Titanic director James Cameron focused on the tragic Titan underwater voyage, which now appears to have killed all five people on board.
The Oscar-winning actor, who himself has made several underwater excursions to the Titanic’s sunken wreck, told ABC News on Thursday: “I was struck by the resemblance to the Titanic disaster, in which the captain was repeatedly warned about the ice in front of the ship, and yet on a moonless night an ice field at full throttle. “It’s a very similar tragedy for us that the warnings were ignored. I think it’s very surprising that it’s happening in the same place with all the dives going on all over the world. It’s really pretty surreal.”
Cameron stated that he is a diver designer and, after participating in more than 30 dives, is very knowledgeable about the dangers of deep-sea exploration.
“I’ve been there many times, I know the debris field very well,” he said. “And of course, as a diver designer myself, I’ve designed and built a submarine to go to the deepest part of the ocean, so I understand the engineering problems of building this type of vehicle and all the safety protocols you have to pass.”
“It’s absolutely critical that people get the message that deep submersible diving is a mature art.”
The Titan submarine, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean near the site of the Titanic shipwreck on Sunday. The U.S. Coast Guard said at a press conference on Thursday that the missing submarine is believed to have succumbed to a “disastrous explosion” near the wreck site.