British documentary-maker Ross Kemp turned down a trip to see the Titanic on an OceanGate submersible for a television show amid safety fears.
The former EastEnders star, 58, had been keen to take part in the mission last year but it was deemed to be unsafe.
An expert production company carried out checks and decided it would be too risky to let anybody board the Titan submersible to view the shipwreck on the seafloor of the North Atlantic, off the coast of Canada.
Kemp’s agent, InterTalent chairman Professor Jonathan Shalit, said they pulled out of using the OceanGate craft because it was deemed to be unsafe ‘on every level’.
Professor Shalit told the PA news agency: ‘The production company, who are well known and renowned, looked into the sub and decided it was unsafe on every level and weren’t prepared to use it.
‘We were told “it is unsafe, we are not going” – that was a year ago.
‘It is deeply sad for the families who have suffered such a terrible loss.
‘I am relieved that Ross did not participate but I am obviously reassured by the professionalism of those companies we were working with that they didn’t suggest that he go on the submarine.
‘The lesson to be learnt is do your checks thoroughly. By good fortune for us the checks had been done thoroughly.’
On Thursday, a US Coast Guard spokesperson said that debris found in the search for the submersible Titan, which went missing after a dive to Titanic wreck, was ‘consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber’.
The US Coast Guard offered its ‘deepest condolences’ to the families of the five men after the tail cone of the submersible was found around 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic wreckage off the coast of Newfoundland.
It was announced that all five of the individuals, including British billionaire Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, a British-Pakistani businessman, and his son, on the submersible were believed to have died.
OceanGate said in a statement: ‘Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.’
British billionaire Harding, UK-Pakistani businessman Dawood, his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood, the vessel’s pilot Stockton Rush and French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet were on board.
At a press conference in Boston, Rear Admiral John Mauger said further debris was ‘consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber’.
Kemp had been considering making a documentary to mark the 110th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on its maiden voyage from Southampton in 1912.
Veteran explorer Josh Gates, who hosts Expedition Unknown on Discovery+, also revealed he turned down the chance to film on the doomed Titan submersible.
He tweeted that he had rejected the opportunity to film in 2021 because the vessel ‘did not perform well’ during a test dive.
He wrote: ‘Ultimately, I walked away from a huge opportunity to film Titanic due to my safety concerns with the OceanGate platform.
‘There’s more to the history and design of Titan that has not been made public — much of it concerning.’
This comes after Titanic director and submersible expert James Cameron has claimed he predicted Titan’s fate days before the debris from the missing submersible was found, and insisted OceanGate were ‘warned’ of ‘catastrophe’.
‘I felt in my bones what had happened,’ he said.
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He explained: ‘I immediately got on the phone to some of my contacts in the deep submersible community. Within about an hour I had the following facts. They were on descent. They were at 3500 metres, heading for the bottom at 3800 metres.
‘Comms were lost and navigation was lost, and I said instantly, you can’t lose comms and navigation together, we’re now at an extreme catastrophic event, a highly energetic catastrophic event. And the first thing that popped to mind was an implosion.’
Cameron continued: ‘This entire week has felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff, and their coastguard is out with airplanes.
‘I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position, and that’s exactly where they found it.’
He added: ‘We now have another wreck that is based on unfortunately the same principles of not heeding warnings.’
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Cameron went on to tell BBC News that once a remotely controlled underwater vehicle was deployed on Thursday during the search and rescue mission, searchers had ‘found it within hours, probably within minutes’.
He also said it was a ‘terrible irony’ in the loss of Titan and its crew, comparing it again to the loss of the Titanic in 1912, which led to the deaths of more than 1,500 people.
‘We now have another wreck that is based on unfortunately the same principles of not heeding warnings,’ he continued. ‘OceanGate were warned.’
Cameron elsewhere added that he knows of a letter written by others in the deep submergence community, not clarifying whether it included himself, which told OceanGate that they believed it was ‘on a path to catastrophe’.
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