As a man who has been on 33 dives down into the depths of the North Atlantic to see the infamous wreckage of the Titanic, James Cameron has a great deal of experience with the process and the thrill of such an adventure.
The Oscar-winning filmmaker has not yet publicly commented on the OceanGate Expeditions tourist submersible that went missing during a dive down to the Titanic's final resting place over the weekend.
However, he's spoken out many times about the majesty of the wreckage, and why someone might risk life and limb for a chance to lay eyes on it themselves.
According to Cameron, his iconic film about the sinking of the massive ship came about not necessarily out of a passion to make the movie itself, but more for the opportunity to explore and dive down to the wreckage itself -- which he described as "the Mount Everest of shipwrecks" in an interview with Playboy in 2009.
"I made Titanic because I wanted to dive to the shipwreck," Cameron told the publication, "not because I particularly wanted to make the movie."
"When I learned some other guys had dived to the Titanic to make an IMAX movie, I said, 'I'll make a Hollywood movie to pay for an expedition and do the same thing,'" Cameron recalled. "I loved that first taste, and I wanted more."
Reflecting on his motivations for deep sea diving -- beyond his childhood love for explorers and adventurers such as Jacques Cousteau -- Cameron told The New York Times in 2011, "I can think of no greater fantasy than to be an explorer and see what no human eye has seen before."
Speaking with 60 Minutes Australia in 2018, Cameron explained the desire to explore the majesty of the Titanic and the mysteries of the deep ocean.
"I call it bearing witness," Cameron shared. "I get to bear witness to a miracle that's down there all the time."
"This is not just some, you know rich guy ego thing. This is about, you've got so much time on this planet, so much life, so much breath in your body. You have to do something," he continued. "If you should be fortunate enough to make some money and have some capital, some working capital, why not put it into your dream?"
Cameron has made dozens of dives to the ocean floor and even helped design a submersible to dive to the deepest area of the ocean floor -- Challenger Deep, at the southern point of the Mariana Trench.
However, the filmmaker is all too aware of the dangers that deep sea diving can pose, and how nearly impossible it might be to make it out alive if things go wrong.
While discussing the importance of properly testing the experimental submersible that successfully took him into Challenger Deep, Cameron explained, "You're going into one of the most unforgiving places on Earth. It's not like you can call up AAA to come get you."
This is the tragic situation faced by those on board Titan, the 22-foot submersible -- carrying five people into the depths of the North Atlantic to the wreckage of the Titanic -- that lost connection with their support ship on Sunday.
The five-person crew included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani-born businessman Shahzada Dawood, his 19-year-old son, Suleman, and veteran Titanic explorer PH Nargeolet.
The Coast Guard launched a search and rescue mission, which was hampered by the potential depth of the Titan and the conditions surrounding the dive. With available reserves of oxygen quickly depleting, the search and rescue operation continues, in an effort to locate the submersible.
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