Thursday night that he wasn’t surprised the submersible had imploded – and learned of its probable fate within 24 hours
OceanGate Expeditions is one of the few companies offering these tours. Tickets cost up to $250,000
Cameron told Anderson Cooper Thursday night that he was “a little bit heartbreaking” about the result.
But he said he’s had more time than most to grapple with it.
“I’ve been living with this for a few days now, as have some of my peers in the deep submergence community,” he said.
“I was on a ship myself when this happened on Sunday.
“The first time I heard about it was on Monday morning.” I immediately checked into my network – as it’s a very small community in the deep submergence group – and learned within half an hour that they were the had lost communication and tracking at the same time.
“The only scenario I could think of that could explain this was an implosion.” “A shock wave event so powerful it actually destroyed a secondary system that has its own pressure vessel and battery power supply. This is the transponder that the ship uses to track where the submarine is.”
Cameron, 68, said he began speaking to friends and colleagues in the deepwater industry and quickly learned there was little doubt a catastrophic implosion had occurred.
“I have shared with everyone in my inner circle that we have lost our comrades and I have encouraged everyone to raise a glass in their honor on Monday.”
“Then over the next few days I watched this whole type of search, with everyone running around with their hair on fire, knowing it was futile, in the unnatural hope that I was wrong, but I knew that in my heart of hearts It was not me.’
Cameron said it “certainly came as no surprise” when the US Coast Guard and OceanGate confirmed on Thursday that all five on board were dead and wreckage from the imploded submarine was found on the seabed.
He said he had terrible sympathy for the families, saying they were having to “live through these false hopes that kept faltering over time.”
And he said he felt the team behind OceanGate was being ruthless.
“Here’s a clear case today where the collective didn’t remember the lesson from Titanic – these people at OceanGate didn’t,” he said.
“I just find it heartbreaking that it was so avoidable.”
Cameron told Cooper that the carbon fiber hull used by the OceanGate team was not suitable.
Stockton Rush, who founded the company in 2009 and was one of the fatalities, claimed he worked with Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington on the design, but all three have since denied any involvement.
Cameron said he was skeptical when he heard that OceanGate was building a deep-sea submersible with a carbon fiber and titanium composite hull.
“I thought it was a terrible idea. I wish I had spoken up but I assumed someone was smarter than me, you know, because I’ve never experimented with this technology, but at first glance it just sounded bad,” he told Portal on Thursday .
The cause of Titan’s implosion is unclear, but Cameron reckons the critics were right when they warned that a carbon fiber and titanium hull would allow for delamination and microscopic water infiltration, which would increase over time would lead to progressive failure.
Other industry experts and a whistleblower worker sounded the alarm in 2018, criticizing OceanGate for opting out of certification and refusing to operate as a test vessel.
OceanGate has not responded to recent questions about its decision not to seek third-party certification from the industry, such as the American Bureau of Shipping or European company DNV.
At the time, they said that certification was too long a process and would slow down their innovation.
The five deaths are the first deep-sea deaths for the industry, Cameron said.
The industry standard is to make pressure hulls out of cohesive materials like steel, titanium, ceramic or acrylic, which are better suited for conducting tests, Cameron said.
“We’re celebrating innovation, aren’t we?” “But you shouldn’t use a test vehicle for paying passengers who aren’t deep-sea engineers themselves,” Cameron said.
Cameron said both the Titanic and Titan tragedies were preceded by unheeded warnings.
In the case of the Titanic, the captain raced across the Atlantic on a moonless night despite being told of icebergs.
“Here they are again,” Cameron said.
‘And in the same place.’ Now one wreck lies next to another for the same damn reason.’