A submersible carrying five people to the Titanic imploded near the site of the shipwreck and killed everyone on board. The authorities on Thursday (June 22) informed that the search for a missing Titanic-bound submersible has become an investigation due to this new development.
The sliver of hope to find the five men onboard the sub alive was wiped away in the wee hours of Thursday, as the Coast Guard announced that debris had been found roughly 1,600 feet (488 meters) from the Titanic in North Atlantic waters. However, the officials said that the Coast Guard will continue searching near the Titanic wreckage as part of the investigation to find more clues about what happened to the Titan.
The US-based firm OceanGate Expeditions, which owned and operated the submersible, in a statement informed that all five people in the vessel, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush, “have sadly been lost.”
The ill-fated vessel lost contact with the support ship on the surface after an hour and 45 minutes into the dive to the world’s most famous shipwreck area.
The other four on board the vessel were British adventurer Hamish Harding; two members of a prominent Pakistani family, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
Who was on board the Titanic sub?
STOCKTON RUSH, 61
Stockton Rush was the Titan’s pilot and the CEO of the company that owned the ill-fated submersible. According to his company biography, he flew commercial jets in college and was the youngest jet transport-rated pilot in the world at age 19. In his career which spans over 20 years, Rush oversaw the development of multiple successful IP ventures. Greg Stone, a friend of Rush, called him “a real pioneer” in the innovation of submersibles and “a risk-taker”.
HAMISH HARDINGA, 58
Harding was a British businessman who was currently residing in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. Harding was a billionaire adventurer who held three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel. Harding also went into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket in June 2022.
SHAHZADA, 48, AND SULEMAN DAWOOD, 19
Father-and-son duo – Shahzada and Suleman Dawood – were members of one of the most prominent families from Pakistan. Shahzada Dawood owned a firm, Dawood Hercules Corp., based in Karachi and held many other prominent titles in his name. According to the reports, the Dawoods lived in the United Kingdom. Shahzada Dawood had degrees from the University of Buckingham in the UK and Philadelphia University in the US. The Dawood family also has strong ties with the Pakistani government.
PAUL-HENRI NARGEOLET, 77
Over several decades, Nargeolet, who was a former French navy officer, had made multiple trips to the wreckage and was considered a Titanic expert. According to his company profile, Nargeolet had completed 37 dives to the wreck and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts. He was director of underwater research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic Inc.