OceanGate Inc. is a privately held U.S. company operating out of Everett, Washington, that provides crewed submersibles for tourism, industry, research and exploration which was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush.
On sunday, to experience the ocean and Titanic, five people were on board the Titan submersible when it lost contact with its support ship during a dive to the Titanic wreckage site in the North Atlantic where Stockton Rush was Piloting.
The five persons on board are:
Stockton Rush, who is the founder and chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions, the company that operates the missing submersible. He was piloting the vehicle.
Hamish Harding,
He is a British businessman, explorer, the chairman of Action Aviation, a sales and air operations company based in Dubai. He had previously flown to space on a mission by Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket company.
He was among those aboard the submersible, according to Mark Butler, the managing director of Mr. Harding’s company, Action Aviation. He is around 58 and holds several Guinness World Records, including one for the longest time spent traversing the deepest part of the ocean on a single dive, wrote on his Facebook page on Saturday that he was proud to finally announce that he had joined OceanGate’s mission “on the sub going down to the Titanic.”
Paul-Henri Nargeolet
He is the director of underwater research for RMS Titanic, Inc., an American company that owns the salvage rights to the famous wreck and displays many of the artifacts in Titanic exhibitions. The company conducted eight research and recovery expeditions between 1987 and 2010, according to its website.
Shahzada Dawood and Suleman Dawood
The British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, Suleman, 19, are among those aboard the missing submersible, according to a statement from the Engro Corporation, of which Mr. Dawood is a vice chairman.
Mr. Dawood is a scion of one of Pakistan’s wealthiest families, with a background in textiles and fertilizer manufacturing. His son is a business student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, a spokesman for the school confirmed on Thursday.
Mr. Dawood and his son had “embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic” when contact with the vessel was lost, the statement said, asking for prayers for their safe return and privacy for the family.