“Titanic” film director James Cameron has commented on the recent loss of the Titan submarine today. The Titan submersible, owned by OceanGate, initially set out on a trip to explore the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday. Since then, the submersible has been missing.
Earlier today, the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the submersible suffered a “catastrophic implosion” near the wreck of the Titanic with all five passengers now presumed dead. It ends a multinational search-and-rescue operation that has dominated world news headlines over the past few days.
Cameron is no stranger to the world of deep-sea diving, having been down to the wreckage of the Titanic over thirty times and having shot numerous documentaries about deep-sea wildlife. He’s also a submersible designer.
Speaking to ABC News, Cameron lamented the tragedy which has dominated world news headlines over the past few days. He stressed people must learn that undertaking such endeavors requires plenty of planning, and this marks a rare blight on an industry with a strong safety record and strict certification protocols – including multiple decades without any recorded fatalities.
He also says this particular dub had been the source of widespread concern in the ocean exploration community and drew parallels to the sinking of the Titanic itself:
“Many people in the community were very concerned about this sub, and 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 that needed to be certified and so on…
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. And 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. It’s really quite surreal.”
Cameron has visited the Titanic shipwreck so many times that he says he’s calculated that he has spent more time on the ship than the captain did back in the day. Cameron also directed the famed underwater disaster movie “The Abyss”.
‘Titanic’ director James Cameron on the ‘catastrophic implosion’ of Titan submersible: “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." pic.twitter.com/vO8JkCXS5f
— ABC News (@ABC) June 22, 2023
