The Titan Sub that dove into the ocean to glimpse the historic vessel that sank in 1912 was recently confirmed to have catastrophically imploded. Learn more about the life of the five victims before the tragic blast.
In a statement on Thursday, the company that developed the submersible vessel said that the passengers were "true explorers" who shared a unique spirit of adventure. It added that they all had a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans.
The confirmed deceased include British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani investor Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
Hamish Harding
Before the incident, Harding was the chairman of Action Aviation, an aviation sales and consulting company. His friend retired NASA astronaut Terry Virts, said that Harding was, by nature, an explorer.
He previously broke the Guinness world record for the fastest flight around our planet's poles in 2019, an achievement that included Virts as a crew member. Furthermore, Harding broke Guinness world records for the longest duration at a full ocean depth by a crewed vessel and the longest distance traveled along the deepest part of the ocean, as per NPR.
Shahzada Dawood
On the other hand, Shahzada is known as the vice chairman of Engro, a Pakistani energy investment company, and Dawood Hercules Corp., an investment and holdings firm.
He was said to be skilled in mergers and acquisitions in companies across various industries, including textiles, fertilizers, foods, and energy. His son, 19-year-old Suleman, was a college student and had only recently finished his first year as a business major at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, Scotland.
Suleman Dawood
In the days before the launch, Suleman expressed hesitation about going with his father on the submersible. In an interview, his aunt said that the younger Dawood "wasn't very up for it" and noted he was "terrified" about going on the trip to explore the Titanic's wreckage.
However, the teenager eventually agreed to go on the trip because it fell over Father's Day weekend, and he wanted to make his dad happy. According to NBC News, the latter was known to be passionate about the lore surrounding the submerged vessel.
Stockton Rush
The most famous of the group of passengers was Rush, who founded OceanGate in 2009 and oversaw the development of various submersibles that would be found capable of traveling up to 20,000 feet below the surface of the Earth's oceans.
Rush became the youngest jet transport-rated pilot in the world in 1981 at the age of 19 years, which had him fly to destinations such as Cairo, Mumbai, and Zurich. He also had a bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering from Princeton University and a business master's degree from UC Berkeley.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet
Also known as "Mr. Titanic" for his knowledge of the historic vessel, Nargeolet spent more than two decades with the French Navy and later became commander. In 1986, he retired and oversaw two deep-sea submersibles at the French Institute for Research and Exploitation of the Sea.
Nargeolet previously completed 37 dives in a submersible that traveled to the wreckage of the Titanic and supervised the retrieval of 5,000 of its artifacts. Mr. Titanic was born in Chamonix, France, but later spent more than a decade of his young life in Africa with his family before returning to France when he was 16.
A development regarding the incident came as Mike Reiss, who previously completed four dives with OceanGate's submersible, has spoken out. He said that they lost contact with the host ship on all of his four 10-hour dives inside the sub.
He noted that it took his crew three hours without GPS to find the Titanic despite landing only 500 yards from the vessel. Reiss added that he signed a "waiver that mentions death three times on the first page," said ABC News.
