James Cameron Recounted The Moment He Started To Believe The Titan Submersible Had Imploded, And It Was Before The Coast Guard's Press Briefing

On Thursday, Titanic director and deep-submergence explorer James Cameron appeared on CNN, where he explained when he first believed the Titan submersible had imploded.

On Thursday, the US Coast Guard announced that all five passengers in the Titan submersible that went missing near the Titanic shipwreck site were presumed dead after an implosion.

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For James Cameron, the Titanic film director and deep-submergence explorer, the Coast Guard’s statement confirmed what he’d suspected earlier this week.

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James spoke with Anderson Cooper about the Titan submersible on CNN Thursday night and revealed that on Monday, he started to believe that it had imploded.

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“We’re all kind of heartsick from the outcome of this, and I’ve been living with it for a few days now, as [have] some of my other colleagues in the deep-submergence community,” he said.

Though the submersible went missing Sunday, James said he was on a ship at the time and didn’t hear about it until Monday morning. He then contacted his contacts in the deep-submergence community and began hypothesizing that an implosion might have occurred based on the information he was receiving.

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“The only scenario that I could come up with in my mind that could account for that was an implosion,” he said.

Later on Monday, James said he got confirmation of “some kind of loud noise consistent with an implosion event.”

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“That seemed to me enough confirmation that I let all of my inner circle of people know that we had lost our comrades, and I encouraged everybody to raise a glass in their honor on Monday,” he said.

“Then I watched over the ensuing days this whole sort of ‘everybody running around with their hair on fire' search, knowing full well that it was futile — hoping against hope that I was wrong, but knowing in my bones that I wasn’t,” he continued.

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Given his presumed understanding of the implosion days ago, James also noted that he feels “terrible” for the families who experienced “false hopes” during the search and rescue efforts.

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It's worth noting that James clarified to Anderson that the information he received earlier this week was from "credible sources" but was "hearsay."

Earlier on Thursday, James also appeared on ABC News, where he compared the Titan submersible catastrophe to the Titanic wreckage.

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“For a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded to take place at the same exact site, with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I think is just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal,” he said.

Watch James's interview with Anderson on CNN below:

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