The family of a French explorer has filed a $50 million lawsuit against the submersible’s operator, claiming that the crew had experienced “terror and mental anguish” prior to the disaster and that the operator was grossly negligent.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet was among five individuals who died when the Titan sub collapsed during a journey to the famous Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic in June 2023.
“Mr. Titanic”
Nobody survived the outing on board the experimental submarine operated by OceanGate, an organization in Washington state that has since suspended business.
Known as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet partook in 37 dives to the Titanic site, the most of any diver on the planet, as per the lawsuit. He was considered one of the world’s most educated individuals on the popular wreck.
“Doomed Submarine”
Lawyers for his estate said in an emailed release that the “doomed submarine” had a “troubled history,” and that OceanGate neglected to disclose key details about the vessel and its durability.
The suit claims that about 90 minutes into its dive, the Titan “dropped weights,” indicating that the team had aborted or attempted to abort the dive.
Lawsuit Claims
According to the lawsuit: “While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening. Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying.”
The claim proceeds to say: “The crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull. The crew lost communications and perhaps power as well. By experts’ reckoning, they would have continued to descend, in full knowledge of the vessel’s irreversible failures, experiencing terror and mental anguish prior to the Titan ultimately imploding.”
Criticisms Leveled Against OceanGate
The defendants are required to answer the complaint in the coming weeks according to court papers. The claim portrays Nargeolet as an OceanGate employee and a crew member on the Titan.
The suit likewise reprimands Titan’s “hip, contemporary, wireless electronics system, and states that none of the controller, controls or gauges would work without a constant source of power and a wireless signal”
Case Objectives
While OceanGate assigned Nargeolet as a crew member, “many of the particulars about the vessel’s flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed,” the lawyers, the Buzbee Law office of Houston, Texas, said in their release.
Tony Buzbee, one of the lawyers on the case, expressed one of the suit’s objectives is to “get answers for the family as to exactly how this happened, who all were involved, and how those involved could allow this to happen.”
Ill-Fated Trip
Concerns were brought up in the aftermath of the catastrophe about whether the Titan was ill-fated because of its eccentric design and its maker’s refusal to submit to independent inspections that are standard in the industry.
Private deep-sea exploration’s viability and future were also questioned by its implosion.
High-Level Investigation
A high-level investigation was quickly set up by the US Coast Guard, and it is still going on. September will see the start of an important public hearing that is part of the investigation.
The Titan made its last excursion on June 18, 2023, a Sunday morning, and lost contact with its support vessel around two hours after. The Titanic’s wreckage was discovered on the ocean floor approximately 984 feet (300 meters) off the bow of the Titanic, approximately 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, following a search and rescue mission that garnered worldwide attention.
CEO and Cofounder
OceanGate CEO and cofounder Stockton Rush was controlling the Titan when it imploded.
The lawsuit depicts Rush as “an eccentric and self-styled ‘innovator’ in the deep-sea diving industry” and names his estate as one of the defendants.
Victims of the Implosion
Notwithstanding Rush and Nargeolet, the implosion killed English adventurer Hamish Harding and two individuals from an affluent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his child Suleman Dawood.
The organization that possesses the salvage rights to the Titanic is amidst its first journey to the destruction site in years.
RMS Titanic Inc.
Last month, RMS Titanic Inc., a Georgia-based firm, sent off its first expedition to the site since 2010 from Providence, Rhode Island.
RMS Titanic’s underwater research director was Nargeolet. He was essential for an undertaking to visit the Titanic site in 1987, not long after its location was uncovered, and had managed the rescue of countless Titanic artifacts, the claim states.
Nargeolet’s Estate
Nargeolet’s estate’s lawyers depicted him as an experienced veteran of submerged investigations who could not have possibly taken part in the Titan campaign if the organization had been more transparent.
The claim pins the implosion on the “persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence” of Oceangate, Rush, and others.
“Decedent Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved to do, but his death — and the deaths of the other Titan crew members — was wrongful,” the claim states.
