Missing Titanic submersible: When director James Cameron warned of dangers of visiting shipwreck

Even as search for the missing OceanGate submersible on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage frantically continues, an eerie warning from filmmaker James Cameron in 2012 has resurfaced. After making 33 dives to the ocean's floor while filming the 1997 blockbuster, Titanic director James Cameron issued a warning against visiting the fabled shipwreck.

The RMS Titanic was regarded as "unsinkable" when it embarked on her first journey from Southampton with New York as its final destination in 1912.

Also read: Missing Titanic submersible: When OceanGate was warned of 'catastrophic' dangers with expedition

Sadly, this was not the case as more than 1,500 of the 2,200 passengers and crew aboard the British passenger liner perished when it sank on April 15, 1912, after colliding with an iceberg in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean. At the moment, the wreckage is located at the ocean's bottom, about 12,500 feet below the surface.

“You’re going into one of the most unforgiving places on Earth,” James Cameron said in a resurfaced interview with the New York Times back in 2012.

The Titanic director added, “It’s not like you can call up AAA to come get you.”

Cameron, who has published a book about investigating and recording the Titanic, asserted that experiencing something that "human beings have never seen before" was superior to "red carpets and all that glitzy stuff," despite the dangers involved.

Also read: Missing Titanic submersible: German psychic Michael Schneider pinpoints where OceanGate vessel could be

Cameron first visited the wreck in 1995 on board a Russian-owned submersible in order to capture footage for the Titanic movie. "'I’ve owned and operated my own submarines and pretty much know everybody in the deep-ocean world outside of the oil business," he told The Times in 2010.

Parks Stephenson, who oversaw the technical aspects of Cameron's monumental 1997 film, expressed his worry that the disappearance of the OceanGate Titan submersible would result in "a major tragedy." 

"No matter what you may read in the coming hours, all that is truly known at this time is that communications with the submersible have been lost and that is unusual enough to warrant the most serious consideration," he wrote in a Facebook post.

"I am most concerned about the souls aboard," said Stephenson, who has made the journey to the legendary wreck himself.

Cameron and Stephenson went to the 1912 shipwreck to work on the movie, which ended up earning over $2 billion at the box office. The Academy Award-winning director has yet to comment publicly about the missing submarine.

As a massive search operation continues to look for a group of five missing Titanic tourists, his words serve as a terrifying reminder. An multinational search effort is underway to locate the missing ship before its oxygen supply runs out after the Titan, a missing OceanGate submersible, lost communication with the mothership on Sunday morning while making its way to the shipwreck.

Also read: Inside the missing Titanic submersible: Cramped capsule, PlayStation controller and more (WATCH)

Billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince's Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, are reported to be the people stuck in the sub.

Meanwhile, Rear Admiral John Mauger told in an interview to CBS News, "The search is "incredibly complex" and partners from the international community are working to find the submersible. An aircraft with sonar buoys detected noise in the water yesterday, but "we don't know the source of that noise."

"A lot of metal objects are at the Titanic site - which could be the source of the noise. The noise is "a target, it's a focus for us to look at", with vessels deployed nearby," he added.

"Teams will keep searching as long as there's an opportunity for survival, with more vessels working at the search site and aircraft flying above," Mauger stated.