James Cameron compares submersible tragedy to Titanic sinking and says he's 'struck by the similarity'

James Cameron has finally commented on the missing Titanic tourist submarine that looks to have claimed the lives of all five people on board.

The filmmaker, whose 1997 film Titanic saw him make dozens of visits to the ship's wreckage at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, told ABC News he could see a stark parallel between the missing OceanGate submarine and the 1912 disaster that killed about 1,500 passengers and crew.

"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," Cameron said.

The Oscar-winning filmmaker revealed he has designed and built submarines to travel to even deeper parts of the ocean than the Titanic wreckage.

"I understand the engineering problems associated with building this type of type of vehicle and all the safety protocols that you have to go through," Cameron said.

"I think [it] is absolutely critical to really get the take-home message from our effort here is [that] deep submergence diving is a mature art."

He then added that there have been few submarine-related accidents since the 1960s, and 'nobody was killed in the deep submergence until now'.

Cameron's comments come as the search for the missing Titan submersible ended in tragedy.

Head of the US Coast Guard's search operation Rear Admiral John Mauger announced they now believe the missing OceanGate submarine 'imploded' and suffered 'catastrophic failure' after debris from the submersible was discovered.

"This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor and the debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel," he said, as per NBC News.

OceanGate/Instagram

The five people on board the Titan submarine - OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French marine expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet; British billionaire Hamish Harding, and British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman - are now presumed dead.

Mauger extended his sympathies to the families of the five souls lost on board the Titan.

"On behalf of the United States Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.

"I can only imagine what this has been like for them and I hope that this discovery provides some solace, during this difficult time."

The US Coast Guard will continue scouring the bottom of the North Atlantic for more clues as to what happened to the doomed OceanGate sub.