A messy legal fight that could follow the five deaths of OceanGate’s Titan passengers, after debris was found Thursday.
OceanGate, the owner and operator of the hired submersible that has been missing since Sunday, announced Thursday afternoon that the five passengers aboard had died, shortly after officials reported that they had identified a debris field near the Titanic.
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost,” the company said in a statement. “Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.”
The US Coast Guard said in a press conference Thursday that the pressure chamber in the submersible had failed, causing the craft to implode, and that their deaths were immediate.
A coalition of international authorities, including the US and Canadian coast guards and navies, have contributed to the multi-day search effort. Their efforts to recover the submersible may halt now that it seems that human life is no longer at stake, though it’s possible private efforts to do so could continue.
“The recovery of any remains is going to be dictated by just the sheer risk to human life and to property,” said Matt Shaffer, a maritime injury lawyer who has represented victims of several major maritime disasters, including the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion. “If it’s just going to be so dangerous that it’s going to put so many more people and equipment at risk, they probably won’t do it.”
The Coast Guard indicated Thursday that the search for the debris of the submersible will be difficult given the unforgiving environment on the seafloor and made no commitment to its recovery.
For the victims’ families, the fight may not end there. Shaffer says that the families could sue OceanGate, as well as others involved in the construction of the lost craft — and the financial damages could be huge given that Harding and Dawood were billionaires.
