Sunken Submersible: These Passengers Were Aboard The "titanium" MAIL

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The crash to the bottom of the sea near the Titanic claimed five lives. But who were the men paying $250,000 a head for a ride to death?

The fate of the “Titan” hung in the balance for four days. Numerous search teams with boats, planes, sonar and robotic submarines were looking for the five passengers of the “Titan”, which had problems on the way to the sinking of the Titanic, and contact was suddenly lost.

Since late Thursday night, it has been clear that the submersible had a complete failure near the wreck. It is likely that an implosion or explosion destroyed the submersible and killed its passengers.

➤ Read more: US Navy knew of the fatal end of “Titan” since Sunday

Among others on board was the head of Oceangate, Titan’s operating company, stockton rush. The American businessman founded the company in 2009 with the aim of offering shipwreck diving expeditions. The descendant of two of America’s founding fathers had previously served as a pilot.

Rush’s company Oceangate began taking paying customers to the Titanic wreck in 2021. Among others was the Munich businessman Arthur Loibl 2021 on board with a mission. He spoke about his trip and called the situation “absolutely cruel”.

And: “You have to take into account that they are in a very small space, the body has human needs. They certainly don’t have food or drink with them for 96 hours and then the mental stress (…)”.

The British businessman and adventurer was among the passengers Hamish Harding. Like Rush, the Briton was also a businessman and a pilot. One of his first business achievements was a private airline that operated flights between South America and Antarctica.

Harding himself has been to the South Pole several times, taking American astronauts there, among others. Buzz Aldrin accompanied. With this action, Aldrin set a record. At 86, he was the oldest person to reach the South Pole.

deep sea experience

The Titan cruise wasn’t Harding’s first underwater experience. In 2021 the British dove with them Victor Vescovo in a two-man submarine to Challenger Deep, the deepest point in the Mariana Trench and therefore on land.

Harding not only traveled deep, but also to great heights. In 2022 he was part of the crew of “new pastor“-Space company rocket BlueOrigin. On June 4, 2022, a good year before his death, he traveled into space on a rocket.

Hamish Harding aboard an airplane. The British businessman took his pilot’s license at the age of 19.

Harding has also been active as an animal rights activist, and in September 2022 he organized a custom Boeing 747-400 to transport eight wild cheetahs from Namibia to India to support the reintroduction of the cheetah to India. Cheetahs have been extinct there since 1947.

investor and philanthropist

Also on board the “Titan” was Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and your son Suleman. Dawood has been involved in several companies, including two of his own.

Shahzada Dawood (right) and her son Suleman

The science enthusiast was also a member of the advisory board of the SETI Institute (Search for Extraterrestrial Intellicence). The SETI Institute searches for signs of extraterrestrial life with numerous telescopes. According to the Chron, the 48-year-old is one of the richest men in Pakistan.

Dawood is survived by his wife and one daughter.

The fifth passenger who died is the French deep-sea explorer and Titanic expert. Paul Henry Nargeolet. The Frenchman began his career at the age of 18 in the French Navy, where he served as commander of a diving unit for removing sea mines and later as ship captain and submarine commander.

In 1987, he carried out the first Titanic salvage mission with the two submarine projects Nautile and Cyana. In 1993 he discovered the ship La Lune, which sank in 1664, off Toulon.

30 dives on the Titanic

The French led six sinking expeditions in the North Atlantic. As a submarine leader, he made 30 dives on the Titanic and oversaw the rescue of more than 5,000 objects.

In 2010, he helped search for the flight recorder for the crashed Air France Flight 447.

( kurier.at, kek ) | 06/23/2023, 08:09 am

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