Exploring deep ocean is ‘safer than an elevator’ says James Cameron

Avatar and Titanic director says Titan sub team failed to address most obvious risks' and voices support for deep-sea mining

Exploring the greatest depths of the ocean is safer than getting an elevator and safer than getting on an airplane" James Cameron has said. But the Canadian director of Hollywood blockbusters added that the team behind the recent ill-fated expedition to the Titanic lacked the imagination to engineer against the most obvious risks" to any deep sea voyage.

In an interview with the Guardian, Cameron said that when he travelled to the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench - the deepest known point on the Earth - in a custom-made submersible, we imagined just about every risk that was humanly possible - and we engineered against all of them."