“We all knew they were dead”

Filmmaker James Cameron criticised the multinational rescue effort that was launched after a loss of communications with the doomed submersible OceanGate a year ago. “We all knew they were dead. We had already toasted our fallen comrades on Monday night,” he said in an interview with “60 Minutes Australia”.

Cameron, known for his blunt language, also shared a note he left on stationery in a hotel room when he learned of the submarine’s implosion. The note reads: “9:25 Implosion confirmed.”

“I literally wrote this down on the pad the moment I heard from my Navy source, a very reliable source, that they had heard of an incident and triangulated it to the location (of the submarine),” Cameron said.

The five people on board OceanGate’s submersible lost contact with their host ship on June 18, 2023, just hours after descending to the wreck of the Titanic. At about the same time, the U.S. Navy recorded the sound of an implosion or explosion, but classified it as “inconclusive.”

What followed was a multinational rescue operation lasting several days, coordinated by the United States, Germany, Great Britain, France and Canada. Canadian Air Force sonar equipment recorded dull sounds on the sea floor that aroused public interest bordering on obsession until the 22nd, when the deaths of all five passengers were confirmed.

“It just turned into this crazy thing,” Cameron said. “Everyone was running around with their hair on fire, even though we knew exactly where the submarine was. No one could admit they didn’t have the ability to go down and look. So they were running all over the surface and the whole world was waiting with bated breath.”

Last month, American billionaire Larry Connor announced that he and deep-sea expert Patrick Leahy plan to travel to the wreck of the Titanic using their own submersible. The pair have not yet announced a timetable for the trip, but plan to use a Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer.

The number “4000” indicates the depth to which the submersible is approved (the OceanGate submersible was only approved for a depth of 1,300 meters). The Titanic lies about 3,800 meters below sea level.