The grieving daughter of the French explorer who died on the doomed Titan sub says she has not heard from OceanGate in the year since the disaster.
Sidonie Nargeolet’s 77-year-old father Paul-Henri Nergeolet – known as ‘Mr Titanic – was one of the five killed when a submersible catastrophically imploded on its ill-fated trip to the wreckage of the Titanic.
Ahead of the first anniversary tomorrow, Sidonie, 40, said bosses from the firm behind the ill-fated expedition have not even bothered to contact her to offer their condolences or even apologise.
The American privately owned business ceased operations in July 2023 weeks after the tragedy that killed its 61-year-old millionaire CEO Stockton Rush.
UK-based billionaire Shahzada, 48, and his Rubik cube fanatic son Suleman Dawood, 19, and British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding were the other three who died on board the sub.
Sidonie Nargeolet, 40, says she has heard ‘nothing’ from OceanGate in the year since her 77-year-old father Paul-Henri Nergeolet was killed in the Titan sub disaster
The French deep sea explorer and Titanic expert was one of five killed when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’
Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, Sidonie, wearing a blue T-shirt with a picture of a deep-sea diver on the front, said: ‘[I’ve heard] nothing from them [OceanGate]. No condolences, no “we are sorry”. Nothing.’
She agreed it was ‘extraordinary’ not to have heard from the Washington-based under-fire company.
An emotional Sidonie broke down in tears as she recalled how her hopes of finding her beloved father alive were ended when news broke four days into the search that the sub had suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’.
Wiping away a tear, she said: ‘In a way I had hope, very small, but of him being alive. In a way it’s more difficult because it is hope for nothing but in a way during four days [I thought] he was still alive.’
She told the Sunday Times her father died doing his favourite thing and passed away ‘healthy with his mind intact’.
When she last spoke to him as he arrived on the Polar Prince – the ship from which the sub launched – he was ‘happy’.
But at 6am the next morning, she was told that the Titan was missing and she said she ‘cried for 10 minutes’.
An emotional Sidonie broke down in tears as she recalled how her hopes of finding her beloved father alive were ended
The submersible vessel named Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic
Sidonie Nargeolet with her father Paul Henri-Nargeolet who died on the Titan sub trip
The world held its breath as the search and rescue mission began for the sub which had just 96 hours of oxygen left.
And on June 22, the US Coast Guard found debris on the Atlantic seabed which evidenced the Titan had imploded the same day it dived.
Mr Nargeolet came along as a deep-sea guide and it was his 38th trip to the wreckage of the Titanic.
In the 1990s, he left his job in the navy to explore and retrieve relics – managing to retrieve the first objects from the site, some of which he returned to the owners.
He took 5,500 in total and faced criticism from other explorers but he was ‘obsessed’ and retrieved the objects to honour the memory of those who died.
Ms Nargeolet told the Sunday Times she went sailing with her father in the Mediterranean before he sank it.
‘My family made fun of him. They said it was a bit like the Titanic. I didn’t think it was funny at the time, but now…’ she told the newspaper.
Mr Nargeolet (left) and Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition
Five people were onboard, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding (left), Shahzada Dawood (far right) and his 19-year-old son Suleman (second from the left)
His daughter slammed the firm behind the sub and said it stopped communicating with the families after the accident.
She said: ‘That is not normal. The least they could do is offered their condolences.’
The tragedy is still being ‘actively’ investigated and it later emerged that experts had flagged concerns with the firm – OceanGate – about the sub.
Ms Nargeolet said it is ‘better’ that the firm’s boss Mr Rush is no longer around as it would have been ‘hell for him to be alive’ after the disaster of OceanGate Expeditions, which offered the trips for $250,000.
In a disturbing interview a month before the disaster, Mr Nargeolet said the risks to the experimental sub didn’t worry him because ‘under that pressure, you’d be dead before you knew there was a problem’.
His former navy colleagues organised a ceremony for him in Toulon, and a building at the naval diving school has been named in his memory.
His daughter told the Sunday Times she has cried every day for the last year but said: ‘I think what he did is beautiful. I think it’s courageous.’
The missing Titan sub had been hit by technical issues and mishaps on at least six previous occasions before it vanished, it was later reported.
The former Director of Marine operations for the Titan project, David Lochridge, was fired from the company in 2018 after he raised concerns about its safety.
Bosses at the firm disagreed with his demands for more rigorous safety checks on the submersible, including ‘testing to prove integrity’.
The company also opted against having the craft ‘classed’, an industry-wide practice whereby independent inspectors ensure vessels meet accepted technical standards.
OceanGate suggested that seeking classification could take years and would be ‘anathema to rapid innovation’.
A desperate search for the sub was launched after it lost contact with its mothership and vanished during an expedition to the Titanic wreck on Sunday June 18, 2023
Lochridge, whose role included overseeing safety on the Titan project, had urged OceanGate to seek classification several years ago, before he was sacked in a disagreement about safety checks on the craft.
He also wanted the company to carry out a scan of Titan’s hull to ‘detect potential flaws’ rather than ‘relying on acoustic monitoring’ – which would only detect an issue ‘milliseconds before an implosion’.
In a court document filed in 2018, lawyers for the company said Lochridge’s employment was terminated because he ‘could not accept’ their research and plans, including safety protocols.
OceanGate also claimed that Lochridge ‘desired to be fired’ and had shared confidential information with others and wiped a company hard drive. The company said he ‘refused to accept the veracity of information’ about safety from Titan’s lead engineer.
In his report he said: ‘With Cyclops 2 (Titan) being handed off from Engineering to Operations in the coming weeks, now is the time to properly address items that may pose a safety risk to personnel.
‘Verbal communication of the key items I have addressed in my attached document have been dismissed on several occasions, so I feel now I must make this report so there is an official record in place.’
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