One of the last messages sent from the doomed Titan submersible during its June 2023 voyage to the Titanic wreckage was "all good here," the Coast Guard said.
The investigation will also examine whether there is any evidence of misconduct or criminal acts in connection with the incident
What is the legal definition of misconduct anyway?
Given that Rush seemed to willfully ignore warnings from experts and fired people unwilling to do things like sign off on the safety of the sub I think there’s definitely a case for misconduct, at the very least.
There was a really good article on this and unfortunately I can't find it now to share
But the gist was that Titan exploited a bunch of loopholes, among other things. The paying customers on the sub were in fact 'marine researchers' who coincidently made a donation, and things like that
Some of the people who were at one point involved but left due to safety concerns raised the issue with OSHA (? - or whoever the more specific body was) who repeatedly failed to investigate or take any action
So for me, whether or not they are able to charge the company, the industry regulators and government bodies overseeing them need to face some questions and judgements too (though it would take a more knowledgeable person than me to know what exactly that looks like)