'Titanic' director: Search for missing submarine turned into 'nightmare masquerade'

2023-06-23 22:57:25, Kosova & Bota CNA

'Titanic' director: Search for missing submarine turned into

The director of the movie "Titanic", James Cameron, says that the search operation for the tourist submarine "Titan" turned into a "nightmarish masquerade", which prolonged the agony of the families of the people who were on board.

The submarine dived on Sunday towards the remains of the Titanic, which sank in 1912.

During an interview with the British public broadcaster 'BBC', Mr Cameron said he had a strong feeling that the Titan submarine was lost, the moment he heard it had broken contact with the surface.

He said the media's focus in the following days on the fact that the crew had 96 hours of oxygen, or that noises had been heard coming from the ocean, was an "extended nightmarish masquerade".

" This was just a cruel, slow flow of events for four days. It was clear to me from Monday morning ," he said.

The Titan submarine left at 8 a.m. Sunday. That same afternoon it was announced that he had not yet returned from a trip, which should not have lasted more than two hours, to see the remains of the ocean liner Titanic, located at the bottom of the Atlantic, about 700 kilometers south of the city of St. John of the island of Newfoundland in Canada.

On Thursday, the US Coast Guard announced that the remains of the submarine had been found at the bottom of the ocean. Authorities said all five people on board had died after an internal explosion.

Mr Cameron, who has made more than 30 dives on the wreckage of the Titanic, said he knew something serious and fatal had happened as soon as he heard the submarine had lost contact during its descent.

" With the failure of the submarine's electronic system and at the same time the radio receiver, the submarine had disappeared. For me there was no doubt. I knew it had sunk to exactly below its last known depth and position, and that's where it was found. No search was made. Finally they got a remotely operated vehicle, and sunk it on the spot, finding the submarine within hours. Maybe in a few minutes ."

The director has been passionate about oceanography since his childhood and has made dozens of deep dives, including in what is known as the deepest point, known as the 'Mariana Trench', in the Pacific Ocean.

Mr Cameron says that "one of the saddest aspects of this event is that it was really something that could have been prevented".

" Now we have other wastes that, unfortunately, are caused by the same principles, those of not listening to warnings about the danger ", he said.

Deep ocean explorers had expressed concerns about the Titan submarine produced by the private American company 'OceanGate Expeditions'. They said the vehicle was not safe to carry passengers.

OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein told Britain's Times Radio that chief executive Stockton Rush, who was one of five people who died aboard the Titan, was "extremely committed to safety".

" He (Stockton Rush) was also extremely diligent about risk management and was very aware of the risks of operating in a deep ocean environment," Mr. Söhnlein, who no longer works, told 'OceanGate'./ VOA