James Cameron has spoken for the first time publicly about the Titanic submersible implosion, comparing it to the sinking of the passenger liner itself.
Cameron, director of the 1997 film Titanic based on the 1912 disaster, spoke to ABC News about the "catastrophic implosion".
"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.
Cameron, who has completed 33 dives to the Titanic wreckage, said that many people in the community were very concerned about the sub.
"Some of the top players in the deep submergence engineer community even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and it needed to be certified and so on.
"It's a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded — to take place at the same exact same site with all the diving that's going on all around the world, I just think it's astonishing, it's really quite surreal."
His comments come after the Coast Guard confirmed that the sub imploded, killing all five passengers.
He also paid tribute to "legendary sub dive pilot" Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who was a friend of his.
"I've known PH for 25 years and for him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process."
A remote-operation vehicle found the tail cone of the Titan submersible around 500m from the bow of the sunken ship on Friday morning.
Rear Admiral John Mauger said that "the debris is consistent with the catastrophic implosion of the vessel".
OceanGate addresses tragedy
In a statement, OceanGate said: "We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.
"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.
"This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organisations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission.
"We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.
"This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea.
"We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time."
SHARE ME