James Cameron On Titan Submarine Loss: “Struck By The Similarity Of The Titanic Disaster Itself”

deadline.com:

Titanic filmmaker James Cameron spoke out Thursday about the loss of the Titan submarine that had dived to explore the historic shipwreck. “Many people in the [deep-submergence engineering] community were very concerned about this sub, and a number of you know of the top players in the community even wrote letters to the company, saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and needed to be certified and so on,” he told ABC News in an exclusive interview. “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.” Cameron added: “And for 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.” Watch his interview below. The multiple Oscar winner and longtime ocean-diving enthusiast has made nearly three dozen dives to the Titanic wreckage.

He was commenting on today’s news from the Coast Guard that “a debris field was discovered within the search area by an ROV near the Titanic” and that all five souls aboard are feared dead after a “catastrophic explosion.” RELATED: NewsNation Criticized For “Oxygen Remaining” Countdown Clock Featured In Coverage Of Missing Titanic Sub Cameron also addressed the concerns voiced by experts about the safety of the 21-foot Titan. “As a submersible designer myself, I designed and built us up to go to the deepest place in the ocean, three times deeper than Titanic.