Wealthy British businessman is onboard missing Titanic tourist submarine

The coastguard said there was a “5 person crew” on the 21-foot craft that lost contact with its base. They have between 70 to 96 hours of air, officials overseeing the search attempt believe.

The firm that runs the trips said it was “exploring and mobilising all options” to bring them back safely.

“Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families,” says OceanGate in a statement.

It says it has received “extensive assistance” from “several government agencies and deep sea companies” in its efforts to re-establish contact with the submersible.

“We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”

Rear Admiral John W Mauger of the US Coast Guard said they are doing “everything” they can to find the five people aboard the submersible vessel.

At a press conference, he said they were conducting a search 900 miles east of Cape Cod in collaboration with the Canadian armed forces and commercial vessels in the area.

“It is a remote area and a challenge but we are deploying all available assets to make sure we can locate the craft and rescue the people onboard,” he said.

He said the submersible vessel has 96 hours of emergency capability, giving a window for rescuers to find the occupants alive.

He said: “We anticipate that there’s somewhere between 70 to the full 96 hours at this point.”

Writing on Facebook yesterday, Hamish Harding said he was due to join the latest OceanGate expedition.

He said a dive was being attempted on Sunday, after a crew had set off from the city of St John’s, Newfoundland on Saturday.

He added the team on the vessel includes “a couple of legendary explorers, some of which have done over 30 dives to the RMS Titanic since the 1980s”.

He added that this trip was “likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic” this year due to the harsh weather conditions.

Wealthy businessman Mr Harding runs a firm Action Aviation, which sells planes, and also runs its own private fleet out of Dubai.

Writing on Facebook, his stepson said: “Hamish Harding my stepfather has gone missing on submarine thoughts and prayers.”

The missing craft is controlled by a Play Station controller and has one window for crew to look through.

Authorities estimated on Monday that those on board have 72 hours of oxygen left on board – with the carrier having a ‘life support’ of 96 hours.

Mr Harding is a holder of three Guinness World Records: longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel, longest distance traversed at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel and fastest circumnavigation via both Poles by aeroplane.

Two of these feats were achieved by Mr Harding and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo when they dived to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench – the deepest part of the ocean – in a two-person deep-submergence vehicle in March 2021.

They spent four hours and 15 minutes traversing the deepest part of the ocean and travelled 2.88 miles at that depth.

Challenger Deep is about 186 miles south west of Guam in the western Pacific Ocean and has a depth in its Eastern Pool of 35,860ft.

In July 2019, Mr Harding was part of a team that achieved the fastest circumnavigation of Earth via both geographic poles by plane with a time of 46 hours, 40 minutes and 22 seconds.

In June last year, he travelled to space with fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin company.

The missing craft takes paying passengers to see the famous wreck which sits 3,800m (12,500ft) down at the bottom of the Atlantic about 600km (370 miles) off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.

It can seat five people which usually includes a pilot, three paying guests, and what the company calls an “content expert”.

The company charges guests $250,000 (£195,270) for its eight-day expedition to see the wreck.

A full dive from the surface to to the wreck reportedly takes eight hours in total.

The passenger liner, which was the largest ship of its time, hit an iceberg on its maiden voyage from Southampton to New York in 1912. Of the 2,200 passengers and crew onboard, more than 1,500 died.

Its tragic fate continues to have a grip on the popular imagination inspiring plays, films and books down the years.