James Cameron is reeling from the Titanic submersible tragedy.
The director, who has made 33 dives to the ship’s wreckage since making his 1997 movie Titanic, broke his silence about the OceanGate vessel containing five passengers that officials believe imploded underwater during a recent dive. And he couldn’t help but note an uncanny parallel.
“I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself,” Cameron told ABC News on June 22, “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.”
Noting the deep-sea exploration community had concerns about the watercraft prior to the catastrophe, the Avatar director continued, “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 68-year-old is especially shaken by the presumed death of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French explorer on the research vessel who Cameron had known for 25 years.
