Titan submarine crew were aware of imminent death before implosion, lawsuit says | Titanic submarine incident

The crew aboard the Titan submersible that imploded last year while diving toward the wreckage of the Titanic were likely aware during their final moments that they were going to die, according to a newly filed wrongful death lawsuit.

The lawsuit was filed by the family of the French explorer who died in the implosion, Paul-Henri Nargeolet. Nicknamed “Mr. Titanic,” he had participated in 37 previous dives to the wreck and was aboard the submersible when it suffered a catastrophic failure in June 2023 during a voyage to the Titanic wreck site.

All five crew members died. Others included British explorer Hamish Harding, Pakistani-born British businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, and Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush.

Nargeolet’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit earlier this week against OceanGate, which manufactured the submersible and operated the trip and has since ceased operations, according to its website.

The lawsuit accuses OceanGate and Rush of negligence and alleges that many details about the vessel’s defects and shortcomings were intentionally withheld from Nargeolet.

“The catastrophic implosion that took Nargeolet’s life was directly due to the persistent recklessness, recklessness and negligence” of OceanGate, Rush and other defendants, says the lawsuit, which seeks at least $50 million.

It is also alleged that it is likely that they knew the submersible was about to implode.

“Although the exact cause of the failure can never be determined, experts agree that the crew of the Titan would have realized exactly what was happening,” the lawsuit says.

“The so-called ‘acoustic safety system’ would have alerted the crew that the carbon fibre hull was cracking under extreme pressure, prompting the pilot to release weight and attempt to abort the operation,” he alleges.

“Common sense dictates that the crew were fully aware that they were going to die, before they died.”

Because the safety mechanism to release the weight in response to the hull cracking failed to operate, the lawsuit alleges the crew “may have heard the crackling sound of the carbon fiber becoming more intense as the weight of the water pressed down on the Titan’s hull.”

“According to experts, they would have continued to descend, fully aware of the irreversible failures of the ship, experiencing terror and mental anguish before the Titan finally imploded.”

An OceanGate spokesperson declined to comment to The Associated Press.

Last week, Rory Golden, who was aboard the submarine’s support vessel when the disaster struck, spoke of the fear and false hope that reigned during the doomed rescue operation.

“We had this image in our heads of them down there, running out of oxygen in the freezing cold, terribly scared and frightened,” Golden, who was a close friend of Nargeolet, told BBC News.

After the disaster, the U.S. Coast Guard opened a board of inquiry into the incident to determine its cause. A public hearing is scheduled for September.