British billionaire Hamish Harding has been named as a passenger on the missing Titanic tourist submarine, according to his stepson.
OceanGate, a company that takes tourists to visit the wreck of the Titanic, has confirmed that five crew members are on board a submersible that has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean.
A company statement reads: “Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families.”
Harding, 58, who is the founder of the billion-dollar Action Group, served as director on the record-breaking mission to orbit the Earth via both poles in 2019.
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The UAE-based Brit has helped break three Guinness World Records:
- 2019 - The fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via both poles
- 2021 - Greatest Distance Covered At Full Ocean Depth
- 2021 - Greatest Duration Spent At Full Ocean Depth
Taking to Facebook, the billionaire's stepson confirmed that he was missing: "Thoughts and prayers for my Mom and Hamish Harding.
"Hamish Harding my stepfather has gone missing on submarine thoughts and prayers."
On June 17, Harding revealed on Instagram that he was 'proud' to be embarking on the mission.
"Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023," he wrote.
"A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow. We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning.
"Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do.
"The team on the sub has a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s including PH Nargeolet."
Well on the OceanGate website, the trips are advertised as a ‘chance to step outside of everyday life and discover something truly extraordinary’.
There are five seats on the submersible, including a pilot and a ‘content expert’ as well as three paying customers.
The dive down to the wreck and back reportedly takes around eight hours.
Earlier today, Boston Coastguard confirmed to the BBC that the submersible was the subject of a search and rescue mission.
The Massachusetts-based lifesavers are leading up the search and rescue mission for the missing submersible, despite the excursion having left from Canada.
The wreck site itself is spread over a relatively small area of the sea floor, some 600 kilometres – around 370 miles – off the coast of Newfoundland.
Anish Vij