‘Titanic’ Director James Cameron Calls Search for Missing Sub ‘Nightmarish Charade,’ Knew of Implosion Days Ago

Titanic film director James Cameron said he knew the Titan sub traveling to the bottom of the ocean had imploded a day after it left, characterizing search and rescue efforts and oxygen countdowns as a futile “charade.”

“There was a lot of concern about this outfit and this sub, a lot of concern,” said Cameron, who has made 33 trips to the Titanic and holds the world record for deepest solo dive.

Cameron said, on Monday, upon first learning the sub was missing he was on the phone speaking to people in the submersible community.

“Within an hour and a half I had the following information: they were on descent, they lost comms, and tracking — the last one being the critical one, because the transponder that’s used to track a sub during descent and on the bottom is a fully autonomous system,” the acclaimed director stated. “It’s in its own pressure housing and it has its own battery power, so for them to lose comms and tracking at the same time…the sub was gone. There was no question in my mind.”

Cameron said he further learned a loud sound had been picked through “acoustic networks” manned by research groups and government entities.

“We got confirmation within an hour that there had been a loud bang at the same time that…comms were lost.”

“A loud bang on the hydrophones, loss of transponder, loss of comm, I knew what happened, sub imploded. I sent emails to everyone I know. I said, ‘We’ve lost some friends. The sub has imploded. It’s on the bottom in pieces right now.’ I sent that out Monday morning,” Cameron explained.

Cameron admitted he had major concerns with the carbon fiber used to design the ship’s hull, which is typically made from steel or titanium.

“And so we all knew the danger was delamination and progressive failure over time with microscopic water ingress and fatigue, what they call cycling fatigue, and we knew if the sub passed its pressure test it wasn’t going to fail on its first dive, it might fail on dive seven…it’s going to fail over time.”

The creator of the Terminator franchise went on to say he was sickened by media reports of subsequent search and rescue efforts.

“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 Coast Guard is out with airplanes. I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position and that’s exactly where [they found it].”