RMS Titanic Inc. probing if 'cavalier' Stockton Rush misled them to get PH Nargeolet aboard doomed s

August 2024 · 6 minute read

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The Titanic foundation spearheaded by sub victim Paul-Henri Nargeolet is probing OceanGate head Stockton Rush’s claims of how safe his vessel was ahead of the fateful dive when it imploded on June 18, The Post has learned.

Rush was a “cavalier guy,” according to RMS Titanic Inc. president Jessica Sanders, who is reviewing whether the organization should have ever let Nargeolet board the vessel — which Rush told potential passengers was “way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving,” or even “crossing the street.”

The Titanic foundation is reviewing its records and court filings in the wake of the tragedy and questioning the truthfulness of Rush’s statements, Sanders said.

“We have now our own internal questions about the representations [OceanGate] made that we made the basis on giving PH the OK to go,” she told The Post.

“We’re going back and looking at that now ourselves internally, because there were representations not only made to us, but made to the court, that now we have to go back and verify because of these stories that are coming up that question them.”

Paul-Henri Nargeolet, director of a deep-ocean research project dedicated to the Titanic, in Paris, France, May 31, 2013. AFP via Getty Images
Jessica Sanders, president of RMS Titanic Inc., called Nargeolet “a giant of a man.” RMS Titanic, Inc.

In the US, RMS Titanic Inc. has the salvage rights to the shipwreck, which were granted in 1993 by a court in Norfolk, Virginia and the company always consults with the court before recovering anything from the sunken ship.

Artefacts from the wreck are subject to a special set of conditions, which mean they have to be displayed together and made available for academic research. The court also reviews other plans for those wishing to visit the wreck and Eastern District of Virginia Judge Rebecca Beach Smith has been reviewing their expedition plans for multiple years, according to Washingtonian.com.

Rush openly declared he was a maverick, had used unconventional methods and materials to make his sub, and said he didn’t apply to get it classified — certified as safe — because it was a multi-year process that took too long.

He believed “bringing an outside entity up to speed” on his work — which included the first-of-its-kind carbon fiber hull that imploded, killing all five aboard — were “anathema to rapid innovation.”

Nargeolet and RMS Titanic Inc., where he served as director of underwater research, took a different approach and took steps to ensure they were following various regulations in allowing him to join the June 18 mission to the sea floor.

Sanders said Nargeolet joined the expedition not for research purposes, but strictly as a “guest of OceanGate,” in line with their reporting requirements to a federal judge, Sanders said.

“He approached us initially and said, ‘OceanGate is doing these expeditions … is there a conflict?’” she recalled.

OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush on May 27, 2023. Arnie Weissmann/Travel Weekly via AP
Five explorers boarded the Titan submersible early June 18 and descended to the depths of the Atlantic bound for the Titanic wreckage 12,500 feet below. Becky Kagan Schott / OceanGate Expeditions

They OK’d the trip after careful consideration, Sanders said.

Nargeolet had been to the wreck of the Titanic some 35 times, had also been a passenger on Titan a number of times, and was very close to Rush.

US Coast Guard officials revealed Thursday the Titan suffered a “catastrophic implosion” and lost all communication with the outside world while attempting to explore the Titanic wreck 12,500 feet below the surface of the Atlantic, 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

Paul-Henri Nargeolet laughs, at Black Falcon Pier in Boston on Sept. 1, 1996. AP

Alongside Nargeolet and Rush, Sulaiman Dawood, 19, his business tycoon father, Shahzada, 48, and British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, 58, were also lost to the deep.

The submersible lost communication with its mothership roughly one hour and 45 minutes into its mission, when it was estimated to have been about 10,000 feet down.

The US Coast Guard and several other agencies frantically searched for days before spotting multiple seabed debris fields early Thursday and reaching the grim conclusion. The vessel, USCG officials said, had imploded and debris was found approximately 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreck site.

A US Coast Guard HC-130 Hercules airplane flies over the French research vessel L’Atalante approximately 900 miles east of Cape Cod during the search for the 21-foot submersible Titan on June 21, 2023. Getty Images
The Horizon Arctic ship, where salvaged pieces of the Titan submersible from OceanGate Expeditions were brought, in St. John’s harbor, Newfoundland, Canada, June 28, 2023. REUTERS

OceanGate’s controversial history

Reports of Rush’s controversial history came to light shortly after the sub’s disappearance, when a 2018 lawsuit was unearthed alleging “quality control and safety” concerns with the one-of-a-kind vessel.

David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, claimed in the suit that he was wrongfully terminated after notifying company execs about a “lack of non-destructive testing performed on the hull of the Titan.”

The five Titan sub victims (clockwise from top left): Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood, Sulaiman Dawood and Hamish Harding.
Debris from the Titan submersible, recovered from the ocean floor near the wreck of the Titanic, is unloaded from the ship Horizon Arctic at the Canadian Coast Guard pier in St. John’s, Newfoundland, Wednesday, June 28, 2023. AP
Salvaged pieces of the Titan submersible from OceanGate Expeditions are returned, in St. John’s harbor, Newfoundland, Canada, June 28, 2023. Reuters

OceanGate consultant Rob McCallum warned Rush in 2018 that he was “potentially placing yourself and your clients in a dangerous dynamic,” the BBC reported.

Paul-Henri Nargeolet in Paris, France, May 31, 2013. AFP via Getty Images

Rush reportedly fired back: “We have heard the baseless cries of ‘you are going to kill someone’ way too often … I take this as a serious personal insult.”

And the Marine Technology Society sent a letter to Rush in 2018 warning him it was critical that its prototypes undergo proper third-party testing before being taken to such depths to ensure the safety of its passengers.

But Rush allegedly refused to do so.

The Titanic — hailed as “unsinkable” before it dropped to the bottom of the ocean in 1912 — lost more than 1,500 passengers after smashing into an iceberg. 

Nargeolet, a former French navy commander affectionately known as “Mr. Titanic,” had contributed a great deal to the exploration of the wreck.

Sanders called him “a giant of a man.”

A submersible pilot (right) communicates with the support boat as he and Stockton Rush (left), CEO and co-founder of OceanGate, dive in the company’s submersible Antipodes off the coast of Fort Lauderdale, Fla., June 28, 2013.  AP
Stockton Rush in an undated image. OceanGate/ Facebook

The 77-year-old trailblazer was aboard the first-ever vessel to travel down to the RMS Titanic wreckage in 1987.

He was “one of those rare individuals that was so experienced and fearless — not reckless, fearless,” she said.

“If you didn’t get a chance to meet PH, it really is your loss,” Sanders went on.

“You ever meet somebody that always has a really great story that’s always semi-unbelievable? … That was who he was.

“And so, my encouragement would be if you didn’t know him personally, ask someone who did.”

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