Missing Titanic Submarine Passengers —
A extensive search and rescue effort is continuing in the North Atlantic after a submersible exploring the wreck of the Titanic went missing deep under the ocean on Sunday.
The vessel was sent out by OceanGate Expeditions – a private company that charters tourist trips to explore the wreckage of the Titanic.
During a press conference held on June 20, United States Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick confirmed there were five passengers on board, including an operator and four mission specialists.
Here’s everything to know about the Missing Titanic Submarine Passengers.
Hamish Harding
According to ITV and the BBC, British businessman Hamish Harding is said to have been on board; he previously shared on Instagram on June 17 that he would be a part of the trip.
Harding is a British businessman and pilot based in the United Arab Emirates. He previously told Business Aviation Magazine that he grew up in Hong Kong with his parents before qualifying as a pilot in the mid-1980s while studying at Cambridge University.
The owner of global sales company Action Aviation, Harding has been on several explorations over the years, including visiting the South Pole several times (once with Buzz Aldrin) and going to space as part of the suborbital Blue Origin NS-21 mission in June 2022.
Paul-Henry Nargeolet
NBC News reported that French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet was also on board.
Born in Chamonix, France, Nargeolet lived in Africa for 13 years with his family before returning to France to complete his studies. Afterward, he joined the French Navy where he eventually became a Commander before retiring in 1986 after 22 years of service.
Nicknamed “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet has a long history with the vessel as he was part of the first expedition to visit it in 1987, and has visited it many times since. He also serves as the Director of Underwater Research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic, Inc.
Per his bio on E/M Group, “P.H. has led several expeditions to Titanic, completed 37 dives in the submersible himself, and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts, including the recovery of the “big piece” a 20-ton section of Titanic’s hull (now on display in Las Vegas).”
During a 2019 interview with the Irish Examiner, Nargeolet discussed his involvement with the Titanic wreckage and whether he ever got scared traveling so far down in the ocean.
“If you are 11m or 11km down, if something bad happens, the result is the same,” he told the outlet at the time. “When you’re in very deep water, you’re dead before you realize that something is happening, so it’s just not a problem.”
Stockton Rush
An OceanGate spokesperson confirmed to Fox News that the company’s CEO and co-founder, Stockton Rush, is among the five passengers aboard the submersible “as a member of the crew.”
In addition to being the CEO of OceanGate, Rush is a co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of OceanGate Foundation, “a non-profit organization which aims to catalyze emerging marine technology to further discoveries in marine science, history, and archaeology,” per the company’s website.
The website adds that before founding OceanGate, “Rush became the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world when he obtained his DC-8 Type/Captain’s rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981 at the age of 19.”
Additionally, he served as a DC-8 first officer while studying mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, before joining the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a Flight Test Engineer on the F-15 program in 1984.
A previous Princeton feature on Rush reported that he went on “every one of OceanGate’s dives.” In the feature, he also spoke excitedly about the Titanic expeditions. “Part of what we do is get people to appreciate that most of human history is underwater,” he said.
“If you think about it from an archeological perspective, if you had a caravan of precious items — records, books, gold, or whatever — and you were snowed in on the passes of Mongolia, all that stuff got stolen, pillaged. If you were in a ship carrying King Herod’s possessions to Rome and you sank, [it’s] still there.”
Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood were both aboard the submersible, their family and King Charles’ Prince’s Trust International confirmed to PEOPLE on June 20.
Shahzada is listed online as a trustee at the SETI Institute, a non-profit research organization on life and intelligence in the universe. Per his bio on the website, he “has an M.Sc. in Global Textile Marketing from Philadelphia University, USA, and an LLB from Buckingham University, UK.” The website also states that Shahzada, a British citizen, “lives in the UK with his wife, Christine, his children Sulaiman and Alina” as well as their dog and cat.
He also works with the Prince’s Trust International and The British Asian Trust, set up by King Charles.
“Prince’s Trust International has a longstanding relationship with Shahzada Dawood and his family,” DEO Will Straw said in a statement. “We are shocked by this awful news, praying for a rescue and sending our thoughts to his family during this deeply challenging time.”
When did the Titanic tourist submarine go missing?
On June 19, 2023, 11 decades after the sinking of the Titanic, it was reported that the tourist submarine had gone missing.
The sub had set out to visit the wreckage of the doomed Titanic ship on Sunday, June 18, but never returned.
The sub – named Titan – was designed by a team of Nasa engineers but is reportedly steered by a reinforced Playstation controller.
There is no GPS system, with crew instead relying on texts from a team above the water.
The sub sends texts to communicate with a team on transport vessel the Polar Prince – which remains above water.
Titan is understood to have lost contact with the Polar Prince just one hour and 45 minutes into its journey to the ocean floor.
On June 21, 2023, banging sounds were heard underwater in the search for the missing vessel, sparking new hope that crew members could be signalling for help.
Searchers said they heard banging in 30-minute intervals while looking for the Titan.
How deep is the Titanic and where did it sink?
The remains of the Titanic are on the ocean floor about 350 nautical miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The wreckage has been sitting 3,800 metres below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean since it sank in 1912.
This equates to a depth of around 12,500 feet.
American oceanographer and marine geologist Robert Ballard and French oceanographer and engineer Jean-Louis Michel discovered the wreck of the Titanic in 1985.
The ship was found lying in two main pieces about 2,000 feet apart. In 2012, the Titanic wreckage was named a Unesco World Heritage site.
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