Who is Hamish Harding? All we know about the billionaire aboard the missing Titanic submersible

Hamish Harding, a British billionaire, businessman, and explorer was among the five people onboard the tourist submersible Titan that went missing within 1 hour and 45 minutes into its dive. The incident took place on the morning of Sunday, June 18, when the Titan went in search of the Titanic wreckage from Newfoundland.

Currently, an extensive search and rescue operation is ongoing in the mid-Atlantic Ocean, led by the US Coast Guard. Other government agencies, the Canadian Navy, the US Navy, and a few commercial deep-sea firms, including OceanGate, are contributing to the operation.

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Hamish Harding is a businessman and explorer

The 58-year-old UK billionaire Hamish Harding is based in the UAE and is a businessman by profession. He is also a passionate explorer, pilot, aviator, and space tourist. He is married to Linda Harding and has two children and one stepchild.

Born in London in 1964, Hamish Harding earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Natural Sciences and Chemical Engineering from Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is the founder of Action Group and the chairman of Action Aviation, a global aircraft manufacturing company headquartered in Dubai.

Hamish Harding has an Airline Transport Pilots License and rose to fame as a space explorer when he was aboard the Blue Origin NS-21 spacecraft as a crew pilot. The spacecraft successfully orbited the Earth in June 2022.

It created a record for being the fastest private spaceflight to circumnavigate the planet in 10 minutes and 5 seconds via the North Pole and the South Pole.

Prior to that, in July 2019, Hamish Harding was the mission director and crew pilot for the One More Orbit mission as well.

Hamish Harding’s plan to join the tourist submersible was confirmed by him in June last year after his successful space exploration. Before setting sail on Sunday, he even announced on social media that he was proud to be part of “the mission to the wreck of the Titanic.”

He also added that due to the “worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, the mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.”

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The submersible mission was conducted by OceanGate

Originally, the tourist submersible was supposed to dive in from St. John’s in Newfoundland (435 miles south of the Titanic wreckage site) in early May and end its journey by June. However, the expedition got postponed due to unknown reasons. For those unaware, unlike a submarine, a submersible needs a mother ship for launching and recovering purposes.

The expedition was part of OceanGate’s third annual voyage to the Titanic’s wreckage site and aimed to document the route and subsequent sinking of the Titanic on that fateful day in April 1912.

Besides, it was a Canadian vessel named Polar Prince that transported the five tourists and the submersible to the North Atlantic wreckage site.

An expert's detailed analysis of the risks and obstacles involved in the search and rescue operation of the Titan submersible. (Image via Twitter/Brian Allen)

Made up of titanium and filament-wound carbon fiber, the submersible can dive 4000 meters underwater. Not only that, its safety protocol comes with over 96 hours of emergency oxygen supply, and adequate other survival equipment onboard. Additionally, the submersible has an impressive ability to withstand deep underwater pressures.

Currently, the search and rescue operators have deployed remotely operated underwater vehicles capable of reaching a depth of 6000 meters around the original site. However, experts like retired US Navy admiral Chris Parry have said that the search and rescue operation was a challenge as the Titanic wreckage site is inside a trench and will have obstacles such as undulating seabed and debris.

Interestingly, the five tourists paid a significant amount of money (approximately 250,000 dollars) for the eight-day expedition.

French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, and OceanGate Expeditions’ CEO and founder Stockton Rush are also onboard.