The news available to xorlali.com has it that the company that organized the trip has revealed that the five people who were on board a submersible that vanished while on an expedition to investigate the Titanic’s wreckage did not make it out alive.
British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Suleman, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, the company that owns and operates the vessel, were among the people traveling on the 21-foot sub.
“We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet have sadly been lost,” OceanGate said in a statement to CBS News. “These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans.”
The trip was advertised by OceanGate as an opportunity to “become one of the few to see the Titanic with your own eyes.” According to the company, reserving a seat on the ship cost $250,000. The company promoted the trip as a scientific dive rather than just a vacation.
Rush told CBS News last year that despite the high ticket prices, the tours draw attendees from all socioeconomic backgrounds. “Some people have mortgaged their homes to travel with us. And some wouldn’t hesitate to take a trip at this cost, he continued.
“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,” he noted.
Table of Contents
Titanic submarine passengers
Here’s what to know about the Titanic submarine passengers who lost their lives;
Hamish Harding, chairman of Action Aviation
Harding was the chairman of Action Aviation, which sells aircraft to Fortune 100 companies, international corporations, heads of state, and people in the entertainment and sports industries, according to its website.
The British entrepreneur is referred to as a billionaire in the British press, but Forbes magazine pointed out that he isn’t on its list of the world’s richest people.
Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate
Rush was both the sub’s captain and the CEO of the organization overseeing the expedition.
According to Rush’s biography on OceanGate, when he received a DC-8 Type/Captain’s rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute at the age of 19, he became the youngest person to obtain a jet transport rating.
Rush graduated from Princeton University with a degree in aerospace engineering in 1984, and the Berkeley Haas School of Business awarded him an MBA in 1989. According to the business, Rush founded OceanGate in 2009, where he is in charge of the organization’s engineering and financial plans.
Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood
Shahzada Dawood, 48, served as vice chairman of Dawood Hercules, an investment and holding company with its headquarters in Karachi, Pakistan.
According to his biography at the SETI Institute, where he also served on the board, Dawood Hercules is a member of the Dawood Group, a family-run business that has been around for more than a century. According to the New York Times, Dawood was the heir to one of the wealthiest family fortunes in Pakistan.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet, “Titanic’s Greatest Explorer”
On the OceanGate website, Nargeolet is described as a Titanic specialist. As “Titanic’s Greatest Explorer,” he oversaw six expeditions to the ship’s wreck, according to the company.
The American company RMS Titanic, which owns the salvage rights to the wreck and runs exhibits featuring ship artifacts, also employed Nargeolet as its director of underwater research. The company claims that about 30 million people have seen its exhibits.