Titanic director JamesCameron commented on the recent loss of the Titan submarine, describing the situation as comparable to the infamous disaster itself.
Titanic director JamesCameron commented on the recent loss of the Titan submarine, describing the situation as comparable to the infamous disaster itself.
Cameron warns others to be careful when diving
Speaking to ABC News, Cameron lamented the tragedy. The director was “impressed” by the similarity between the Titan story and the story of the actual Titanic. Both featured a captain who was warned of trouble but chose not to listen.
“I’m struck by the resemblance to the Titanic disaster itself,” said Cameron, “where the captain was repeatedly warned of ice ahead of his ship and yet he crashed into an ice field at full speed.”
Cameron is no stranger to the world of deep sea diving, having visited the wrecks of the Titanic several times. The director stressed that people must learn that undertaking such ventures requires extensive planning.
“Being a submersible designer myself, I designed and built us to go to the deepest place in the ocean, three times deeper than the Titanic,” Cameron said. “So I understand the technical issues involved in building this type of vehicle and all the safety protocols that you have to go through. And I think it’s absolutely critical to really take home the message of our efforts: deep diving is a mature art. Since the early 1960s, there have been a number of accidents in which no one has died due to the deep flooding. (That’s) more time than between Kitty Hawk and the flight of the first 747.”
The submersible Titan — owned by OceanGate, a Washington-based company — originally set out on a trip Sunday to explore the wreck of the Titanic, shortly after entering the water around 8 a.m. EST.
Since then the submersible has disappeared. Earlier Thursday, the US Coast Guard announced that debris matching the submersible had been found near the wreck of the Titanic. All five passengers are believed to have died due to the ship’s implosion.
Among the people aboard the Titan were the pilot Stockton Rush, the head of Oceangate; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French expert on underwater wrecks; British entrepreneur Hamish Harding; and father and son, Pakistani nationals Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.