Sub rescue was a 'nightmarish, prolonged charade that gave families false hope'

23 June 2023 , 08:32

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Sub rescue was a 'nightmarish, prolonged charade that gave families false hope'

James Cameron has called the missing Titanic submarine search a 'prolonged and nightmarish charade'.

Titanic director and submersible expert James, 68, said he predicted Titan's implosion days before the debris from the missing submersible were found and said that the families of the five passengers on-board have been given 'false hope' for days one end.

Mr Cameron - who has visited the Titanic's shipwreck over 30 times - likened the tragedy this week to the actual Titanic disaster, where the captain repeatedly ignored warnings about an incoming iceberg but still decided to carry on at high speed, leading to thousands of people losing their lives in the water.

After a five day search for the Titan after it went missing on Sunday, the US Coast Guard announced yesterday that the five passengers on board were killed instantly when the submersible suffered a 'catastrophic implosion' just 1,600ft from the bow of the wrecked ocean liner.

James Cameron has called the missing Titanic submarine search a 'prolonged and nightmarish charade' (abc)

A remote operated submarine from a Canadian ship found debris on the ocean floor, confirming the implosion.

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Following the devastating announcement, Mr Cameron told BBC News that the Coast Guard search 'felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff'.

"I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position. That's exactly where they found it," he said.

Mr Cameron went on to share that he had deep concerns about the exploration.

"A number of the top players in the deep-submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that needed to be certified and so on," he said.

James, who worked on the iconic movie and even undertook many dives down to the wreck, also said the heartbreaking ordeal reminds him of the actual Titanic sinking in 1912.

"I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result," he said.

The five men on-board lost their lives (PA)

The famous director explained how he spent "more time on the ship than the captain did back on the day" before explaining how people within the community "were very concerned" about the OceanGate sub.

Just hours before James spoke out about the disaster, a submarine from a Canadian ship found debris from the OceanGate vessel on the ocean floor, which soon led to the company confirming that they believe the five men onboard had 'sadly been lost'.

OceanGate released a statement which read: "We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

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"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.

"Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."

Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard spoke at a press conference when he explained that the implosion "would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up".

Susan Knox