James Cameron: The OceanGate tragedy is quite similar to the actual Titanic disaster

Did you know that James Cameron came close to giving up filmmaking entirely after making Titanic? He came close to having a second career as a deep-sea explorer. He followed his passion for years, a passion for developing deep-sea submersibles, a passion for the engineering of deep-sea exploration and for actually exploring the ocean. Not only has he explored the Titanic wreckage more than 30 times, he also did a solo mission to the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean. He knows his sh-t, basically. Throughout the week, James Cameron stayed publicly silent on the “missing” OceanGate submersible and he only spoke out on Thursday, after the Coast Guard announced that they found debris near the Titanic and that the five men on board the submersible were (most likely) dead. Cameron immediately placed the blame on OceanGate:

James Cameron is reacting to the presumed deaths of the five passengers on board the Titan. The director of the Titanic movie told ABC News Thursday that the diving community was “deeply concerned” about the submersible’s safety even before Sunday’s expedition.

“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,” he claimed.

After reports discovered Titan debris was found, indicating the crew inside was dead, Cameron said he couldn’t help but connect the circumstances of the presumed catastrophe to that of the Titanic.

“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,” he said. “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.”

Cameron, 68, is not only a filmmaker but an experienced diver, reportedly completing 33 trips to the ship’s wreckage site in his life.

[From People]

Yes, he’s correct – everything we’ve learned this week about OceanGate’s operations and the actual science and engineering of deep-sea submersibles has shown that OceanGate should have never put that submersible in the water, much less charged people $250K for a ride in a tin can which would inevitably implode underwater. That wasn’t the only news Cameron broke – he also has contacts in the Navy (obvs) and he heard, from his Navy contacts, that a secretive Navy sonar had picked up the sound of the OceanGate implosion on Sunday, but the Navy didn’t tell anyone. Military sources confirmed as much on Thursday.

Photos courtesy of Cover Images.

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