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The family of a French explorer who died in a submersible implosion has filed a lawsuit seeking more than $50 million, saying the crew experienced “fear and mental anguish” before the disaster and accusing the submarine operator of gross negligence.
Paul-Henri Nagiolet was one of five people killed when the Titan submersible imploded while en route to the famous wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic in June 2023. The experimental submersible, owned by OceanGate in Washington state, is no longer in operation and no one on board survived.
The lawsuit alleges that Nargeolet, known as “Mr. Titanic,” has made 37 dives to the wreck of the Titanic, the most of any person in the world. He is considered one of the most knowledgeable people in the world about the famous wreck. In an emailed statement, his estate’s attorney said the “doomed submersible” has a “troubled history” and that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the ship and its durability.
According to the lawsuit, the Titan “dropped a heavy object” about 90 minutes into the dive, indicating the dive team had aborted or attempted to abort the dive.
“While the exact cause of the malfunction may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew should have been aware of what was happening,” the lawsuit said. “Common sense dictates that the crew knew they were going to die before they died.”
The lawsuit continues: “As the weight of the water pressed down on Titan’s hull, the crew likely heard a crackling sound from the carbon fiber that grew louder. The crew lost communications and possibly even electrical power. According to expert estimates, they should have continued to sink, knowing full well that the hull had irreparably failed, and experienced fear and mental anguish before Titan finally exploded.”
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An OceanGate spokesman declined to comment on the lawsuit filed Tuesday in King County, Washington. Court documents say the defendants must respond to the complaint in the coming weeks. The lawsuit names Nargeolet as an OceanGate employee and a crew member aboard the Titan.
The lawsuit also criticizes Titan’s “sleek, modern wireless electronics,” noting that none of the controllers, controls or gauges would work without a constant power source and wireless signal.
Although OceanGate listed Nargeolet as a crew member, “many details of the vessel’s defects and deficiencies were not disclosed and were intentionally concealed,” Buzbee Law Firm in Houston, Texas, said in its statement.
Tony Buzbee, one of the attorneys in the case, said one of the goals of the lawsuit is to “get answers for the victim’s family as to how this could have happened, who was involved and how the people involved could have allowed this to happen.”
The disaster raised concerns about whether the Titan was doomed to sink because of its unconventional design and its builders’ refusal to submit to industry-standard independent inspections. The Titan’s sinking also raised questions about the viability and future of private deep-sea exploration.
The Coast Guard quickly launched a high-level investigation, which is still ongoing, with important public hearings scheduled for September as part of the investigation.
Titan made its final dive on the morning of Sunday, June 18, 2023, and lost contact with the support ship approximately two hours later. Following a search and rescue operation that attracted worldwide attention, the wreck of Titanic was found on the ocean floor approximately 984 feet (300 meters) from the bow of Titanic, approximately 435 miles (700 kilometers) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland.
OceanGate CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush was running Titan when it collapsed. The lawsuit calls Rush “an eccentric and self-proclaimed ‘innovator’ in the deep-sea diving industry” and names his estate as a defendant.
Besides Rashi and Nargeolat, the blast also killed British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic is heading to the wreck site for the first time in years. Last month, Georgia-based RMS Titanic Inc. set out from Providence, Rhode Island, on its first trip to the wreck site since 2010.
Nagiolet was the director of underwater research for the RMS Titanic. He participated in an expedition to the Titanic site in 1987, shortly after the wreck was discovered, and oversaw the recovery of numerous Titanic artifacts, the lawsuit said. His estate’s lawyers said Nagiolet was a seasoned underwater exploration veteran who would not have participated in the Titanic expedition if the company had been more transparent.
The lawsuit blames the explosion on “continued carelessness, recklessness and negligence” by Oceangate, Rush and others.
“Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved, but his death — and the deaths of the rest of the Titan crew — were unjust,” the lawsuit states.
© 2024 The Canadian Press
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