Oceangate Submersible: All You Need To Know About The Late Billionaires

OceanGate on Thursday said that all five billionaires onboard a missing submersible near the wreck of the Titanic have been lost.

The confirmation came a few hours after a “debris field” was discovered by an underwater robot searching near the wreck of the Titanic for the missing submersible.

The small tourist sub had been lost since Sunday, somewhere in a vast swathe of the North Atlantic between the ocean’s surface and more than two miles (nearly four kilometers) below.

READ ALSO: Billionaires Onboard Titanic Submersible Dead

The CEO of the submersible company, a British billionaire explorer, a French diver and a father and son were all on board.

Here are the things to o ow about the dead billionaires;

Hamish Harding, 58

The British adventurer ran Action Aviation, a Dubai-based private jet dealership, and completed several exploration feats.

He visited the South Pole multiple times – once with former astronaut Buzz Aldrin – and flew into space in 2022 on board Blue Origin’s fifth human-crewed flight.

He held three Guinness World Records, including longest time spent at full ocean depth during a dive to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench.

In summer 2022, he told Business Aviation Magazine that he grew up in Hong Kong, qualified as a pilot in the mid-1980s while studying at Cambridge, and set up his aircraft firm after making money in banking software.

He said the Titanic dive had been meant to take place in June 2022 but was delayed because “the submersible was unfortunately damaged on its previous dive”. He said no-one was injured in the incident.

Shahzada Dawood, 48, and Suleman Dawood, 19

British businessman Shahzada Dawood was from one of Pakistan’s richest families. He was travelling on the sub with his son Suleman, a student.

Mr Dawood lived with his wife, Christine, and other child, Alina, in Surbiton, south-west London. The family were spending a month in Canada prior to the dive.

Shahzada was vice-chairman of Pakistani conglomerate Engro Corporation, which is a large fertiliser firm.

He worked with his family’s Dawood Foundation, as well as the SETI Institute, a California-based research organisation which searches for extra-terrestrial life.

Shahzada was also a supporter of two charities founded by King Charles III – the British Asian Trust and the Prince’s

Suleman his son was a student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, where he had just completed his first year at the university’s Business School.

A family statement described the teenager as a “big fan of science fiction literature and learning new things”, and having an interest in Rubik’s cubes and playing volleyball.

He recently graduated from ACS International School Cobham in Surrey.

Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77

Also on board was Mr Nargeolet, a former French Navy diver.

Nicknamed Mr Titanic, he reportedly spent more time at the wreck than any other explorer and was part of the first expedition to visit it in 1987, just two years after it was found.

He was director of underwater research at a company that owns the rights to the Titanic wreck.

According to a company profile, Mr Nargeolet supervised the recovery of thousands of Titanic artefacts, including the “big piece”, a 20-tonne section of the boat’s hull.

Family spokesman Mathieu Johann described Mr Nargeolet as a “super-hero for us in France”.

“He is the world specialist on the Titanic, its conception, the shipwreck, he has dived in four corners of the world,” he told Reuters.

Shortly before boarding the sub, Mr Nargeolet said he had been looking forward to an expedition next year to recover objects from the wreck, he added.

Mr Nargeolet’s wife, Anne, who is French, lives in Connecticut, while his children live outside of France, according to Reuters.

Stockton Rush, 61

Stockton Rush was the chief executive of OceanGate, the firm which runs the Titanic voyages, and the company confirmed he was on board.

He was an experienced engineer who has previously designed an experimental aircraft and worked on other small submersible vessels.

Mr Rush founded the company in 2009, offering customers a chance to experience deep sea travel, and made global headlines in 2021 when it began offering trips to the site of the Titanic wreck.

For $250,000 (£195,600), his company offers passengers the opportunity to get an up-close glimpse of what remains of the famous ship.

Participants travel some 370 miles (595km) on a larger ship to the area above the wreck site, then do an eight-hour dive to the Titanic on a truck-sized submersible known as Titan.

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