All five men aboard the Titan submarine, which imploded while exploring North Atlantic waters near the Titanic’s wreckage, died in the tragedy, the U.S. Coast Guard announced Thursday.
Know who are the victims of the Titan’s “catastrophic implosion”:
Hamish Harding
British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, was well aware of extreme exploration. Apart from the adventures he took on social networks, little is known about the career and fate of the executive director of the private jet company Action Aviation, founded in 2004. Harding, who graduated in natural sciences and chemical engineering from Cambridge University, traveled to space a year ago, aboard the New Shepard, of Blue Origin, in a ten-minute flight that marked the fifth successful manned mission of the company of Jeff Bezos, his “mentor”.
Harding had several entries in the Guinness Book of Records. One of his achievements, in March 2021, will be diving with another explorer, Victor Vescovo, to the depths of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean known until then, aboard a two-passenger submarine. The mission was the longest conducted at this depth (4 hours and 15 minutes), with the greatest distance traveled (4,600 meters).
He leaves behind a wife, Linda, and two children. One of them, Giles, became the youngest person (12 years old) to travel to the South Pole in 2020, according to information from “The Times”.
Paul Henry Nargeolet
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a 77-year-old French explorer, was a specialist in diving and marine archaeology. A deep-sea explorer, he spent the early part of his career as a naval officer, commanding a group of demining divers in Cherbourg, northwestern France, before becoming a submarine pilot in the French Navy.
He later devoted himself to maritime archeology and was involved in excavations of several shipwrecks. In 1986, he was appointed head of deep-water intervention submarines at the French Marine Research Institute (Ifremer). A year earlier, a team led by American scientist Robert Ballard, in collaboration with Ifremer, had discovered the wreck of the Titanic. In 1987, Nargeolet saw the wreck aboard the French submarine Nautile. Dozens of follow-up dives were made, during which hundreds of objects were found. The last immersions took place in the summer of 2021.
Shahzada and Suleman Dawood
Also on board the submarine were an important Pakistani businessman and his son, the family said in a statement. They are Shahzada Dawood, age 48, vice president of conglomerate Engro, based in Karachi, South Pakistan, and his son Suleman, age 19, both British citizens. Engro has investments in various sectors, including energy, agriculture, petrochemicals and telecommunications.
stockton rush
The fifth occupant was American Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, a company he founded in 2009 and was responsible for the journey.
Described as “a fearless inventor” by “The Smithsonian” magazine, Rush began taking clients to the wreckage of the Titanic aboard his custom-designed submarine in 2021. Rush said the visit to the wreck was part of a marketing strategy while looking for innovations for submersibles.
According to the company’s website, the American began his career in 1981, as the youngest fighter jet pilot in the world, aged 19. In 1984 he became a test flight engineer on F-15 fighters for McDonnell Douglas. However, over the past 20 years, he has been involved with several ocean-related technology companies, including BlueView Technologies, which produces small-scale high-frequency sonar systems.
Source: DN
