Titan submersible implosion: French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet's family sues OceanGate for $50mn

Deep sea exploration company OceanGate concealed flaws in Titan before the submersible was destroyed during a mission to the Titanic shipwreck, alleged the family of a French explorer who died in the implosion last year. Paul-Henri Nargeolet's family is suing OceanGate for $50 million over wrongful death and 'gross negligence.'

The lawsuit blames the implosion on the "persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence" of Oceangate and its CEO Stockton Rush.

The Titan submersible was on a voyage to see the famed shipwreck when it imploded on 18 June 2023. It went missing in the North Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Newfoundland. 

Besides Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, the sub was carrying Pakistani-British businessman Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and British businessman Hamish Harding. All of them died.

The wreck was found on the ocean floor about 300 metres off the bow of the Titanic,
 after a massive international search operation.

It is believed that the submersible was destroyed in an implosion caused by pressure failure inside the pod's hull.

"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 lawsuit states, as per a report in the Associated Press.

The vessel's flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed," the attorneys, the Buzbee Law Firm of Houston, Texas, said in a statement.

The crew, said the lawsuit filed in Washington state in the US, experienced "terror and mental anguish" before the disaster. Washington state-based OceanGate had suspended operations since the accident.

Nargeolet, who had already done 37 diving expeditions to the Titanic site before the Titan disaster, was the director of underwater research for RMS Titanic and considered an authority on the subject.

His family's attorneys alleged that OceanGate "failed to disclose key facts about the vessel and its durability,"  said the AP report.

Titan "dropped weights" about 90 minutes into its dive, indicating the team had "aborted or attempted to abort" the dive. "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," said the lawsuit.

The crew "may well have heard" the carbon fibre's crackling noise grow more intense as the weight of the water pressed on Titan's hull, it said. 

The suit alleges that even as it lost communications and perhaps electricity, "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".

The suit particularly targeted the electronics system of the sub, saying "none of the controller, controls or gauges would work without a constant source of power and a wireless signal".

The lawsuit described OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who was operating the Titan when it imploded, as "an eccentric and self-styled 'innovator' in the deep-sea diving industry".


(With inputs from agencies)