Titanic Sub Passenger's Stepson Reveals Family's 'Nightmare' 4-Day Search: 'We Were Just So Hopeful'

The stepson of one of the passengers who died aboard the Titan submersible (not the already infamous Brian Szasz) opened up about the “nightmare” that was the past few days while anxiously awaiting any sort of news about the victims on board.

John Paschall spoke with SkyNews on Friday about his now-deceased stepfather Paul-Henri Nargeolet, recalling how the “fearless” French sub pilot had taken numerous trips to the Titanic wreckage in the past. He shared that Paul-Henri told him back in May that he planned to head down to the shipwreck site. John didn’t know the exact day of his stepdad’s voyage, but they had plans to meet up again in early July.

However, the Titan submersible carrying Paul-Henri and four other passengers — Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, Suleman Dawood, and OceanGate‘s own CEO Stockton Rush — went missing on Sunday, prompting a massive search mission. John told SkyNews that he and his family were “so hopeful” that Paul-Henri and the others were still alive up until Thursday morning, especially when they heard that there were “banging sounds” detected by sonar equipment near where the sub first vanished. He said:

“As you can probably imagine, to me I feel like I’ve been living a nightmare. Just every day, every bit of info, you hang on to it — from noises to other info and we were just so hopeful. And I think that’s what was carrying us through the early stages and even into Thursday morning. We were just so hopeful that with the right equipment [getting] there they’d be able to find the Titan intact with them in there and they’d still be here with us.”

Four days later, though, it was confirmed that the vessel had imploded, killing all five passengers. Not only that, it seems it happened very early on in the descent, so all that hope was false.

Upon hearing the news, John said he and his family were left completely heartbroken:

“Myself personally I had moments of picturing what I’d say to him when I saw him. The things we would talk about. The dinner we would have. The celebratory drinks that he was still here. But I was so focused on those moments of how special it would be to be with him again. Unfortunately, our hearts were broken Thursday morning when we got news of the debris. It’s been incredibly difficult since then for myself and his children and his wife and everyone in his family.”

We cannot imagine the pain John’s family and the other victims’ loved ones must be feeling right now. Our hearts continue to go out to them during this difficult time. You can watch John’s entire conversation with SkyNews below: