How families could sue Titanic firm despite crew signing death waivers as expert says dive rules are ‘written in blood’
GRIEVING families of those who died on board the doomed Titan sub could sue OceanGate despite signing death waivers, experts said.
The firm's CEO Stockton Rush, Brit billionaire Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman tragically died on a dive to the Titanic wreck.
The vessel vanished less than two hours into its descent to the Titanic wreckage on Sunday - sparking a frantic search in the Atlantic.
A deep-sea robot sub found five major pieces of debris of Titan two miles beneath the surface on Thursday - with all five crew confirmed dead after a "catastrophic" implosion.
The passengers, who paid £200,000 each for the journey 3,810m below the surface, are understood to have signed liability waivers before getting on board.
A waiver drawn up in April last year, obtained by , shows how the company asked passengers to assume "full responsibility" for the risk of death.
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It says the "experimental submersible vessel has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body".
The agreement also warned passengers that it "may be constructed of materials that have not been widely used in human occupied submersibles".
A CBS reporter who did the same trip with OceanGate in July last year said the waiver mentioned the possibility of death three times on the first page alone - and eight times in total.
But waivers are not always ironclad - and judges can throw the case out if it emerges that the risks were not fully disclosed.
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Matthew Shaffer, a personal injury attorney and maritime law expert, outlined how the families of those on board could sue OceanGate.
"If there were aspects of the design or construction of this vessel that were kept from the passengers or it was knowingly operated despite information that it was not suitable for this dive, that would absolutely go against the validity of the waive," he said.
Personal injury lawyer Joseph Low added: "There are so many different examples of what families might still have claims for despite the waivers, but until we know the cause we can't determine whether the waivers apply."
OceanGate could argue the waivers still stand as they fully outlined the dangers that come with diving to the deepest parts of the ocean in a sub the size of a minivan.
OceanGate is a small company - and it's unclear whether it has the assets to pay significant damages, if any were awarded.
But families could collect from the company's insurance policy if it has one.
And the families could also seek compensation from any parties that designed, helped build or made parts for Titan if they were found to be negligent.
OceanGate could try to protect itself under a law which lets owners involved in an accident ask a court to limit damages to the value of the vessel.
But since Titan was obliterated in a violent implosion, that would be zero.
OceanGate would also need to prove it didn't know of any potential defects with the sub - which legal experts warned would be difficult to do.
Ted Spaulding, a personal injury lawyer, told Newsweek the waiver issue was "nowhere close to an open-and-shut or rock-solid situation for the company".
"Especially as more evidence is coming out daily about other safety concerns previously, including this vessel having been lost before for a few hours," he said.
The suing families could also use the 2018 lawsuit filed by a former OceanGate employee over safety blunders.
There's one wreck lying next to the other wreck, for the same damn reason
James Cameron
Ex-employee David Lochridge claimed he was fired after he raised his concerns and demanded more rigorous safety checks.
Court papers, seen by The Sun, said he complained the vessel was not capable of descending to the extreme depths necessary to view the Titanic wreckage.
The case was settled on undisclosed terms, court records show.
On Thursday afternoon, OceanGate confirmed the five crew on board Titan were dead.
The sub failed to resurface later that afternoon - with its final "ping" to mothership Polar Prince placing the sub directly above the ruins.
Rear Admiral John Mauger, of the US Coast Guard, said the debris was 1,600ft from the Titanic - and "consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber".
William Kohnen, chairman of the Manned Underwater Vehicles Committee, said regulations for building submersibles were "written in blood".
He revealed that OceanGate was "not willing to undergo a standard certification process" for the sub.
And the firm got around the sub rules by operating in international waters.
Mr Kohnen's LA-based committee raised safety concerns in 2018 about OceanGate's development of Titan.
They warned the project could have "negative outcomes from minor to catastrophic that could have serious consequences".
"We're only smart because we remember what we wrote and what we did wrong last time," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"The rules are written in blood - it is in there because it caused trouble before, and to say: 'Well I think we're just going to ignore that and go on our own way,' suggests there might be a bit of input of wisdom that this might not be the best decision."
Titanic film director James Cameron, who has completed 33 dives to the wreck, said OceanGate "shouldn't have been doing what it was doing".
And he said he was "unaware that they weren't certified".
Mr Cameron compared the sub tragedy to the sinking of the Titanic.
"It's about warnings that were ignored," he said.
This expedition’s tragic ending has shown that these lessons remain to be learned
Charlie Haas
"That ship [Titanic] is lying at the bottom of the ocean, not because of its steel or the nature of its compartments, but just because of bad seamanship.
"The captain was warned, there were icebergs ahead, it was a moonless night and he ploughed ahead, for whatever reason."
Now, at the same place, "there's one wreck lying next to the other wreck, for the same damn reason", he said.
The co-founder of OceanGate, Guillermo Sohnlein, admitted the regulations on submersibles were "pretty sparse".
"There are regulations in place but as you can imagine there aren't many subs that go that deep, so the regulations are pretty sparse and many of them are antiquated and designed for specific instances," he told Times Radio.
"It's tricky to navigate those regulatory schemes."
But Mr Sohnlein insisted CEO Mr Rush was "extremely committed to safety" and Titan had undergone 14 years of "rigorous" and "robust" checks during development.
"He was also extremely diligent about managing risks, and was very keenly aware of the dangers of operating in a deep ocean environment," he said.
It comes as the president of the Titanic International Society said it is time to "consider seriously" whether trips to the wreck should end "in the name of safety".
Charlie Haas said there's "relatively little remaining to be learned from or about" the Titanic.
"Just as Titanic taught the world safety lessons, so, too, should Titan’s loss," he said.
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"Titanic also taught the world about the dangers of hubris and overreliance on technology.
"This expedition’s tragic ending has shown that these lessons remain to be learned."
