SEEKING ANSWERS

Titanic Group Asks if It Was Misled to Get Paul-Henri Nargeolet on Deadly Dive

The foundation says it’s questioning information it received from OceanGate.

The Titanic foundation that worked with French deep sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet says it is now questioning the safety claims made by OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush before the disastrous dive in which his submersible imploded. RMS Titanic, Inc. President Jessica Sanders, who described Rush as a “cavalier guy,” told the New York Post that the foundation is now reviewing past records and questioning Rush’s statements. “We have now our own internal questions about the representations [OceanGate] made that we made the basis on giving PH the OK to go,” Sanders said. “We’re going back and looking at that now ourselves internally, because there were representations not only made to us, but made to the court, that now we have to go back and verify because of these stories that are coming up that question them.” Nargeolet, Rush, and three others died aboard the Titan submersible during its excursion to the wreck of the Titanic on June 18. Concerns about the vessel’s safety had been raised years prior to the doomed dive, with Rush telling would-be passengers the trip would be “way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving.”