James Cameron calls Titan sub tragedy 'extreme outlier' after half-century of safe dives

James Cameron says the Titan submersible tragedy is an 'extreme outlier' after more than 50 years of safe deep sea exploration.

James Cameron described the Titan submersible tragedy as an "extreme outlier" after more than 50 years of safe deep sea exploration.

"I think it's really important for people to remember that we have over a half-century of a perfect safety record," the Canadian filmmaker and explorer told reporters in Ottawa on Tuesday ahead of a CTV News worldwide exclusive event. "This is an extreme outlier of a data point that that in a sense proves the rule, and the rule is we've been safe for half a century… Half a century is a long time to not have killed anybody."

Cameron was in Ottawa to launch a Canadian Geographic exhibit about his feats of deep-sea exploration, which have included 33 dives to the Titanic wreck on three expeditions. The first involved shooting footage for his Oscar-winning 1997 film about the infamous ship, which sunk in 1912.

"I wasn't worried about the engineering," Cameron said of his undersea expeditions. "I certainly wasn't worried about imploding because we had tested everything. That's how it should be."

Cameron says he uses the safety testing at NASA as his model.

"NASA knows how to manage risk, and they also know that there will be failures," Cameron explained. "It's our responsibility as engineers to test, test, test: don't just guess that it's going to work. The ocean is a very, very unforgiving environment."

Operated by OceanGate, the Titan submersible lost contact with the surface less than two hours after it plunged into the ocean on the morning of June 18. Following an international air and sea search effort, the sub's imploded remnants were discovered near the Titanic on June 22 by a remotely operated underwater vehicle.