James Cameron comments on the the Titanic Sub tragedy

James Cameron, the director of the film Titanic, was asked about the Titan tourist submersible, which lost communication while attempting to reach the Titanic’s wreckage.

Cameron, a seasoned member of the diving community who has made 33 dives to the Titanic himself, offered his thoughts on the tragedy after submarine company OceanGate said on Thursday that the five persons who went down are presumed to be dead.

“People in the community were very concerned about this sub,” said Cameron. “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. 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.”

Moreover, Cameron mentioned that he had known Titanic explorer Paul-Henri “PH” Nargeolet for 25 years and that he was saddened by the loss of his friend who perished while on Titan.

“PH, the French legendary submersible dive pilot, was a friend of mine,” Cameron said. “You know, 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.”

This week, international search teams from the U.S., Canada, France, and the U.K. teamed up to try to find and save the craft. On Tuesday, a Canadian aircraft detected “banging” sounds coming from the underwater search area, marking a significant development. But, the U.S. Coast Guard reported on Thursday that a remotely operated vehicle had found wreckage near the shipwreck. Within a few hours, it was announced that those onboard are thought to have perished in the ship’s “catastrophic implosion.”

Those aboard included Nargeolet; British businessman Hamish Harding; British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman; and OceanGate CEO Rush, who was piloting Titan.