In brief: The expected wrongful death lawsuits against OceanGate and others behind the Titan submersible that imploded last year have begun. The first highlights the vehicle’s infamous use of a cheap Logitech F710 game controller for navigation as a contributing factor behind the incident.
The fact the Titan relied on a $30 Logitech F710 as its only means of navigation made plenty of headlines after the sub imploded on June 18, 2023, killing five people, including Stockton Rush, the CEO of the submersible’s operator, OceanGate.
The estate of French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Louis Emile Nargeolet has become the first to file a wrongful death lawsuit against OceanGate and Rush’s estate.
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 voyage. His duties included guiding other crewmembers and assisting with navigation.
The suit brings up several of the criticisms that were made following the implosion, the biggest being that the Titan was made of carbon fiber, which can crack under repeated compression, instead of the usual submarine material of titanium.
The Titan’s porthole and the use of materials with different expansion/compression coefficients were also singled out in the suit.
As for the Logitech controller, the suit highlights it alongside the Titan’s other inappropriate tech. The fact it worked via Bluetooth instead of being hardwired, and Rush opted to use the gamepad instead of a custom controller, is emphasized. It’s also noted that the Titan only had one physical button in its main chamber, which was for power, with everything else, including the lights and gauges, being touchscreen.
“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 blame a single element for the implosion; instead, it says the incident was a daisy chain of failures of multiple improperly designed or constructed parts or systems.
The complaint says the defendants were “careless, negligent, grossly negligent, and reckless.” It is seeking $50 million in damages.
Soon after the implosion, OceanGate wiped its entire social media presence and redirected visitors to its websites to a page explaining that the company had suspended all exploration and commercial operations.
