James Cameron, director of the film Titanic (1997) and an experienced deep-sea researcher, said that many warnings about the safety of the submarine imploding were ignored, resulting in the deaths of five people.
James Cameron said the small ship caused great concern in the ocean research community, highlighting the similarities between the tragedy and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, which killed about 1,500 people.
“I am struck by the similarity between the tragedy and the Titanic disaster, in which the captain was warned several times about ice ahead of the ship and yet accelerated at high speed into an ice field on a moonless night, leading to the deaths of many people,” Cameron told ABC News.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by BBC News (@bbcnews)
“And the fact that a very similar tragedy, disregarding warnings, happened in exactly the same place, with all the underwater research going on, is just astonishing (…) It’s surreal.”
The U.S. Coast Guard confirmed Thursday that the submarine, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, has experienced “a catastrophic implosion” in the depths of the ocean.
James Cameron, who became the first person to reach the deepest point in the ocean in 2012, said the risk of pressure implosion was always “first” in engineers’ minds.
“It’s the nightmare we all live with” in this field of exploration, said, highlighting the industry’s safety standards over the decades. “Many in the community were very concerned about this submarine,” he added.
“Several leading figures in the diving engineering community even wrote letters to the company saying they were experimenting too much with carrying passengers and needed to get certified.”
On board the submarine that imploded were British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, veteran French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions.
Cameron recalled his 25-year friendship with Nargeolet, a leading expert on the sinking of the Titanic. “It is almost impossible for me to process that he passed away in this tragic way,” he said.
The director visited the wreck of the Titanic while filming his epic 1997 movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, which won 11 Academy Awards.
Source: DN
