Titan sub victim Paul-Henri Nargeolet’s death near Titanic was ‘symbolic,’ says friend

The death of Titan victim Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a noted French Titanic explorer who had traveled to the site of the infamous wreck dozens of times before this week’s doomed expedition, was “symbolic” to contemporaries who knew him.

“We were just talking about the old times,” Larry Daley, a Titanic explorer based out of the Titan’s starting point of St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada, told BBC News of his last meeting with 71-year-old Nargeolet, about two weeks ago.

“He lost his life in a place he so loved, exploring the Titanic. It’s kind of symbolic, in a way.”

The OceanGate submersible was carrying five men, among them Nargeolet, when it began what would be its last descent to the site of the 1912 disaster. Once the sub lost contact with the surface on Sunday, roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes into the mission, crews around the world initiated rescue operations.

On Thursday, the five people on board were presumed dead, with the Coast Guard noting the vessel likely experienced a “catastrophic implosion” just 500 yards from the Titanic itself.

The waiver to board the admittedly “experimental” sub mentions the risk of death a multitude of times, as well as that of disability or bodily injury. The document, obtained by TMZ, is reportedly so comprehensive that it insulates OceanGate from any legal recourse, even if negligence preceded any such consequences.

By signing the waiver, those boarding “agree to defend, indemnify, save and hold harmless” OceanGate.

The other victims of the disaster include 19-year-old Suleman Dawood and his father, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, as well as OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, and British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58.