(Photo by David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
A tourist submarine carrying five people–including a British billionaire and one of Pakistan’s wealthiest businessmen–has gone missing while searching the wreckage of RMS Titanic, according to CBS News.
It may only have upwards of 50 hours of air time left, per reports.
The missing OceanGate Expeditions submersible Titan has the following members onboard: renowned world explorer Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, father and son, Shahzada and Sulaiman Dawood.
Stockton Rush, the founder of OceanGate Expeditions, is believed to be the fifth person aboard. The vessel lost signal in the Atlantic Ocean, 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The five-person crew submerged Sunday morning (June 18). It lost signal in the Atlantic Ocean 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to a statement provided by Harding’s “Explorer Club.”
It was supposed to resurface Sunday evening around 6:10 p.m. Authorities were notified 25 minutes later, and a rescue operation was initiated after it failed to do so.
The Titan has a four-day emergency oxygen supply, meaning two days of breathable air left as of this article’s publication.
As of Tuesday, ABC News reports that the submarine has likely descended below the levels of NATO rescue crew capabilities. However, the U.S. Coast Guard and Canadian Coast Guard remain involved in rescue efforts.
OceanGate offers eight-day missions to see the Titanic debris for $250,000 per person, but it’s unclear if anyone aboard was a paying customer. The company said it is “exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely.”
But subsequent reports have found that a video game controller, starting price $30, controlled the submarine, raising questions about the submersible’s safety.
Even so, the crew is hardly neophytes regarding danger and exploration. Harding had previously joined Jeff Bezos’s fifth crewed mission into space in June 2022, according to The Independent. He also traveled on the Challenger Deep to the bottom of the ocean.
Meanwhile, New York Times reports that Nargeolet is a French maritime expert who has been on over 35 dives to the Titanic wreck orts.
Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity and one of Pakistan’s wealthiest businessmen, and his 19-year-old son Sulaiman, are also among those onboard the missing submarine.
In a 2019 Smithsonian Magazine profile, Stockton Rush, the fifth person aboard the submersible, complained about “obscenely safe” diving security regulations.
Rush took particular issue with 1993 regulations that placed strict controls on safety standards and who could pilot a submersible.
He characterized these developments as “understandable but illogical” and lamented how little the U.S. government prioritized ocean research.
This is a developing story. Be sure to check in with The Shade Room for more updates as they come.
