BOSTON, USA – The U.S. Coast Guard, along with OceanGate Expeditions, announced on Thursday, June 22, 2023, that the five individuals onboard the Titan submersible, which lost contact with its support ship during a dive to the Titanic wreckage site, are believed to be deceased. Here are profiles of the passengers onboard the Titan submersible.
1. Stockton Rush
Stockton Rush was the founder and CEO of OceanGate Expeditions and was piloting the Titan. A descendant of Benjamin Rush and Richard Stockton, both signers of the Declaration of Independence, Rush graduated from Princeton with an aerospace engineering degree in 1984. In 2009, he founded OceanGate, based in Everett, Washington. In an interview with CBS in November last year, he expressed his lifelong desire for exploration, likening his aspirations to those of Captain Kirk from Star Trek.
2. Hamish Harding
Hamish Harding, 58, was a British businessman and explorer who held several Guinness World Records, including one for the longest time spent exploring the ocean’s deepest part on a single dive. He served as the chairman of Action Aviation, an air operations and sales company based in Dubai. Harding had also traveled to space aboard a Blue Origin rocket and participated in a cheetah reintroduction program in India. Additionally, he held a world record for the fastest circumnavigation of Earth via both poles by aircraft.
3. Paul-Henri Nargeolet
Paul-Henri Nargeolet was a French maritime expert who had completed more than 35 dives to the Titanic wreck site. He served as the director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, Inc., an American company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic and exhibits recovered artifacts. The company conducted eight research and recovery expeditions between 1987 and 2010.
4. Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood
Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, Suleman Dawood, 19, were British-Pakistani businessmen and members of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families. Shahzada Dawood had a background in textiles and fertilizer manufacturing. His son Suleman was studying business at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. The Dawoods were on the Titan to visit the Titanic remains. Shahzada was also on the board of trustees for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute and was a resident of Britain and a father of two.
The maritime community and the families of the deceased are mourning this tragic event. Investigations into the cause of the submersible’s implosion and the circumstances leading to the accident are ongoing.
