The estate of a French man who died on the Titan submarine that imploded while descending to the wreck of the Titanic is suing the company that created and ran the submersible.
The lawsuit, filed in King County court in Washington on Tuesday, revolves around the June 2023 trip to the Titanic wreck site at the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean. It was filed by the estate of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French man who was on board.
There were five people on that trip, and all five were killed when the submersible imploded.
After the tragedy occurred, it received international attention. In the days following it, search teams looked for the submersible after it lost communication with people on the surface.
Ultimately, all they found was an imploded submersible, with all five people dead.
According to the lawsuit, there were “serious issues” that the submersible had as well as a “troubled history.”
The search-and-rescue mission was conducted on an international basis. Once it was over, the operator of the submersible, OceanGate, had its legitimacy questioned.
There were many reports that came out claiming that Stockton Rush, the CEO of the company who was also killed during the mission, could have potentially cut some corners when the company was building the submarine.
In a statement, an attorney who’s representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Tony Buzbee, said:
“I think it’s telling that even though the University of Washington and Boeing had key roles in the design of previous but similar versions of the Titan, both have recently disclaimed any involvement at all in the submersible model that imploded.”
Buzbee added that he’s hoping the results of the lawsuit will help Nargeolet’s family, as well as other family members of those who were killed, get more answers about what happened to cause the implosion, as well as all the people who were involved.
Nargeolet, who himself was referred to as “Mr. Titanic,” had actually participated in 37 previous dives to the crash site of the Titanic, giving him the world record. He was widely regarded as one of the most knowledgeable people in the world about the site of the Titanic crash.
The Associated Press reported that he was even designated as an employee of OceanGate.
The attorneys in this week’s lawsuit are alleging that Rush didn’t disclose some key facts about the submersible’s condition to Nargeolet and the others who were taking the trip. Less than two hours after the submersible descended below the surface of the ocean, it imploded.
Last year, the AP reported that people who previously took a trip on the Titan said they knew that an implosion was eventually going to happen, because there were many technological glitches that the submarine had experienced in the past.
They even said that Rush was an “overconfident pioneer.”
Last July, one month after the implosion of the Titan, OceanGate suspended all of its operations.
