James Cameron Says Titanic Tourism Submersible Warnings ‘Went Unheeded’ – James Cameron, the acclaimed filmmaker behind “Titanic” and a respected deep-sea explorer, expressed that numerous warnings regarding the safety of the tourist submersible, which tragically imploded near the iconic shipwreck site, resulting in the loss of five lives, had been disregarded.
Cameron emphasized that within the tightly-knit community of ocean explorers, there had been extensive apprehension regarding the sub’s condition and drew comparisons to the tragic sinking of the ocean liner in 1912, where approximately 1,500 individuals died. “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 told ABC News.
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“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.”The US Coast Guard confirmed Thursday that the small sub, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, had suffered a “catastrophic implosion” in the ocean depths, ending a multinational search-and-rescue operation that captivated the world.
Cameron, who in 2012 became the first person to make a solo dive to the very deepest part of the ocean, in a submersible he designed and built said the risk of a sub imploding under pressure was always “first and foremost” in engineers’ minds. “That’s the nightmare that we’ve all lived with” since entering the field of deep exploration, he said, pointing to the sector’s very strong safety record over recent decades.
But “many people in the community were very concerned about this sub,” he said.” 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.” Additionally, the esteemed Hollywood director shared that he had a personal connection with one of the individuals who tragically lost their life in the imploded submersible, namely French ocean explorer Paul-Henri “PH” Nargeolet.
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“It’s a very small community. I’ve known PH for 25 years. For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process.” Having directed the 1997 epic film featuring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, which achieved a remarkable 11 Oscar wins, James Cameron has made numerous visits to the Titanic shipwreck both during and after the production of the movie.
