Family of explorer killed on Everett submersible sues for $50 million

By Anumita Kaur / The Washington Post

The family of an experienced French mariner killed in the Titan submersible implosion last year filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit Tuesday, accusing private operator OceanGate of gross negligence leading to the deaths of all five people aboard and causing them “mental anguish” in their final moments.

“While the exact cause of failure may never be determined, experts agree that the Titan’s crew would have realized exactly what was happening,” says the lawsuit, filed by the estate of Paul-Henri Nargeolet. “Common sense dictates that the crew were well aware they were going to die, before dying.”

Nargeolet, a 77-year-old seasoned explorer, was among those killed when the Titan imploded in June 2023 while traveling to the site of the Titanic shipwreck, about 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean. An aerial and water search that followed the disappearance of the vessel and its crew of wealthy tycoons and adventurers gripped the globe for days.

The lawsuit, filed in King County, argues that OceanGate and CEO Stockton Rush, 61, who was also killed during the implosion, flouted industry norms by using carbon fiber in the vessel’s hull and skirting the inspection process commonly used to certify vessels that dive to areas of extreme pressure. Rather than disclosing the vessel’s flaws, Rush obscured details about its allegedly dubious construction, the lawsuit claims.

A spokesman for OceanGate declined to comment Wednesday. A member of Rush’s family did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We have alleged in the lawsuit that had Stockton Rush (OceanGate’s CEO and founder) been transparent about all the troubles that had been experienced with the Titan, as well as the previous, similar models, someone as experienced and knowledgeable as Paul Henri-Nargeolet would not have participated,” Matt Shaffer, an attorney representing Nargeolet’s family, said in a statement.

A four-page waiver that called the Titan “experimental” and mentioned death at least three times was insufficient for the dive, the lawsuit says. The document did not disclose “many key, relevant risk factors” about the submersible’s design and operation, rendering it “ineffective,” the complaint says.

The implosion, Nargeolet’s estate alleges, “was due directly to the persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence” of OceanGate and Rush, who were repeatedly warned by deep-sea diving experts and engineers “about the potentially fatal consequences of their choices and actions. Defendants did not heed those warnings, but rather appear to have been increasingly motivated over time to ignore them.”

The carbon-fiber hull was particularly problematic, the lawsuit argues. Carbon fiber breaks down over time under pressure, and the Titan was the only submersible ever produced with a carbon-fiber hull, the complaint says.Experts told The Washington Post last year that the submersible’s previous dives to the Titanic wreck may have weakened the hull.

The Titan also did not undergo the periodic inspections from a classification agency that are common in the deep diving community. In a 2019 blog post on the OceanGate’swebsite, the company said the vessel utilized an innovative design. “Bringing an outside entity up to speed on every innovation before it is put into real-world testing is anathema to rapid innovation,” the company wrote.

The lawsuit alleges that much of the Titan was designed and built by a team “composed largely of either current students or recent graduates of nearby Washington State University.”

“These were engineers with virtually no real-world experience and no prior exposure to the deep-sea diving industry,” the complaint says, adding that OceanGate was unwilling “to spend the money required to design and construct” the vessel in a way that could withstand the depths of the ocean.

On June 18, 2023, about two hours after the Titan began descending to the Titanic – whose 1912 sinking has engendered widespread fascination for more than a century – the vessel lost contact with its mother ship.

Four days later, the U.S. Coast Guard discovered a portion of the Titan on the sea floor, roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic’s bow. The submersible had suffered a catastrophic loss of pressure that caused it to implode, killing all aboard, the Coast Guard said at the time. The military branch said a specific cause was unclear but that the catastrophe probably happened before rescue efforts began.

In addition to Rush and Nargeolet, those killed included British business executive and adventurer Hamish Harding, 58; and British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman Dawood, 19.

In June, the Coast Guard said its investigation remained active but would take longer than initially projected. A public hearing is scheduled for September “to examine all aspects of the loss of the Titan,” including regulatory compliance, crew qualifications, mechanical and structural systems, emergency response and the submersible industry at large, according to the Coast Guard.

Justine McDaniel, Timothy Bella and Maham Javaid contributed to this report.