‘Titanic’ Director James Cameron Questions Why Search for Titan Sub Didn’t Start Directly Below Where Last Signal Was Sent

Titanic director James Cameron raised questions over the search process for the missing submersible that was intended to take five passengers to view the RMS Titanic ship wreckage.

The exchange took place during an interview with BBC News on Thursday, which began to gain traction on Twitter via Mike Sington.

Cameron was reacting to news of debris from the vessel being discovered on Thursday. Since making Titanic in 1997, Cameron has made over 33 dives to the ship site.

“I didn’t hear about it until I woke up Monday morning. I immediately got on the phone to some of my other contacts in the deep submersible community,” Cameron said.

“Within about an hour, I had the following facts. They were on descent. They were at 3,500 meters heading for the bottom at 3,800 meters. The comms were lost and navigation was lost. And I said, instantly, you can’t lose comms and navigation together without an extreme catastrophic event. A highly energetic, catastrophic event,” he added.

Cameron suggested that the week long search that ensued was a “charade.”

“The first thing that popped to mind was an implosion. So I felt in my bones what had happened,” he said. “So this entire week has just felt like a prolonged nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff, and they’re Coast Guard is out with airplanes. I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position. That’s exactly where they found it.”

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