OceanGate wipes all social media accounts after rumours James Cameron 'in talks' of making drama on sub tragedy
14 July 2023, 18:25
OceanGate Expeditions appears to be wiping its existence from the internet as its social media accounts and website have vanished from online.
The deep-sea exploration company has gone dark across the web after it announced last week it was suspending all exploration and commercial operations.
When OceanGate first announced the suspension of services its website still remained in tact with the notice at the top of the site.
But when trying to access the company’s website on Friday, it redirects to a black backdrop page with the message: “OceanGate Expeditions has suspended all exploration and commercial operations”.
Across Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn the company has also taken down its accounts, removing any trace of a digital footprint across those sites.
On Instagram a generic ‘OceanGate Inc’ account still remains up and running but has been made private - although is still followed by over 40,000 users.
It comes after the Titan submersible lost communications with its support vessel on Sunday, June 18, during a descent to the wreck of the Titanic which lies 12,500 feet beneath the surface.
Tourists Hamish Harding, 58, Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman Dawood, 19, French Navy pilot Paul-Henry (PH) Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush all died on the submersible after it suffered a 'catastrophic implosion'.
OceanGate’s disappearance from online coincides with recent reports that director of the Titanic, James Cameron, has been in talks about creating a drama on the Titan tragedy.
“The Titan disaster is already being looked at as a major series for one of the world’s biggest streamers — and James is the first choice for director. It is a subject close to his heart,” a source told The Sun.
“He told the story of the Titanic so compassionately it feels like a natural step for him to take this on. Retracing the steps of those on board the Titan is a massive undertaking but there would be a lot of time, money and resources dedicated to it.”
According to the reports, Mr Cameron allegedly has his eyes on Matt Damon as a potential star to feature in the drama.
The Titanic director previously admitted his concerns about the doomed Titan sub while it was still missing.
He said the "captain was repeatedly warned" but "steamed full-speed ahead".
"This is a mature art and many people in the community were very concerned about the sub," he told ABCNews.
"A number of the top players in the deep submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company, saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and they needed to be certified.
"So I'm struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship, and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night and many people died as a result.
"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 it's just astonishing."
