«Experienced terror and mental anguish before the final explosion»
According to a lawsuit worth more than $50 million, the crew of the exploded Titan submersible knew they would die before the explosion.
The family of a French explorer killed in the explosion of the Titan submersible has filed a lawsuit for more than $50 million, saying the crew suffered “terror and mental anguish” before the disaster. The plaintiffs accuse the submarine operator of gross negligence.
Paul-Henri Narjol was among five people killed when the Titan submersible exploded while en route to the famed wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic in June 2023, the Associated Press recalls. No one survived the voyage on the experimental submersible, owned by OceanGate, a Washington state company that has since suspended operations.
Known as “Mr. Titanic,” the lawsuit says, Narzollet has participated in 37 dives to the Titanic site, the most of any diver in the world, and was considered one of the world’s most knowledgeable people about the famous shipwreck. Lawyers for his estate said in an emailed statement that the “doomed submersible” had a “complicated history” and that OceanGate failed to disclose key facts about the vessel and its durability.
According to the lawsuit, the Titan “lost weight” about 90 minutes into the dive, indicating that the crew aborted or attempted to abort the dive.
“While the exact cause of the failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan crew should have had a clear understanding of what was happening,” the lawsuit says. “Common sense dictates that the crew knew they were going to die before they died.”
The lawsuit goes on to say: “The crew may have heard the crackling of the carbon fiber becoming more intense due to the pressure of the water on the Titan’s hull. The crew lost communication and possibly power. Experts estimate that they would have continued to descend, fully aware of the irreversible failure of the vessel, experiencing terror and mental anguish before the Titan’s final explosion.”
A spokesman for OceanGate declined to comment on the lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday in King County, Washington. The defendants are expected to respond to the complaint in the coming weeks, court papers say. The lawsuit says Narzole was an OceanGate employee and a member of the Titan’s crew.
The lawsuit also criticizes the Titan's «fancy, state-of-the-art wireless electronics system» and claims that none of the controllers, controls or sensors will operate without a constant power source and wireless signal.»
While OceanGate assigned Narzole to the crew, «many details about the vessel's deficiencies were not disclosed and were intentionally concealed,» attorneys at the Houston, Texas-based law firm Buzbee said in a statement.
Tony Buzbee, one of the lawyers involved in the case, said one of the goals of the lawsuit is “to get answers from the family about exactly how this happened, who did this and how these people could have allowed this to happen.”
The disaster raised concerns that the Titan was doomed because of its unconventional design and its creator’s refusal to undergo independent inspection, which is standard in the industry. Its explosion also raised questions about the viability and future of private deep-sea exploration.
The U.S. Coast Guard has swiftly conducted a high-level investigation that is ongoing. A key public hearing as part of the probe is scheduled for September, the Associated Press reports.
The Titan made its final dive on Sunday morning, June 18, 2023, and lost contact with its support vessel about two hours later. After a search and rescue operation that captured the world's attention, the wreckage of the Titanic was found on the ocean floor about 300 meters from the bow of the Titanic, about 700 kilometers south of St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate CEO and co-founder Stockton Rush was piloting the Titan when it exploded. The lawsuit describes Rush as an “eccentric and self-proclaimed ‘innovator’ in the deep-sea diving industry,” and names his estate as a defendant.
In addition to Rush and Narjole, the explosion also killed British adventurer Hamish Harding and two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood.
The company that holds the rights to salvage the Titanic is making its first voyage to the wreck site in years. Last month, Georgia-based RMS Titanic Inc. launched its first expedition to the wreck site since 2010 from Providence, Rhode Island.
Narjol was Titanic's director of underwater exploration. In 1987, shortly after the Titanic's location was discovered, he participated in an expedition to the site and oversaw the salvage of countless artifacts from the Titanic, the lawsuit says. Lawyers representing him described him as a seasoned veteran of underwater exploration who would not have gone on the Titan expedition if the company had been more transparent.
The lawsuit alleges that the collapse was caused by the “continuous carelessness, recklessness, and negligence” of Oceangate, Stockton Rush, and others.
“The late Narzole may have died doing what he loved, but his death — and the deaths of the other Titan crew members — was wrongful,” the lawsuit says.
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