Hamish Harding looks out to sea before boarding the submersible Titan for a dive into the Atlantic Ocean on an expedition to the Titanic on Sunday, June 18, 2023. Photo / AP
Hamish Harding looks out to sea before boarding the submersible Titan for a dive into the Atlantic Ocean on an expedition to the Titanic on Sunday, June 18, 2023. Photo / AP
The Titan submersible was reported missing to the US Coast Guard on Sunday at 5.40pm ET, eight hours after the Polar Prince, the boat the submersible launched from, lost contact with it.
Kathleen Cosnett, a cousin of Harding, criticised operating company OceanGate’s delay in raising the alarm with the Coast Guard.
“It’s very frightening,” Cosnett, 69, told The Telegraph. “[It] took so long for them to get going to rescue [them], it’s far too long. I would have thought three hours would be the bare minimum.”
She added that it was “worrying” that her cousin and the other four passengers on the submersible “may not have any extra oxygen left”.
They include two other British passengers, Shahzada Dawood, 48, a wealthy and prominent British-Pakistani businessman and his son, Suleman, 19.
Also aboard are the veteran French diver Paul Henri Nargeolet, 77, and Stockton Rush, 61, the founder of the vessel’s US-based operating company OceanGate.
“I heard the sub had lost contact through family who were in contact with them [OceanGate] roughly when I was going to sleep [at around 11pm]”, he told the Telegraph.
“At that time we as a family started scrambling to spread the word and get help. And we did call the UK Coastguard and Foreign [Commonwealth and Development] Office. We called them very early on.”
Evans, who is also godfather to Harding’s elder son, said: “We are very close – Hamish, his two sons and I.
This photo provided by OceanGate Expeditions shows the Titan used to visit the wreckage site of the Titanic. Photo / AP
“To me, Hamish is an incredible man. He’s always been really good to me, in recent years he had more of a public image. But I’ve known him since I was a kid – he took me on adventures, skiing, scuba diving, and to Machu Picchu. He was just incredibly good to me.
“He’s been like a father to me. A second father you could say. We are all still remaining hopeful. We are still in the middle of the rescue.”
The US Coast Guard on Wednesday insisted they were hopeful the vessel would be found, but experts warned even if the Titan is located, it could take up to three hours to return it to the water’s surface.
An experienced British Royal Navy submariner has been deployed to Boston as part of the rescue effort.
Lieutenant Commander Rich Kantharia, an exchange officer who was serving at a US submarine base in Norfolk, Virginia, has been embedded in the rescue team to “support the search and rescue effort, share UK expertise and act as a point of UK liaison”, a British Government official said.
Captain Jamie Frederick of the US Coast Guard said: “We don’t know what they are, to be frank with you.
“What I can tell you is, we’re searching in the area where the noises were detected, and we’ll continue to do so”.
A French underwater robot capable of reaching the depth of the Titanic wreck, which lies more than two miles below the water’s surface, was due to arrive at the search site on Wednesday night.
It came as a German adventurer who participated in the tour two years ago, said he was “incredibly lucky” to survive the voyage, which he described it as a “suicide mission”.
