Titanic director James Cameron: 'I felt in my bones what happened’

Hollywood director James Cameron, who directed the 1997 film Titanic, has told the BBC that he predicted the loss of the Titanic days in advance.

Cameron completed 33 dives aboard the Titanic.

He said he was on board the ship on Sunday when the deputy went missing and didn’t hear about it until Monday.

When he learned that the companion had simultaneously lost both its navigation and communications, he immediately suspected a disaster.

„I felt in my bones what had happened. For the mate’s electronics to fail and its communications system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail at the same time – the mate was gone.”

The director continued: „I immediately telephoned some of my contacts in the deep submersible community. Within about an hour I had the following facts. They were on the descent. They were at 3500 meters and went down at 3800. Meters.

„Their comms were lost, navigation was lost — I said right away, you can’t lose comms and navigation together without a serious cataclysmic event or a high-energy cataclysmic event. And the first thing that came to mind was an explosion.”

On Thursday, a US Navy official told the BBC’s partner CBS News that the Navy detected an „acoustic anomaly with an explosion” shortly after the Titan lost contact with the surface.

The official said the information was forwarded to the US Coast Guard.

Cameron told BBC News last week that it „feels like a long and dreamy carrot, where people are talking about thunder and oxygen and other things”.

„I know the sub was sitting right underneath its last known depth and position. That’s where they found it,” he continued.

He said searchers „found it within hours, probably minutes” after the underwater vehicle was remotely activated on Thursday.