The family of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, also known as “Mr. Titanic,” has filed a $50 million wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate and others more than a year after the “Titan” submersible implosion killed five people, including the famed underwater explorer.
The lawsuit, filed in Washington State’s King County on Tuesday, Aug. 6, accuses OceanGate and the other entities of “gross negligence” in connection with the fatal incident, which occurred on June 18, 2023, according to a news release from lawyers representing the estate.
The explorer was one of five people onboard the submersible when it imploded less than two hours into their journey to visit the Titanic wreckage at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
The Nargeolet family “alleges a troubled history of the doomed submersible” and claim OceanGate and its founder Stockton Rush, who was among those killed in the implosion, “failed to disclose” key facts about the condition and durability of the submersible.
These facts were allegedly kept from the explorer, who “had made many trips to visit the wreck of the Titanic on other submersibles” prior to his death.
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The lawsuit alleges “someone as experienced and knowledgeable…would not have participated” in the dive had they known about the supposed problems with the watercraft, according to a statement from Matt Shaffer, an attorney representing the Nargeolet family.
Tony Buzbee, another attorney representing the Nargeolet family, also noted that the University of Washington and Boeing “recently disclaimed any involvement at all in the submersible model that imploded” despite having “key roles in the design of previous but similar versions of the Titan.”
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“We are hopeful that through this lawsuit we can get answers for the family as to exactly how this happened, who all were involved, and how those involved could allow this to happen,” Buzbee said in his statement.
In addition to the explorer and Rush, three other individuals were onboard the “Titan” when it imploded: billionaires Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood, and Dawood’s and son Suleman.
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Concerns about the submersible were raised as far back as 2018, according to The New Yorker. That January, OceanGate employee David Lochridge completed a report that noted several potentially dangerous flaws, including highly flammable flooring, an iridium satellite beacon secured by zip-ties, and thruster cables that posed “snagging hazards.”
Rush was reportedly not pleased. Employees who attended an emergency meeting afterward said Rush used the gathering to shoot down Lochridge’s report.
Days after the Titan imploded in 2023, U.S. Navy Captain Alfred Scott McLaren told PEOPLE that he was not surprised by what happened to the submersible. He said it was “a catastrophe waiting to happen.”
At the time, he told PEOPLE that for years he had “been advising people under no circumstances go to Titanic on that submersible.”
“I didn’t consider it safe because of the way it was constructed and the fact that it had not been tested or certified,” he added.
A spokesperson for OceanGate declined to comment on the lawsuit, per the Associated Press.
OceanGate, which did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment, has since suspended “all exploration and commercial operations,” according to its now-defunct website.
An investigation into the tragedy is still underway.
