NGC to air special on James Cameron's solo ocean dive

MUMBAI: National Geographic Channel (NGC) announced today it will premiere a half-hour special, James Cameron: Voyage to the Bottom of the Earth, chronicling the Oscar winning filmmaker?s one-man dive last month to the Mariana Trench?s Challenger Deep, the ocean?s deepest point.

The special airs on 2 June at 8 pm.

The Mariana Trench is perhaps the most isolated place on the planet.

Cameron describes his journey to this ocean?s depth right here on Earth in an interview saying, "I was watching the numbers going deeper. The sub slows down as you get to the target depth. There is a long moment of getting to think about it. Then you have to get busy. You have less than a thousand feet from the bottom, you fine-tune the ballast, adjust the camera, turn up the spotlight. As the altimeter counted, I saw the glow of the bottom!"

In March, the filmmaker and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence descended 6.8 miles to the spot known as the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean?s Mariana Trench, an area deeper than Mt. Everest is tall. The record-breaking trip that made headlines around the world was part of Deepsea Challenge, a joint scientific expedition by
Cameron, National Geographic and Rolex to conduct deep-ocean research and exploration.

Cameron is the only individual ever to complete the dive in a solo vehicle and the first person since 1960 to reach the very bottom of the world in a manned submersible.

James Cameron: Voyage to the Bottom of the Earth features Cameron?s interview on the journey. Culled from more than two hours of his firsthand accounts of the project, it details everything from more than seven years of development to the actual moment he touched the bottom of the Earth. The project is also his first expedition as a National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence.