LOS ANGELES (AP) — Mike deGruy, an award-winning cinematographer who spent three decades making documentary films about the ocean, has been killed in a helicopter crash in eastern Australia. He was 60.

His employer, National Geographic, said Sunday that deGruy and Australian television writer-producer Andrew Wight died Saturday.

Police say their helicopter crashed soon after takeoff from an airstrip north of Sydney. Australia’s ABC News reported that Wright was piloting the copter.

DeGruy won multiple Emmy and British Academy of Film and Television Arts, or BAFTA, awards for cinematography. His work was shown on PBS and the BBC.

An accomplished diver and submersible pilot, the Santa Barbara resident was the director of undersea photography for James Cameron’s 2005 film “Last Mysteries of the Titanic.”

In a statement, Cameron called deGruy and Wright “true explorers.”

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