The five crew members who were on board the submersible that went missing since Sunday, while on an expedition to explore the wreckage of the Titanic in the North Atlantic may have died.
Three of the crew members — Hamish Harding, Stockton Rush and Shahzada Dawood — were top businessmen in their respective fields.
The others were Suleman (Dawood’s 19-year-old son) who was a science fiction fan and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French adventurer and a Titanic expert, who led six expeditions to the ship’s wreckage site.
The five crew members on board the missing submersible Titan died in a “catastrophic implosion” according to the US Coast Guard.
“A remotely operated vehicle located pieces of debris from the Titan on the seabed about 500metres from the bow of the Titanic wreck on Thursday morning,” John Mauger, First Coast Guard District commander, said at a press briefing on Thursday.
“The debris was analysed and confirmed to belong to the Titan, and family members were informed there had been no survivors. The bodies of the five deceased crew members may never be found,” he added.
Read also: Men who went missing while tracking Titanic declared dead
Here are further details of the businessmen
Hamish Harding
Harding was a British businessman, pilot, explorer and space tourist based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The British billionaire was the founder of Action Group and chairman of Action Aviation, an international aircraft brokerage company with headquarters in Dubai, UAE.
Aside from his business, the 58-year-old held several records with the Guinness Book of World Records, including fastest circumnavigation of Earth via both the geographic poles by airplane, which he and a team accomplished in 2019 in a little over 46 hours and 40 minutes.
Shahzada Dawood
Dawood was a Pakistani and British businessman, investor, and philanthropist.
He was the vice-chairman of the Engro Corporation, a company engaged in manufacturing and marketing fertilizers. He was also a director of the Dawood Hercules Corporation.
Before his death, the 48-year-old had been a trustee of his family-foundation, The Dawood Foundation, which focuses on creating collective change by building interactive spaces for formal and informal learning.
Dawood was married to Christine Dawood with whom he had two children, Suleman (2004–2023) and Alina.
Stockton Rush
Rush was the chief executive officer of the company (OceanGate) that ran the expedition and also the sub’s pilot. In 2009, he founded OceanGate, where he oversees the company’s financial and engineering strategies.
According to his biography at OceanGate, he earned a B.Sc. in aerospace engineering from Princeton University in 1984 and an MBA from the Berkeley Haas School of Business in 1989.
Rush was the youngest person (19 years) to become a jet transport-rated pilot when he earned a DC-8 Type/Captain’s rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute.
He was 61 years old.
