9:41 pm ET, June 21, 2023
This is the man on the missing submarine
From CNN staff
The Titanic submarine was carrying five people when it lost contact with its mother ship for 1 hour and 45 minutes on Sunday to investigate the Titanic wreck, officials said.
Here’s what we know about the people on board:
Paul-Henri NarjoletA French diver with decades of experience exploring the Titanic was aboard, her family said.
Norjolet RMS Titanic Inc. serves as Director of Underwater Research, which has exclusive rights to salvage artifacts from the ship. According to his biography on the company’s website, Narjolet completed 35 dives to wrecks and oversaw the recovery of 5,000 artifacts. He spent 22 years in the French Navy, where he rose to the rank of commander, according to the website.
British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding aboard the submarine, his company Action Aviation said in a social media statement.
Harding made headlines in 2019 for being part of a flight crew that broke the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe via the two poles. In 2020, he became one of the first people to dive to the Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, widely believed to be the deepest point in the world’s oceans. Last year, he paid an undisclosed amount for a seat on a Blue Origin space flight.
The family of Shahjata Dawood and his son, Sulaiman Dawood, said both are on board. The family statement said the two “travelled to visit the remains of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean”.
The Dawoods are a prominent Pakistani business family. Dawood Hercules Corporation, their business, is one of the largest in the country, with a portfolio that includes energy, petrochemicals, fertilizers, information technology, food and agriculture.
CEO and Founder of OceanGate Stockton Rush One of the five people on board the plane, according to a source with knowledge of the mission plan.
The company did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment on Rush being on board. According to the company’s social media posts, he previously operated the missing ship “Titan”.
