The Titan submersible was piloted using a modified Logitech F710 wireless game controller. Image source: Madelgarius, via Wikimedia Commons
The family of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of five people killed in the June 2023 submersible implosion, are suing the company OceanGate for over $75 million.
The OceanGate expedition was an attempt to reach the famous Titanic wreckage. The company was later found to have cut costs and testing revealed a low success rate prior to the expedition.
Nargeolet, also nicknamed “Mr. Titanic”, had participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site prior to his death, according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit from Nargeolet’s family accuses the submersible operator of gross negligence, that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the Titan, and that the “doomed submersible” had a “troubled history”.
The lawsuit states that “the Titan’s crew would have realised exactly what was happening” and were “well aware they were going to die”. The lawsuit alleges the Titan “dropped weights”, as if attempting to abort the dive.
“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.
“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.”
The lawsuit further criticises the Titan’s submersible’s “hip, contemporary, wireless electronics system”, alleging that “none of the controller, controls, or gauges would work without a constant source of power and a wireless signal”.
The lawyers handling the case, Buzbee Law Firm of Houston, Texas, alleging that “many of the particulars about the vessel’s flaws and shortcomings were not disclosed and were purposely concealed”.
Tony Buzbee, a lawyer assigned to the case, states that “getting answers for the family” was one of the lawsuit’s goals.
Nargeolet was one of five passengers aboard the Titan’s maiden voyage, along with British adventurer Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.
The fifth person onboard was OceanGate CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush, who has stated in interviews prior to his death that submarine regulations were stifling innovation by being “obscenely safe” and describing safety as “pure waste”.
The Titan submersible was not subject to safety regulations due to operating in international waters. Rush refused to submit the Titan to checks that were industry standard prior to launch.
The hull was made from titanium and carbon fibre, with an acrylic viewing window. The vessel imploded under the intense pressure of the ocean, which expert deep-sea explorer James Cameron suggested was because carbon fibre “has no strength in external compression”.
The debris of the Titan submersible has been salvaged and OceanGate has suspended all operations.
