James Cameron Blasts OceanGate Sub’s Lack of Safety Standards

The OceanGate Titan submersible story ended in tragedy this week, as the vessel reportedly imploded, killing all five passengers during a descent to view the Titanic’s wreckage. News programs immediately brought in experts on deep sea diving and the Titanic to discuss what happened and none has been more vocal in blasting the company responsible than James Cameron.

Cameron is a legendary director, but he also made numerous dives to view the Titanic before and after making Titanic. He’s also a member of the NASA Advisory Council and is considered an expert in deep sea exploration. He spent years building a submersible and eventually dove to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench back in 2012. So he’s not a bad guy to have on to talk about what happened to OceanGate’s vessel. Let’s just say he was not impressed with the company’s sub or its flippant attitude towards safety.

Cameron and Bob Ballard — the man who originally discovered the Titanic’s wreckage — were guests on ABC News Live after the tragedy was confirmed on Thursday. During a discussion with Phil Lipof, Cameron absolutely lit up the company responsible. Particularly for not getting safety certification for a sub that was carrying passengers.

Here’s the full interview:

Cameron also joined CNN’s Anderson Cooper to discuss the tragedy and was just as critical of the company for not taking safety seriously and creating a carbon fiber hull that was largely untested:

He continues with Cooper here, discussing the “surreal irony” of the Titanic wreck and the Titan implosion:

Cameron provided a really interesting perspective on a horrific event. It seems everyone thinks this was entirely preventable.