Family of French Explorer Files $50 Million Lawsuit Over Submersible Implosion
Wrongful death suit against OceanGate
The family of renowned French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet has filed a $50 million lawsuit against OceanGate, the operator of the submersible that tragically imploded during a dive into the Titanic last year. The catastrophic incident claimed the lives of Nargeolet and four other individuals.
The wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Nargeolet’s estate in the western state of Washington, accusing the US-based OceanGate of gross negligence. Nargeolet, affectionately known as “Mr. Titanic,” along with OceanGate’s chief executive Stockton Rush, British explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani-British tycoon Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman, perished when the Titan submersible failed during a June 18, 2023, expedition to the Titanic.
Referred to as “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet completed 37 dives to the Titanic wreck, making him the most experienced diver to explore the site, according to the lawsuit. Renowned as one of the leading experts on the Titanic, attorneys for his estate stated in an email that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history,” and accused OceanGate of failing to disclose critical information about the vessel’s integrity.
The lawsuit claims that approximately 90 minutes into its dive, the Titan “dropped weights,” signaling an aborted or attempted aborted mission.
“While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening,” the lawsuit states. “Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying.”
The lawsuit says: “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.”
OceanGate suspended operations
OceanGate suspended its operations two weeks following the tragedy. The company had charged $250,000 per seat on the Titan submersible. Safety concerns regarding the submersible surfaced after the implosion, shedding light on previous warnings.
The victims are believed to have died instantly when the Titan, roughly the size of an SUV, imploded under the immense pressure of the North Atlantic at a depth of more than two miles (nearly four kilometers). The debris field was discovered 1,600 feet (500 meters) from the bow of the Titanic, which lies 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland.
The Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912 during its maiden voyage from England to New York, carried 2,224 passengers and crew. More than 1,500 people died in the disaster. The shipwreck was discovered in 1985 and has since captivated nautical experts and underwater tourists.
A US Coast Guard investigation into the submersible’s implosion is ongoing.