June 20, 2023 Missing Titanic sub search news

OceanGate Expeditions CEO Richard Stockton Rush was sued in February by a Florida couple seeking a refund for a trip to see the Titanic wreckage they claim was booked with OceanGate but never happened.  

According to the lawsuit, Marc and Sharon Hagle of Winter Park, Florida, signed a contract with Rush to go on a manned submersible dive expedition to the RMS Titanic on Cyclops 2. In November of 2016, the Hagles paid a deposit of $10,000 each, which they say they were told was fully refundable. 

But after paying a total of $210,258 and seeing their expedition postponed many times, the lawsuit says they were unable to get a refund. The lawsuit alleges fraudulent inducement and violation of Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. 

Rush is on board the submersible that went missing on Sunday. CNN has reached out to OceanGate for comment on the lawsuit. The online docket for Florida’s 9th Judicial Circuit shows no response to the lawsuit at this time.  

The lawsuit states that the Hagles were each due to pay a $40,000 “milestone payment 15 days after Cyclops 2 made its first dive, approximately around October 2017. Under their contract, a $55,129 final payment each was due on February 1, 2018, which would have been approximately four months before the scheduled date of their expedition," the lawsuit says.

The couple, who were on Blue Origin’s 2022 space mission, became skeptical the expedition would take place and were contemplating requesting a refund, the lawsuit states.

It says Rush visited the couple in Florida in 2017 and explained the design of Cyclops 2 to them as well as the details of the expedition and crew that would be manning the submersible. He also told them Cyclops 2 would be ready to dive to the wreckage as planned, in June 2018, the lawsuit adds. The lawsuit states that Rush confirmed at that time that they would receive a full refund if they wanted.

The Hagles’ lawsuit claims they received a second contract after Rush’s visit that required them to pay the full balance for the expedition, a total of $190,258 more, which they wired to OceanGate. A month after they signed the new contract and wired the money, the name of Cyclops 2 was changed to Titan, the lawsuit says. 

The June 2018 expedition was canceled two months later. The lawsuit alleges that the reason they were given was that OceanGate had not had sufficient time to do tests to certify the Titan could reach the depth of the Titanic wreckage, the lawsuit claims.  

The new expedition was scheduled for July 2019, but canceled the month before, first saying the support vessel refused to participate and later citing “equipment failure,” according to the suit. The Hagles claim they were then told their new expedition date would be some time in 2020. 

The couple then requested a refund of the $210,258 they had paid. 

The Hagles claim that though they had been told by OceanGate’s expedition manager that the company was working on a “full refund plan,” they received communication from OceanGate demanding they participate in a July 2021 expedition. If they failed to do so, they would not be entitled to a refund or credit, the lawsuit says they were told.

The couple is asking the court for the return of their monies paid as well as punitive damages.

When reached by CNN, the Hagles’ attorney, Ronny Edwards Jr., declined to comment on the pending litigation, but said, “More important than the litigation, however, is the safe return of the entire Titan crew. My thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families.”

CNN’s Ross Levitt contributed to this report. 

If search crews locate the missing submersible deep in the ocean, authorities will face a highly complex mission to recover the craft and any survivors, an expert said Tuesday.  

McCord said sophisticated naval craft could reach the wreckage of the Titanic at a pace of about 1,000 feet per hour. At more than 12,000 feet below sea level, diving and surfacing could take a full day.  

At these depths, a remote craft would be able to explore a limited area rather than cruise along the ocean floor, he said.

“When you’re going deep, you usually go up and down like an elevator,” McCord said. “When you’re going shallow, you can go further like a nuclear submarine.” 

Once crews have narrowed their search, they could deploy a cargo van-sized remote-operated craft to locate the submersible. The remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, is tethered to a surface ship with a two-inch thick cable to provide power and communication. The ROV could be moved to a Canadian port by military aircraft, loaded onto a ship by crane, and then steamed to the search site, McCord said.  

US military ROVs have electric motors and cameras, but do not have the capacity to lift the missing vessel, McCord said.  

Rescuing the missing craft from the ocean depths would require a second, more specialized vehicle known as the Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System, he said. FADOSS includes specialized shock absorbers to handle lifting loads of up to 60,000 pounds without snapping its cable to the surface.  

The US Navy said that it is sending a FADOSS to assist in the search and rescue efforts. It is expected to arrive in St. Johns Tuesday night, a spokesperson said.

Industry leaders expressed concerns five years ago about OceanGate Expeditions' "experimental approach" to the Titan submersible and its planned trip to the site of the Titanic wreckage, the New York Times reported Tuesday

The Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society penned a letter to OceanGate's CEO Stockton Rush in 2018, it said.

Specifically, it expressed concern over the company's compliance with a maritime risk assessment certification known as DNV-GL. 

"Your marketing material advertises that the TITAN design will meet or exceed the DNV-GL safety standards, yet it does not appear that Oceangate has the intention of following DNV-GL class rules," the letter said.

