The United States, Canada and France are in a frenetic race to find alive the five passengers on the tiny Titan submarine that has disappeared near the Titanic wreck with “about 40 hours” of oxygen left.
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The five men are:
– French Paul Henri Nargeolet77 years old, specialist in deep sea diving and passionate about marine archeology.
AFP
An explorer of the seabed, he spent the early part of his career as a naval officer. He was commander of the combat diving group in Cherbourg (north-west France) and subsequently became a submarine pilot in the French Navy. He then devoted himself to marine archeology and excavated several wrecks.
In 1986 he became responsible for the deep-deployment submarines of the French Research Institute for the Exploitation of the Sea (Ifremer). A year earlier, a team led by American scientist Robert Ballard, working with Ifremer, had found the wreck of the Titanic.
As early as 1987, Paul-Henri Nargeolet saw wreckage on board the French submarine Nautile. Dozens of dives followed, which notably allowed the recovery of several hundred objects. The latest date goes back to the summer of 2021.
– The British businessman Hamish HardingThe 58-year-old is also familiar with extreme exploration tours. Apart from his adventures, which he shares on social media, few details are known about the career and fortune of the CEO of private jet distribution company Action Aviation, founded in 2004.
AFP
Hamish Harding, a graduate in science and chemical engineering from the University of Cambridge, flew a year ago aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket for a 10-minute flight into space. This was the fifth successful manned mission for the company of Jeff Bezos, his “mentor”.
He is mentioned several times in the Guinness Book of Records. His exploits included diving with another explorer, Victor Vescovo, aboard a two-seater submersible in March 2021 to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the ocean known to date. This mission was the longest at this depth (4 hours and 15 minutes) and the longest distance traveled (4600 meters).
He has two sons with his wife Linda, including Giles, who at age 12 became the youngest person to travel to the South Pole in 2020, the Times reports.
– Also on board the submersible were a well-known Pakistani businessman and his son, her family said in a statement. It is Shahzada Dawood48, vice chairman of conglomerate Engro, based in Karachi, southern Pakistan, and his son Suleiman19 years old, both British citizens.
PHOTO BY FACEBOOK/CHRISTINE DAWOOD
Engro invests in several business areas: energy, agriculture, petrochemicals and telecommunications.
– According to the media, this is the fifth person whose presence on board has not been confirmed by official sources Stockton Rushthe American boss of OceanGate Expeditions, organizer of the trip and which he founded in 2009.
PHOTO FROM THE OCEANGATE WEBSITE
The venture of what Smithsonian Magazine describes as a “daring inventor” began in 2021, taking paying customers to the wrecks of the Titanic aboard its purpose-built submersible. Stockton Rush said visiting the wreck was part of a marketing strategy as he sought to innovate for submersibles.
According to his company’s website, the American began his career in 1981 at the age of 19 as the world’s youngest jet transport pilot.
In 1984 he became flight test engineer for F-15 fighter aircraft at McDonnell Douglas. But over the past 20 years, he has invested in several marine-related technology companies, including BlueView Technologies, which makes small high-frequency sonar systems.