James Cameron calls Titan tragedy ‘a prolonged nightmare’, says families were given false hope over four days

James Cameron, who has made 33 dives to the Titanic wreckage site, has spoken about the Titan submersible disaster.

New Delhi | June 23, 2023 09:47 AM IST

3 min read

James Cameron spoke about the submergible Titan after all five individuals aboard were declared dead. (Photo: reuters)

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James Cameron, who directed Titanic, has expressed his condolences to the families of the five individuals who were aboard the submersible Titan that was destroyed in a “catastrophic implosion” during an exploration dive to the wreckage of the Titanic. The US Coast Guard declared that all five individuals were killed. Cameron, in an interview with ABC News, said that this news came as “zero surprise” to him, and said that the families had been given “false hope” in the last four days.

He said, “I can’t imagine what these poor families have been through over the last four days being given false hope here, banging noises, this and that. It must have been just horrible for them,” and added, “This thing seemed like a prolonged nightmare.” The director said, “There is no excuse for what happened here and I find it appalling and tragic.”

Cameron pointed out that many in the deep sea exploration community wrote letters to OceanGate Expeditions and warned them that their submersible was too “experimental.” He added, “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.”

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Cameron said that he was struck by the ‘surreal’ similarities between the Titanic sinking and the Titan sub imploding. “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. 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,” he said.

Cameron was friends with Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the five individuals aboard, and said the tragedy was “almost impossible to process.” They had been friends for 25 years.

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The director insisted that safety in such dives should be of utmost priority and said that “deep submersible diving is a mature art.” He said, “The safety record is the gold standard, absolutely, not only fatalities but no accidents.”

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