The leaders wrote that portraying the Titan this way is misleading to the public and "breaches an industry-wide professional code of conduct we all endeavor to uphold."

OceanGate has not responded to a request for comment on the letter. 

The company's CEO, Stockton Rush, is one of the five passengers onboard the missing Titan submersible, a source told CNN on Tuesday.

The five people onboard the submersible that went missing near the wreckage of the Titanic have less than 40 hours of breathable air left, according to the US Coast Guard.

The urgent search has not yielded anything so far, but officials are looking on both on the surface and underwater in the remote North Atlantic area. More equipment and personnel are expected to arrive soon, the Coast Guard said Tuesday.

Here's where things stand:

Here's a look at how deep the submersible was going:

A friend of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, one of the passengers on the missing submersible, described the French ex-Navy officer as someone with deep knowledge of the Titanic and a person who accepted the risk that came with these expeditions.

Mathieu Johann, a friend of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, said he hopes its an end "like in the movies, he’ll reappear very quickly to reassure us all.”

Johann is a Director at Harper Collins France and worked with Nargeolet on his book about the Titanic.

Nargeolet “became attached to its history" and the mysteries that may be inside the wreckage, he said.

“I know that his big thing is trying to find out what’s in the Titanic’s safe. I hope with all my heart that one day he’ll manage to penetrate that vault, which remains full of mystery 4000 meters under the sea," Johann said. "He’s also been married to the Titanic for 30 years. So I hope he’s still going to teach us lots of things because he’s a great man, humble and passionate and fascinating," he added.

Johann described Nargeolet as someone who “risked his life all his life" and that although he knew diving to the Titanic wreck is risky, it was just part of his daily life.

King Charles III has requested to be kept fully up to date regarding the submersible that went missing on a trip to view wreckage of the Titanic, a royal source said.

Shahzada Dawood, who is one of the people on board the missing submersible, is a longtime supporter of The Prince’s Trust International and The British Asian Trust, according to the source.

The source said the King’s thoughts and prayers are with the Dawood family, as well as those involved in the attempted recovery operation.

The US Navy is sending subject matter experts and a “Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS)” to assist in the search and rescue of a tour sub that has been missing since Sunday, a spokesperson said Tuesday. 

The FADOSS is a “motion compensated lift system designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels,” the spokesperson said.

A Navy information page on the FADOSS says it can lift up to 60,000 pounds. 

The equipment and personnel are expected to arrive at St. John’s by Tuesday night and will be in support of the US Coast Guard.

The Coast Guard said Tuesday that the search has not yielded anything so far, but it is continuing to look both on the surface and underwater for the missing submersible. Officials estimated that the crew onboard has "about 40 hours of breathable air left."

Ret. US Air Force Col. Terry Virts said his friend, who is a passenger on the missing submersible, was "very excited" about the trip to view the wreckage from the Titanic.

Virts recalled the "brief" conversation via text message with Hamish Harding ahead of the voyage.

Virts described Harding as an adventurer who had been on trips including the South Pole, the Mariana Trench and outer space.

"While he's down at the bottom of the ocean waiting for rescue, he's probably planning out his next exploration adventure," Virts said.

He said Harding's past adventuring experiences could help to serve him in his current situation.

He added that the calmer the five passengers are in the submersible, "the longer their oxygen supply will last and they certainly realize that."

Coast Guard officials said Tuesday they estimated there is "about 40 hours of breathable air left."

The US military is moving military and commercial assets to help in the ongoing search efforts for the missing submersible, according to the Coast Guard and US Transportation Command.

The Navy’s Supervisor of Salvage and Diving is working with US Transportation Command to bring “more capable assets” into the search, Capt. Jamie Frederick of the First Coast Guard District said Tuesday. The assets will be moved first to St. John’s in Canada and then taken to the search area. 

The Navy command has advanced remotely operated dive vehicles capable of operating at the extreme depths required in this search effort. 

“The Navy is working to coordinate assets with the USCG and the unified command. We will give you more details as we get assets and personnel in place,” according to a Navy spokesperson.

There will also be three flights from Buffalo, New York, to St. John's today carrying commercial cargo that may be able to assist in the search and rescue efforts, a spokesman for TRANSCOM told CNN.

It is unclear at this time what assets or equipment are on the flights or to whom they belong. 

“U.S. Transportation Command is coordinating authorized planning and support of DoD assistance and transport of assets in the location and recovery of a disabled commercial-owned manned submersible in the Atlantic Ocean,” a TRANSCOM spokesperson said in a statement.

The defense department is also assisting, Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said.

Two C-130 aircraft were assisting in search and rescue flights over the area on Monday, and an Air National Guard C-130 would be joining the efforts Tuesday, she said.

“[B]y the end of today, we would have committed three C-130s to conducting search and rescue flights,” Singh said. “In addition to that, the Navy has been in touch with the Coast Guard and is working to provide personnel such as subject matter experts and assets as quickly as possible.” 

“I believe that we are doing everything we can in terms of surveying the area and that's been the focus of the department right now,” she added.