Billionaire Adventurer Is Among Those on Missing Titanic Sub

Hamish Harding had posted about weather difficulties
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 20, 2023 1:00 AM CDT
Billionaire Adventurer Is on Missing Titanic Sub
This undated photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions in June 2021 shows the company's Titan submersible.   (OceanGate Expeditions via AP, File)

Billionaire British adventurer Hamish Harding is among the five people aboard the submersible that went missing during a dive to the wreckage of the Titanic on Sunday. The 58-year-old chairman of private jet dealer Action Aviation is also a "renowned explorer," the BBC reports. Last year, he flew to space on Blue Origin's fifth human-crewed flight. He's also been to the South Pole multiple times and set three world records, including longest time spent at full ocean depth when he went on a dive to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench. He posted on Facebook Saturday that he was to be a mission specialist aboard the Titanic expedition, which he said would likely be the only manned dive to the wreckage this year.

He said that was "due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years," and said that a "weather window" had just opened up that should allow them to start the dive at 4am local time Sunday. The wreckage sits 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada. US Coast Guard officials lost contact with the submersible about an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, and a Coast Guard official said Monday that he understands the vessel likely had 70 hours left of its 96-hour oxygen supply at that point, Axios reports. Sources tell Sky News two of the others aboard the submersible are French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, chief executive and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that runs the submersible tours. (More Titanic stories.)

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