Rephrased: Response of Celebrities, Including James Cameron, to the Tragic Deaths in the Titanic OceanGate Submarine Disaster

There has been an outpouring of emotion from celebrities following the tragic outcome of the Titan submarine’s dive to the wreck of the Titanic. Debris was found in the North Atlantic Ocean on June 22 and the sub's company, OceanGate, confirmed that all five passengers aboard had died when the submersible imploded during the dive.

James Cameron, who directed the 1997 blockbuster Titanic and has made dives to the wreck in the past, compared OceanGate's situation to that of the Titanic's sinking. "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," the Oscar winner told ABC News. Cameron went on to explain that the deep-submergence engineering community had expressed concern about the sub and had written letters to the company, saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and needed to be certified.

Actress Kaley Cuoco was amongst several stars who had been following the sub's mission. “This has kept me up the last few nights and made me sick,” she wrote in a recent Instagram story. Five passengers were aboard the submersible: the CEO of OceanGate, Stockton Rush; British businessman, Hamish Harding; Pakistani businessman, Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Suleman; and French oceanographer, Paul-Henri Nargeolet.

OceanGate released a statement saying that it was believed all five had perished: “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.”

Five major pieces of debris were found, though initial parts discovered included a nose cone outside the pressure hull and the front end bell of the pressure hole. The Coast Guard, who discovered the debris, said “the debris found is consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber," adding, “This is an incredibly unforgiving environment. The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.”