James Cameron is taking aim at OceanGate’s submersible mission to the Titanic wreck site nearly a year after the Titan implosion killed five people. “These guys broke the rules,” said the “Titanic” filmmaker, who has made 30-plus dives to the wreck site of the famed passenger ship, in a recent interview with “60 Minutes Australia.”
He later continued, “They didn’t have classification. Theoretically, they should not have been legally allowed to carry passengers.” Cameron was a friend of deep sea explorer and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who died in the June 2023 disaster that drew intense media coverage.
The filmmaker told reporter Amelia Adams that a “very reliable” naval source informed him there was a confirmed implosion that had been triangulated to the site of the Titanic wreck hours after the sub set off. He slammed the search efforts for the vessel, as well, declaring that “nobody could admit” they didn’t have the means to go down and look for the sub.
“The entire world waiting with baited breath. Talking about 96 hours of oxygen. We all knew they were dead,” Cameron said. “We had already hoisted a glass, you know, toast to our fallen comrades on Monday night.” When asked if he thinks the U.S. Coast Guard lied, the filmmaker said, “They just didn’t disclose.”
“I think they went by a procedure that was torturous for the family, unnecessarily torturous for the family,” said Cameron, who claimed the Coast Guard didn’t initially disclose the implosion event by the Titanic wreck site. “Now, could it have been something else? One in a trillion,” Cameron said.
U.S. Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick told Adams that they received information “early on” about an anomaly near the ship wreck site, noting that the information was at a “classified level that couldn’t be shared publicly” and it wasn’t definite.
“And frankly, you know, in the business of search and rescue, absent definitive information, we have a moral responsibility and a statutory responsibility, frankly, to continue to search,” Frederick said. Cameron predicted that exploration of the wreck site “will proceed” in the future because a “knucklehead that made a mistake” shouldn’t be holding everybody else back.
“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,” Cameron said.