James Cameron Reacts to Titan Submersible Tragedy: ‘I’m Struck by the Similarity of the Titanic Disaster Itself’

usmagazine.com:

James Cameron — director of the 1997 blockbuster Titanic who has visited the wreckage more than 30 times — has responded to the Titan submersible disaster.On Thursday, June 22, four days after the underwater vessel went missing during a tour of the Titanic site in the Northern Atlantic Ocean, OceanGate announced that all five passengers were believed to be dead.

First Coast Guard District commander Rear Admr. John Mauger said the debris found off the Canada coast is consistent with a “catastrophic implosion” of the submersible.“People in the community were very concerned about this sub,” Cameron, 68, told ABC News on Thursday, echoing the criticism of many who did not believe the Titan was safe enough for this mission. (Prior to this disaster, the submersible had explored the Titanic wreckage twice, both times with issues, though no one was hurt.)“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,” Cameron — who is a diving expert and was good friends with Titan passenger Paul-Henri Nargeolet — noted.“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 shared. (The filmmaker included footage from his visits to the wreck site in the epic film, which won a historic 11 Oscars at the 1998 ceremony.)“For us, it’s a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded,” he continued. “To take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going on all around the