Getty Director James Cameron, and equipment with the logo of the submersible's company.
Famed “Titanic” director James Cameron has slammed the search for the ill-fated Titan submersible, saying, “We all knew they were dead” even as the June 2023 international search continued.
Speaking on “60 Minutes Australia,” Cameron said of U.S. Coast Guard investigators, according to 9Now, “I think they want to do things their way. Frankly, I think they’ve kind of got egg on their face and they don’t want outside opinions. That’s just my interpretation.”
He added, “They should be inviting me but they’re not. Why listen to a scientist?”
Cameron told “60 Minutes Australia” that he believes the international search for the submersible misled the public because he heard from a “reliable” naval source “that they had heard an event and triangulated it to the site,” leading Cameron to jot down a note that read, “9:25 confirmed implosion.” However, the search for the submersible continued for days after that point, with the public believing it was possible the occupants could be saved.
Reports of banging noises from the ocean floor fuelled search efforts for survivors of the OceanGate sub disaster, but film director and deep-sea explorer James Cameron says it was always just a false hope.
Watch #60Mins on @9Now: t.co/qqPXQL8zj1
“We all knew they were dead. We’d already hoisted a toast to our fallen comrades” that Monday night, Cameron said.
The world became engrossed in the search for the submersible in 2023 when the adventure tourism vehicle failed to resurface during a trip to see the wreck of the Titanic on the ocean floor. Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference on June 22, 2023, that a remote-operated vehicle eventually discovered the tail cone of the Titan lying 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic on the sea floor. “The degree is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Mauger said.
Dead in the tragedy were a wealthy aviation executive and adventurer, a respected Titanic shipwreck expert and the CEO of the submersible company.
James Cameron Says Everyone Was ‘Running Around With Their Hair on Fire’
One year on from the OceanGate sub catastrophe, there are still so many questions.
But now Hollywood legend and Titanic expert James Cameron is ready to set the record straight on the disastrous expedition and the frenzied search mission that followed. #60Mins
Cameron said on the broadcast that the search “just transformed into this crazy thing,” as the world counted down the amount of oxygen that might have remained as a race unfolded to try to save the submersible’s occupants.
“Everybody running around with their hair on fire, when we knew right where the sub was,” he said.
“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 [was] waiting with bated breath,” Cameron added.
Cameron questioned investigators hearing “something tapping against a hull over the sound of 11 ships operating in the immediate vicinity, moving giant pieces of deck equipment around?”
“That’s like hearing a sparrow fart over the cacophony of an airport,” he added.
A United States Coast Guard Captain Said Authorities Had a ‘Moral’ Responsibility to Search
According to 9News, Captain Jamie Frederick of the U.S. Coast Guard “said the naval intelligence was classified and couldn’t be shared publicly.”
“In the business of search and rescue, absent definitive information, we have both a moral and statutory responsibility, frankly, to continue to search,” Frederick said, according to the television station.
“If you don’t have hope and you’re conducting a search and rescue case, you’re in the wrong business.”