Titan Sub Victim’s Family Seeks $50 Million Over Fatal Implosion

(Bloomberg) -- The family of renowned French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet is seeking $50 million after he was killed in the implosion of OceanGate’s Titan submersible last year.

In a wrongful death lawsuit filed Tuesday in Washington state court, Nargeolet’s estate accused OceanGate of “gross negligence” related to its design of the submersible, alleging a “devil-may-care approach to safety and obsessive quest for ‘innovation’ above all else.”

The family is also suing the estate of OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush, who died alongside Nargeolet in the implosion in the North Atlantic Ocean.

“Nargeolet may have died doing what he loved to do, but his death – and the deaths of the other Titan crew members – was wrongful,” lawyers wrote in the complaint. “The catastrophic implosion that claimed Nargeolet’s life was due directly to the persistent carelessness, recklessness and negligence of OceanGate, Rush and other defendants in their design, construction and operation of Titan.”

The five people aboard the submersible were pronounced dead after the Coast Guard found wreckage debris and determined the 22-foot (6.7-meter) craft had imploded during its descent to the Titanic. Pieces were recovered near the ship, the storied object of fascination which sank in 1912 on its first trans-Atlantic voyage, and motivated the Titan passengers to pay $250,000 to see the wreckage up close.

Though the passengers signed waivers that generally shield a company in cases of negligence, experts said the waivers were less likely to hold up in cases of gross negligence.

Nargeolet was considered to be the world’s leading expert on the Titanic wreckage and its debris field, earning the nickname “Mr. Titanic.” He had completed dozens of submersible dives to the crash site and led the first recovery expedition to the Titanic in 1987.

OceanGate suspended all explorations and business operations a few weeks after the tragedy. Representatives of the company couldn’t be immediately located for comment on the lawsuit. The suit was reported earlier by the Associated Press.

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