James Cameron compares Titan submersible tragedy to Titanic: 'It's really quite surreal'

"Titanic" director James Cameron is weighing in on the tragic death of a group of passengers aboard a submersible that was en route to see the real-life sunken ship.

Cameron, who has embarked on 33 deep-sea dives himself to visit the Titanic's wreckage site, reflected on the eerie parallel between the Titan submersible and the Titanic – which sank after hitting an iceberg in April 1912 – in an interview with ABC News on Thursday.

Cameron said deep submergence diving is a "mature art," adding that a series of safety concerns were raised about the Titan, the 22-foot submersible that departed from St. John's in Newfoundland, Canada, on June 16.

"People in the community were very concerned about this sub," Cameron said. "A number of the top players in the deep submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that it needed to be certified."

Cameron, who directed the 1997 feature film "Titanic" about the nautical disaster, said he was "struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself."

"The (Titanic) 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," Cameron said. "For a very similar tragedy, where warnings went unheeded, to take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going on all around the world, I think it’s just astonishing. It’s really quite surreal."

Following an urgent race to rescue the five men aboard Titan, search and rescue teams found Thursday morning outer parts of the submersible near the site of the Titanic wreckage. OceanGate, the company that led the mission, said the passengers are dead. Coast Guard officials said it's too early to tell when the submersible imploded.

One of the deceased passengers, 73-year-old Paul Henri-Nargeolet, was a friend of Cameron’s, the director revealed. Henri-Nargeolet served as director of Underwater Research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic, Inc. and successfully dived in a submersible to the site of the Titanic wreckage 37 times, according to the E/M Group website.

"It’s a very small community," Cameron said. "I’ve known P.H. for 25 years. For him to have died tragically in this way is almost impossible for me to process."

More James Cameron: Director blows the door off that 'Titanic' Jack and Rose theory, investigates for NatGeo special

James Cameron on 'Avatar' franchise: 'Avatar: The Way of Water' director talks replicating box-office magic

Contributing: Kayla Jimenez and Olivia Munson, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Titanic' director James Cameron likens Titan sub tragedy to Titanic