James Cameron Says He's Struck by Similarities Between the Titanic Sinking and the Tourist Submersible

Titanic director James Cameron has shared his thoughts on the Titanic tourist submersible tragedy.

"People in the community were very concerned about this sub," Cameron in an interview with ABC News. "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 it needed to be certified."

He emphasized, "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. For us, it's 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."

The director also said, "As a submersible designer myself, I designed and built a sub to go to the deepest place in the ocean, three times deeper than Titanic. So I understand the engineering problems associated with with building this type of type of vehicle, and all the safety protocols that you have to go through."

Watch the full interview here:

Earlier today, OceanGate and the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the death of the five men on board the Titan, the submersible that went to tour the Titanic. "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," OceanGate said in a statement. "These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. 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."

Cameron was friendly with Nargeolet. He said, "PH, the French legendary submersible dive pilot was a friend of mine. It's a very small community. I’ve known PH for 25 years, and for him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process."

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