In their more than $50 million lawsuit, the family of a French explorer who perished in a submersible implosion claims that the crew had endured “terror and mental anguish” prior to the catastrophe and charges the sub’s operator with willful negligence.
In June 2023, Paul-Henri Nargeolet was one of five victims who perished when the Titan submersible imploded while visiting the well-known Titanic wreck site in the North Atlantic. The OceanGate experimental submersible is owned by a Washington state company that has ceased operations, but no one survived the trip.
According to the lawsuit, Nargeolet, also known as “Mr. Titanic,” made the most dives to the Titanic site—37—of any diver worldwide. He was considered to be among the world’s foremost experts on the renowned wreck. In an email statement, attorneys representing his estate claimed that OceanGate had omitted important information regarding the vessel’s durability and that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history.”
About 90 minutes into the dive, the Titan “dropped weights,” according to the lawsuit, indicating that the team had either canceled or attempted to cancel the dive.
According to the lawsuit, “experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have known exactly what was happening, even though the exact cause of failure may never be determined.” “The crew must have known they would die before they did,” according to common sense.
The lawsuit continues, “As the weight of the water pressed on Titan’s hull, the crew may well have heard the carbon fiber’s crackling noise grow more intense. Both power and possibly communication were lost for the crew. According to experts, they would have kept going down, fully aware of the Titan’s irreversible malfunctions, feeling fear and mental suffering until the ship finally collapsed.
OceanGate’s attorney declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was submitted in King County, Washington, on Tuesday. According to court documents, the defendants have a few weeks to reply to the complaint. Nargeolet is identified in the lawsuit as a Titan crew member and an employee of OceanGate.
The lawsuit further attacks Titan’s “sophisticated, wireless electronics system, stating that none of the gauges, controllers, or controls would function without a continuous supply of power and a wireless signal.”
The lawyers, the Buzbee Law Firm of Houston, Texas, claimed in their statement that even though OceanGate listed Nargeolet as a crew member, “many of the particulars about the vessel’s flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed.”
“Get answers for the family as to exactly how this happened, who all was involved, and how those involved could allow this to happen,” stated Tony Buzbee, one of the lawyers involved in the case.
After the accident, questions were raised about whether the Titan’s unusual design and its creator’s reluctance to submit to independent inspections—which are standard in the industry—meant that the ship was doomed. Concerns concerning the viability and future of private deep-sea exploration were also raised by its implosion.
A high-level investigation was promptly gathered by the U.S. Coast Guard and is still ongoing. September is the date of an important public hearing that is a component of the investigation.
On Sunday morning, June 18, 2023, the Titan made its final dive and lost communication with its support vessel approximately two hours later. The Titan wreckage was discovered on the ocean floor approximately 984 feet (300 meters) off the Titanic’s bow, about 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, following a search and rescue operation that garnered international attention.
Stockton Rush, the CEO and cofounder of Ocean Gate, was driving the Titan when it collapsed. The lawsuit lists Rush’s estate as a defendant and calls him “an eccentric and self-styled ‘innovator’ in the deep-sea diving industry.”
Apart from Rush and Nargeolet, the British adventurer Hamish Harding and two prominent Pakistani individuals, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, were also slain in the implosion.
Currently on its first trip to the wreckage site in years is the company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic. The Georgia-based company RMS Titanic Inc. made its first trip to the location since 2010 last month when it left Providence, Rhode Island.
Nargeolet oversaw RMS Titanic’s underwater research department. According to the lawsuit, he oversaw the recovery of numerous Titanic artifacts and was a member of an expedition that visited the site in 1987, not long after its location was established. According to the estate’s lawyers, he was an experienced undersea exploration veteran and would not have joined the Titan expedition had the company been more open.
The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic is currently visiting the wreckage site for the first time in many years. Last month, the Georgia-based company RMS Titanic Inc. departed Providence, Rhode Island, for its first visit to the site since 2010.
The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic is currently visiting the wreckage site for the first time in many years. Last month, the Georgia-based company RMS Titanic Inc. departed Providence, Rhode Island, for its first visit to the site since 2010.
Nargeolet was in charge of the underwater research section of the RMS Titanic. In 1987, not long after its location was determined, he was a member of an expedition that visited the site and oversaw the recovery of numerous artifacts related to the Titanic, according to the lawsuit. He was a seasoned veteran of undersea exploration and would not have joined the Titan expedition if the company had been more transparent, according to the estate’s attorneys.
