Titanic explorer who worked with director James Cameron warns missing submarine could be ‘a great tragedy’
Parks Stephens, the explorer who worked with Titanic director James Cameron, has warned that the submarine currently missing and the location of the shipwreck could be “a great tragedy.”
“Regardless of what you may read over the next few hours, all that is really known at this point is that communications with the submarine have been lost, and that is unusual enough to warrant the most serious consideration,” the Titanic expert said. wrote in a Facebook post on Monday.
“I’m most concerned about the souls on board,” said Stephenson, who made the journey to the legendary wreck himself.
Stephenson traveled with Academy Award-winning director James Cameron to the 1912 shipwreck while working as a technical consultant on the film that eventually grossed more than $2 billion at the box office.
Stephenson reportedly traveled to the ocean floor location various other occasionsincluding as recent as 2019.
Parks Stephens has warned that the currently missing submarine could be “a great tragedy.”
Stephenson traveled with Academy Award-winning director James Cameron to the 1912 shipwreck while working as a technical consultant on the Titanic film
In another post on Monday, the explorer clarified that he would not be conducting any interviews on the matter, writing, “I decline all interview requests. This is an evolving situation and I want to respect anyone who may be affected by what could turn into a major tragedy.”
The shipwreck analyst hoped readers would “keep in mind the well-being of all who might be affected.”
A massive search is still underway to find the missing OceanGate submarine, the Titan, after it lost contact with the mother ship on its descent to the shipwreck on Sunday morning.
Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is helping coordinate the search, said it could be stuck.
“We don’t have equipment on site that can examine the soil,” Mauger said Tuesday.
“There is a lot of debris, so it will be difficult to locate. At the moment we are focused on localizing it.’
Royal Navy Admiral Chris Parry likened the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to “being in space,” saying, “It’s completely dark down there and you also have a lot of mud and other things that get dragged along.” With searchlights you can only see about 20 feet in front of you. There are very strong ocean currents that push you along.’
If the mini-submarine runs out of power, with no working propellers, lights, or heating, the five passengers will be in total darkness in temperatures of about 3 °C (37 °F) as the doomed craft rolls along the sea floor.
The missing OceanGate submarine, the Titan, lost contact with the mother ship during its descent to the shipwreck on Sunday morning
The Deepsea Challenger submarine was a joint science project between James Cameron, the National Geographic Society and Rolex to conduct deep-sea research
Stephenson and Cameron wrote a book about their exploration of the Titanic wreck
French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet is among those aboard the missing submarine
The Coast Guard is coordinating the massive search for the missing OceanGate submarine
Oceanographer and Titanic expert David Gallo said, ‘Where is it? Is it on the bottom, does it float, is it in the middle of the water? That is something that has not yet been determined.
“The water is very deep—two miles plus. It’s like visiting another planet. It’s a sunless, cold environment and high pressure.’
The fundamental problem is that the submarine, Titan, has stopped transmitting signals, making it almost impossible to locate. It’s supposed to send a sonar ‘ping’ (radar and GPS don’t work underwater) to the mothership Polar Prince every 15 minutes, but the last one was at 9:45am Sunday – an hour and 45 minutes into the dive as it drifted straight over the Titanic.
For some reason, OceanGate Expeditions, the company that organizes Titanic tours, took eight hours to call the Coast Guard on Sunday. It was reported to the U.S. Coast Guard at 5:40 p.m. and the Canadian Coast Guard was alerted even later, at 9:13 p.m.
Among those taking part in the expedition are billionaire Hamish Harding, CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai, and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the charity Prince’s Trust, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19.
The submarine’s oxygen supply was estimated at 96 hours, giving rescue teams until Thursday morning to find the ship.