As the world watched the OceanGate search and rescue mission with bated breath this week, one man fired back at founders for their decision to take a handful of wealthy tourists down to the depths of the ocean's floor: James Cameron. But now, the Titanic director is facing backlash over his criticism.
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Guillermo Söhnlein fired back at James this week.
The cofounder appeared on Times Radio to talk about the loss of the Titan and the five men who were aboard when it experienced a "catastrophic loss of pressure."
Guillermo chastised James for making assumptions about the vessel. "It's impossible for anyone to really speculate from the outside. … I know from firsthand experience that we were extremely committed to safety and risk mitigation was a key part of the company culture," he said during a Friday interview.
James had accused CEO Stockton Rush of being at fault for the submersible's demise.
The director-turned-explorer had blasted the company's cofounder, accusing Stockton of being guilty of extreme recklessness when he sold seats on the uncertified and uninspected submersible, saying that the Titan was just "too experimental to carry passengers."
That's not all he's had to say about the topic.
In an interview with ABC News, James laid into Stockton, mocking him for following in the same footsteps of the very ship he was trying to take passengers down to see.
"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."
Stockton was among those who died this week.
James talked to CNN about his thoughts on the search for the missing submersible, claiming he knew that the Titan had imploded on Monday after talking to other experts in the field and reviewing the details about what had happened during the moments before and after communications were lost.
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There's a reason why the director has been a vocal critic of OceanGate.
James has become a regular deep-sea diving expert since writing and filming his blockbuster hit about the sunken ship Stockton was carrying passengers down to see. He has obviously developed a lot of feelings about the matter, and given his astounding 33 trips down to the ocean liner Titanic, we tend to think he may have known what he was talking about.
That being said, our thoughts are with the families of the five men who lost their lives this week.
