Legendary filmmaker James Cameron, Director of the Titanic has broken his silence about the tragic submersible implosion resulting in the tragic loss of five passengers.
Cameron who directed the iconic 1997 biopic lamented that the “catastrophic implosion” of OceanGate’s Titan submersible reminds him of the 1912 disaster.
Speaking to ABC News on Thursday he said: “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.”
The interview is the first time Cameron has publicly spoken about the tragedy.
His comments come after reports that all five passengers on the Submersible would have died ‘instantly’ in the implosion on Monday.
Cameron said: “I’ve spent more time on the ship than the captain did back in the day. Many people in the community were very concerned about this sub.”
According to reports, several persons within the deep submergence engineering community even wrote to the company warning against the trip. They noted that the diving excursion was still in its experimental stages and shouldn’t be used to transport passengers and it also needed to be certified for any expedition.
“It’s a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded said the Director, to take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I just think it’s astonishing it’s really quite surreal. Paul-Henri Nargeolet, legendary sub-dive pilot, a friend of mine. I’ve known “PH” for 25 years and for him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process,” Cameron lamented.
Cameron himself completed 33 dives to the Titanic wreckage and delved into the Mariana Trench – one of the deepest spots in the ocean.
A Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV) was used in search of the Titan submersible where it only picked up debris from the sub on the ocean floor near to the Titanic shipwreck on Thursday morning.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday, Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard shared that “The implosion would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up.” This they suggest would have resulted in instant death.
The passengers who were on board the Titan Sub are OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood. It would have cost each passenger approximately $250,000 to see the infamous shipwreck.
