Following comments from James Cameron on the loss of OceanGate’s submersible Titan, the OceanGate co-founder has denied Cameron’s claims. The founder says Cameron doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Following comments from James Cameron on the loss of OceanGate’s submersible Titan, the OceanGate co-founder has denied Cameron’s claims. The founder says Cameron doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
Speaking to Times Radio on Friday in the UK (via TMZ), OceanGate co-founder Guillermo Söhnlein said it was “impossible” for anyone on the outside – including Cameron – to speculate as to what happened to the ship.
“It’s not possible for anyone to really speculate from the outside… I know from personal experience that we were very committed to safety and risk mitigation was an integral part of the corporate culture,” Söhnlein said.
This came after Cameron noticed similarities between the Titan submersible and the actual Titanic. He seemed to blame Stockton Rush, the head of OceanGate.
“I’m struck by the resemblance to the Titanic disaster itself,” said Cameron, “where the captain was repeatedly warned of ice ahead of his ship and yet he crashed into an ice field at full speed.”
What happened to the Titan submersible?
The submersible Titan — owned by Washington-based company OceanGate — originally set out to explore the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday, shortly after entering the water around 8 a.m. EST.
Since then the submersible has disappeared. Earlier Thursday, the US Coast Guard announced that debris matching the submersible had been found near the wreck of the Titanic. All five passengers are believed to have died due to the ship’s implosion.
Among the people aboard the Titan were the pilot Stockton Rush, the head of Oceangate; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French expert on underwater wrecks; British entrepreneur Hamish Harding; and father and son, Pakistani nationals Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.