James Cameron Compared The Titanic To The Titan Submersible, Where “Warnings Went Unheeded”
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In case you’re not caught up, on Thursday, the US Coast Guard announced that OceanGate’s Titan submersible headed to the Titanic wreck site suffered “a catastrophic implosion.”
As a result, the Coast Guard stated all five passengers on the submersible are believed to have died.
Following this announcement, James Cameron, who directed the 1997 film Titanic, appeared on an ABC News broadcast to discuss the events.
In addition to his work as a film director, James is also a deep-sea explorationist, having visited the Titanic wreck site numerous times. He told ABC he’s made 33 dives to the site.
As such, he shared his expertise about the implosion with ABC, comparing the incident to the real-life Titanic sinking.
“I actually calculated that I’ve spent more time on the ship than the captain did, back in the day,” he said, noting he’s worked on designing and building submersibles to go further deep in the ocean than the Titanic wreckage.
“I understand the engineering problems associated with building this type of vehicle and all the safety protocols you have to go through,” he continued.
He clarified it’s “critical” that viewers understand that “deep submergence diving is a mature art,” before claiming that numerous people in the deep-submergence engineering community were “concerned” about the 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 on a moonless night, and many people died as a result," he said.
“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 is just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal,” he continued.
James also spoke about the presumed death of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French maritime expert. The New York Times reported he had visit the Titanic wreck site more than 35 times.
“For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process," he said of his friend of 25 years.
You can view James' full interview with ABC News below:
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