The wrongful death lawsuit against the OceanGate has begun. This lawsuit would include everyone responsible for the Titan submersible tragedy that happened last year. The first factor to come to light was the company’s use of a cheap Logitech F710 game controller.
This fact made it to the headlines of almost all leading news agencies. OceanGate relied on a 30 USD Logitech controller as its sole means of navigation. The June 18th tragedy claimed the lives of 5 people including, Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate.
Paul-Henri Louis Emile Nargeolet was the first to file a wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate.
Nargeolet had been on 37 dives to the Titanic wreckage and was working with OceanGate as a crew member on what would be his final trip. He was supposed to guide other crewmembers and assist with navigation.
The suit highlights quite a few discrepancies. For instance, the Titan submersible was made of carbon fiber instead of Titanium. Now we all know that carbon fiber cracks under pressure and titanium is the go-to material for submersibles. But that was not the case with Titan.
The Logitech controller was just the tip of the iceberg. It worked via Bluetooth instead of being hardwired. Rush opted for a gamepad instead of a custom controller. There was only one physical button in the chamber, which was for power. Rest everything was touchscreen, including light and gauges.
“Rush stated that Titan was ‘to other submersibles what the iPhone was to the BlackBerry,'” the suit states. “As with an iPhone, however, none of the controller, controls, or gauges would work without a constant source of power and a wireless signal.”
This wasn’t the first OceanGate submersible to use a game controller. Its previous Cyclops I, which used almost identical systems, featured a wireless Sony DualShock 3.
The suit doesn’t highlight a single wrongdoing as the main cause of implosion. It states that there was a string of oversights and violations of basic safety procedures over time that led to the unfortunate implosion. The complaint says the defendants were “careless, negligent, grossly negligent, and reckless.” It is seeking $50 million in damages.