Titanic director James Cameron has commented on the recent loss of the Titan submarine, calling the situation similar to the infamous disaster itself.
Cameron cautions others to be careful when diving
Speaking to ABC News, Cameron lamented the tragedy. The director was “struck” by the similarity between the Titan story and the story of the actual Titanic. Both featured a captain who was warned about issues, but decided to not listen.
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself,” Cameron said, “Where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field.”
Cameron is no stranger to the world of deep-sea diving, having been down to the wreckage of the Titanic multiple times. The director stressed people must learn that undertaking such endeavors requires ample planning.
“As a submersible designer myself, I designed and built us up to go to the deepest place in the ocean three times deeper than Titanic,” said Cameron. “So I understand the engineering problems associated with building this type of type of vehicle and all the safety protocols that you have to go through. And I think [it] is absolutely critical to really get the take-home message from our effort here is [that] deep submergence diving is a mature art. From the early ’60s, where there were a few accidents, nobody was killed in the deep submergence until now. [That’s] more time than between Kitty Hawk and the flight of the first 747.”
The Titan submersible — owned by OceanGate, a company based in Washington — originally set out on a trip to explore the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday, shortly after it entered the water at around 8 a.m. EST.
Since then, the submersible has been missing. Earlier on Thursday, the U.S. Coast Guard revealed debris consistent with the submersible was found near the wreck of the Titanic. All five passengers are presumed dead due to the vessel’s implosion.
The people on board the Titan included pilot Stockton Rush, the head of Oceangate; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French underwater wreck expert; British entrepreneur Hamish Harding; and father-son Pakistani nationals Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.
