A British billionaire explorer is among the five people on board the missing Titanic tourist submarine, somewhere in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
A rescue operation has been underway in search of the submersible vessel, after it submerged Sunday morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later, authorities said.
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British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, founder of OceanGate Expeditions Stockton Rush, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, and the businessman’s son Sulaiman Dawood are feared to be on board.
In a press conference on Tuesday afternoon, US Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick confirmed that the vessel has “40 to 41 hours” of oxygen supply left, meaning it is expected to run out by 5.30am ET (10.30am GMT) on Thursday.
He also suggested that officials do not know if crews will be able to rescue the sub even if they do manage to find it before the oxygen runs out.
Below we look at what we know about the five stranded on the sub.
Hamish Harding
Hamish Harding posted about his plans to travel to see the Titanic wreckage two days before the sub went missing
(Facebook/Hamish Harding)
Hamish Harding is chairman of private plane firm Action Aviation, which said he is one of the mission specialists on the five-person OceanGate Expeditions vessel reported overdue on Sunday evening about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland.
Mr Harding, who has previously travelled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean and on Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin into space, took to Facebook on Saturday to announce that he was joining OceanGate Expeditions for its Titanic mission this week.
On Monday – as news of the missing submersible broke – Mr Harding’s stepson Brian Szasz confirmed that his stepfather was on board the vessel when it went missing.
“Hamish Harding, my step father, has gone missing on submarine. Thoughts and prayers,” he wrote on Facebook, sharing family photos and articles.
The father-of-two is a seasoned explorer and holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel when in March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the…
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