A renowned Titanic expert, a world-record-holding adventurer, two members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families and the CEO of the company leading an expedition to the world’s most famous shipwreck are facing critical danger aboard a small submersible that has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean.
The submersible Titan was reported overdue on Sunday night about 700 kilometres south of St John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center, spurring a desperate international rescue effort.
Rescuers have been racing against the clock because the oxygen supply may soon run out.
The expedition was led by OceanGate, making its third voyage to the Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing 1,500 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew.
A pilot and four other people are on the Titan. They are:
Stockton Rush
Although his background is in aerospace and technology, Mr Rush founded OceanGate in 2009 to provide crewed submersibles for undersea researchers and explorers, according to the company’s website.
Company spokesperson Andrew Von Kerens said Mr Rush was the Titan’s pilot.
The private company based in Washington started bringing tourists to the Titanic in 2021 as part of its effort to chronicle the slow deterioration of the wreck.
“The ocean is taking this thing, and we need to document it before it all disappears or becomes unrecognisable,” Mr Rush told The Associated Press in 2021.
In an interview with CBS News last year, Mr Rush defended the safety of his submersible but said nothing was without risk.
“What I worry about most are things that will stop me from being able to get to the surface — overhangs, fish nets, entanglement hazard,” he said, adding that a good pilot could avoid such perils.
Mr Rush became the youngest jet-transport-rated pilot in the world at age 19 in 1981, and flew commercial jets in college, according to his company biography.
He joined the McDonnell Douglas Corporation in 1984 as a flight test engineer. Over the past 20 years, he has overseen the development of multiple successful IP ventures.
Greg Stone, a longtime ocean scientist and a friend of Mr Rush, called him “a real pioneer” in the innovation of submersibles.
“Stockton was a risk-taker. He was smart. He was, he had a vision, he wanted to push things forward,” Mr Stone said on Tuesday.
Hamish Harding
A British businessman, Mr Harding lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Action Aviation, an aircraft-brokering company for which Mr Harding serves as chairman, said he was one of the mission specialists on the submersible and had paid to go on the expedition.
Mr Harding is a billionaire adventurer who holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel. In March 2021, he and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench.
In June 2022, he went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket.
“Both the Harding family and the team at Action Aviation are very grateful for all the kind messages of concern and support from our friends and colleagues,” the company said in a statement.
In a Facebook post on Saturday, Mr Harding said he was “proud” to be part of the mission.
“Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023,” he posted. “A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive [on Sunday].”
Mr Harding was “looking forward to conducting research” at the Titanic site, said Richard Garriott de Cayeux, the president of The Explorers Club, a group to which Mr Harding belongs.
“We all join in the fervent hope that the submersible is located as quickly as possible,” he said in a statement.
Shahzada and Suleman Dawood
Father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood are members of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families. Their family said in a statement that they were both on the Titan.
“We are very grateful for the concern being shown by our colleagues and friends and would like to request everyone to pray for their safety while granting the family privacy at this time,” the statement said.
“The family is well looked after and are praying to Allah for the safe return of their family members.”
Their firm, Dawood Hercules Corporation, based in Karachi, is involved in agriculture, petrochemicals and telecommunication infrastructure.
Shahzada Dawood also is on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute, which searches for extraterrestrial intelligence. The Dawoods live in the UK, according to SETI.
Shahzada Dawood is also a member of the Global Advisory Board at the Prince’s Trust International, founded by Britain’s King Charles III to address youth unemployment.
He has degrees from the University of Buckingham in the United Kingdom and Philadelphia University (now Thomas Jefferson University) in the US.
Paul-Henry Nargeolet
Mr Nargeolet is a former French navy officer who is considered a Titanic expert after making multiple trips to the wreckage over several decades.
David Gallo, a senior adviser for strategic initiatives and special projects at RMS Titanic, said in an interview with CNN that Mr Nargeolet was on board.
He is the director of underwater research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic, has completed 37 dives to the wreck and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artefacts, according to his company profile.
He was expedition leader on the most technologically advanced dive to the Titanic in 2010 — a mission that used high-resolution sonar and 3D optical imaging on the bow and stern sections as well as the debris field.
While with the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of Sea, he led the first recovery expedition to the Titanic in 1987.
