Director James Cameron Told Anderson Cooper That He Knew the 'Titan' Had Imploded and Hoped ‘I Was Wrong’

"I just feel terrible for the families that had to go through all of these false hopes," James Cameron said

James Cameron is speaking out about OceanGate’s Titan submersible and how he "hoped" he was wrong when "the only scenario" that he "could come up" with in his "mind that could account for that was an implosion."

“I mean, obviously, we're all – we're all kind of heartsick from the outcome of this,” he told CNN host Anderson Cooper on Thursday. “And I’ve been living with it for a few days now as some of my other colleagues in the deep submergence community."

“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 admitted. “And so, it certainly wasn't a surprise today, and I just feel terrible for the families that had to go through all of these false hopes that kept getting dangled, you know, as it played out.”

The Titanic director added: “I was out on a ship myself when the event happened on Sunday. The first I heard of it was Monday morning. I immediately got on my network because it's, you know, a very small community in the deep submergence group and found out some information within about a half hour that they had lost comms and they had lost tracking simultaneously.”

Related: ‘Titanic’ Director James Cameron Says 'The Similarity' Between Titanic Disaster and Submersible Deaths Is 'Astonishing'

In the 1990s, Cameron, 68, became a deep-sea explorer while researching and filming his movie Titanic. He explained his theories to Cooper, 56, as to why he believes the submarine faced difficulties.

“The only scenario that I could come up with in my mind that could account for that was an implosion. A shock wave event so powerful that it actually took out a secondary system that has its own pressure vessel and its own battery power supply, which is the transponder that the ship uses to track where the sub is. So I was thinking of implosion then. That's Monday morning,” he explained.

After doing an enormous amount of research and getting “confirmation that there was some kind of loud noise consistent with an implosion event,” Cameron “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 own on Monday.”

Related: Get an Inside Look at OceanGate's 'Titan' Submersible: Photos and Details

Later in the conversation, Cameron said he hopes a thorough investigation will take place to provide information to the deep submergence community and others.

The OceanGate Expedition submersible named Titan went missing on Sunday while venturing into the depths of the North Atlantic Ocean to view the Titanic wreckage. The Titan was equipped with an estimated 96 hours of oxygen at the start of the expedition.

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On Thursday, OceanGate announced that the five people onboard a missing submersible lost their lives after they found debris that was likely caused by a "catastrophic implosion."

"We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost," the company said in a statement obtained by PEOPLE.

"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans," the statement continued. "Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."

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