James Cameron reveals his concept on doomed sub and slams Coast Guard
James Cameron has revealed the US Coast Guard investigation into the doomed Titan submersible has still not spoken to him despite volunteering as an expert witness a year ago.
Mr Cameron who directed the 1997 hit Titanic has made 33 dives to the wreck of the famed ship in the North Atlantic Ocean, near where OceanGate’s Titan craft imploded with five people on board in June 2023.
Mr Cameron made the comments in a 60minutes interview on Sunday and claimed he has been left out of the ongoing investigation by US Coast Guard officials.
‘I’ve volunteered to the investigative committee at the Coast Guard,’ Mr Cameron said.
‘They should be inviting me but they’re not. Why listen to a scientist?’ he said.
‘I think they want to do things their way and frankly I think they’ve kind of got egg on their face and they don’t want outside opinions.
‘That’s just my interpretation.’
Film director James Cameron (pictured) said the OceanGate mission should never have taken place
Mr Cameron said rescuers were never going to find the men who died in the submarine and he said false hopes were raised that there were going to be survivors (pictured debris recovered from the Titan submersible)
The Titan submersible vanished two hours into its journey en route to the wreck of the Titanic.
On board were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman, and legendary Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who is also Mr Cameron’s friend.
Mr Cameron said the entire OceanGate mission should never have occurred in the first place.
‘These guys broke the rules,’ Mr Cameron told 60 Minutes on Sunday.
‘It’s that simple. They should not have been legally allowed to carry passengers.’
Despite several investigations, the families of the victims still do not know how the tragedy happened.
Mr Cameron said OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush (pictured) should have heeded the safety warnings before the submersible was deployed
The disappearance of the submersible sparked a massive, multi-day search effort by the US Coast Guard with the assistance of Canadian authorities.
Remnants of the sub, including its tail cone, were found about 490m from the hull of the Titanic on June 22, with the presumed human remains recovered days later.
Mr Cameron said instead of relying on his expertise, investigators don’t seem to be inclined to consult the knowledge he has obtained from visiting the shipwreck 33 times.
The adventurer slammed the official response when the sub lost contact, especially talk of a rescue effort, revealing his theory that an ‘implosion event’ heard by navy ships at the start of the multi-national operation had already confirmed those aboard had died.
‘I mean my jaw literally dropped open farther and farther each day that they never cautioned everybody,’ he said.
‘Everybody running around with their hair on fire when we knew right where the sub was.
‘But nobody could admit that they didn’t have the means to go down and look.
‘So they were running all over the surface and the entire world waiting with bated breath talking about 96 hours of oxygen.
‘We all knew they were dead.
‘We’d already hoisted a glass, you know, a toast to our fallen comrades on Monday night.’
The Titanic-bound tourist submarine (pictured) only had 96 hours of life support installed
Mr Cameron, said he hasn’t been consulted by investigators to assist with their inquiries, even after he volunteered (pictured debris from the submersible recovered after it was found on the ocean floor)
Mr Cameron said he doesn’t believe the Coast Guard was dishonest about their search efforts but they were ‘unnecessarily’ withholding information to the families involved.
‘I don’t think they lied,’ he said.
‘I think they went by a procedure that was torturous for the family.
‘They just didn’t disclose. They were informed by naval intelligence that an implosion event was tracked to the co-ordinate of the Titanic wreck site.’
Mr Cameron said he believed charges should be laid but he thinks the main person responsible died in the submersible disaster.
‘I think that there should be some changes,’ he said.
‘They didn’t have classification. Theoretically, they should not have been legally allowed to carry passengers.
‘Yeah, I think the tragedy is (Mr Rush) took others with him.
‘He should have listened to the warnings.’
Mr Cameron said he plans to honour his late friend, Mr Nargeolet, by returning to the Titanic one more time.
‘We have plans to build a sub that can go to 4000m, and we will, and I may even go back to Titanic in that sub, just to prove the point that if it’s done right, it can be done safely,’ he said.
A coveted spot on the doomed Titanic trip cost the passengers $US250,000 each.
