James Cameron Minces No Words With Reaction to OceanGate Sub Implosion

James Cameron finally publicly weighed in on the final report about the OceanGate Expeditions submarine implosion and the death of the five onboard. While it might seem odd for Oscar-winning director Cameron to be speaking on the subject, he’s actually one of the leading voices on the subject and dives similar to the Titan. He has traveled to the Titanic site and completed other dives at least 33 times, holding a record for the deepest dive after years of planning, prep and testing. It is why he was very quick to point out what had likely happened and who was to blame for the accident.

“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 died as a result. It’s a very similar tragedy at the exact same site. It’s astonishing and really quite surreal,” Cameron told ABC News, referencing OceanGate’s CEO and submarine captain Stockton Rush. “It’s absolutely critical for people to get the take-home message that deep submersible diving is a mature art…the safety record is the gold standard, absolutely, not only fatalities but no accidents … of course [what happened to the Titan is] the nightmare that we’ve all lived with, we’ve lived with it in the back of our minds.

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“Many people in the community were concerned about this sub and even wrote letters to the company saying what they were doing was too experimental and what they were doing needed to be certified,” he added. The U.S. Coast Guard and OceanGate both confirmed the deaths of all five aboard the sub, with authorities feeling that the submersible vehicle had imploded long before any rescue team had arrived in the area.

Cameron is the latest voice to be critical of Stockton’s efforts and attempts to explore miles beneath the surface without proper safety precautions and testing. People have also been critical of the use of consumer products to craft the navigation system for the doomed submarine.

He also mourned those lost in the accident, including Paul-Henri Nargeolet who he reveals was a personal friend from within the small diving community. “Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the legendary French pilot, is a friend of mine,” Cameron shared. “It’s a very small community, I’ve known him for 25 years. For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible to process.”