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Topics: Titanic, History, James Cameron
Lucy Devine
Topics: Titanic, History, James Cameron
Titanic director James Cameron has recalled the terrifying experience he had on a submersible while working on the movie way back in 1995.
Cameron has visited the Titanic wreckage a whopping 33 times, but it was during one trip in the nineties that he said he almost lost his life.
The director has spoken openly about his visits to the wreckage, and even raised concerns to OceanGate following the catastrophic Titan sub disaster in 2023.
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Five people sadly died when the submersible imploded during a tourism visit to the wreckage of the Titanic in June last year.
Three of the passengers - father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, and British billionaire Hamish Harding - had paid $250,000 to be part of the expedition down to the wreck of the Titanic, over two miles beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean.
The other two onboard were OceanGate CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush, and French dive expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Days after the sub was reported missing, floating debris was found in the water that was later confirmed to have come from the sub, suggesting a ‘catastrophic implosion’ that would have destroyed the vessel had taken place and resulted in the death of all five on board.
Following the disaster, Cameron said he felt there were parallels between the Titan disaster and the sinking of the Titanic.
"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," he said.
"I understand the engineering problems associated with building this type of type of vehicle and all the safety protocols that you have to go through.
"I think [it] is absolutely critical to really get the take-home message from our effort here is [that] deep submergence diving is a mature art."
Cameron himself was actually involved in a life-threatening trip to the wreckage himself back in 1995.
According to Radio Canada, Cameron was on his third dive with pilot Dr. Anatoly Sagalevich, when a sandstorm surrounding the Titanic grounded their vessel.
"Anatoly said, 'Oh, no,' something you never want to hear a pilot say, and we locked eyes for a second," Cameron said, in 2009 biography, The Futurist, by Rebecca Keegan.
The sub was losing power, so the crew tried to travel back to the surface twice, but were pushed down by currents.
Eventually, on the third try, they managed to distance themselves far enough away from the sandstorm to travel back to the surface.
More recently, Cameron has spoken out about claims that he could be working on a movie about the Titan disaster.
He said there is no chance of him working on any kind of film about the sub, and there never was.
Taking to X, Cameron said: "I don’t respond to offensive rumors in the media usually, but I need to now. I’m NOT in talks about an OceanGate film, nor will I ever be."