Posted on 06/19/2023 11:53:11 AM PDT by Red Badger
World-renowned explorer Hamish Harding is among the five people who went missing aboard a tourist submarine visiting the shipwreck of the Titanic Monday morning, his family has confirmed.
Harding’s family said the 58-year-old British millionaire was aboard the missing OceanGate Expeditions submarine on Monday, a day after he shared his excitement about the trip on Instagram.
“We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do,” Harding wrote alongside picture of himself signing a banner celebrating the expedition.
His stepson, Brian Szasz, reposted Harding’s message on Facebook Monday, writing: “Thoughts and prayers for my stepfather Hamish Harding as his Submarine has gone missing exploring Titanic. Search and rescue mission is underway.”
The Boston Coast Guard said an active search was underway for the missing OceanGate Expeditions submarine, which offers tourists a chance to visit the wreck 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, for $250,000.
The visit to the Titanic was poised to be only the latest in Harding’s impressive travel resume, with the explorer previously visiting space aboard the Blue Origin mission last year.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
H. Harding was also part of an expedition that went to the Marianas Trench with his 13 year old son, Giles. That was in July of 2021.
What a fun tour!
Absolutely.
All it takes is smallest crack or pinhole in hull
The vessel will implode faster than say “What the .......”
Wow, never thought about that.
The Joint Rescue Coordination Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia said the vessel was reported overdue around 9:13 p.m. Sunday, about 435 miles (700 kilometres) south of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Lt. Cmdr. Len Hickey said a Canadian Coast Guard vessel and military aircraft were assisting the search effort, which was being led by the U.S. Coast Guard in Boston.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQZPRM8vsFc
David Pogue, a CBS reporter who travelled in the Titan submersible last year, told the BBC about the issues that both the submersible crew and the land crew are likely to be experiencing, saying that there is currently “no way” to communicate with the vessel as neither GPS nor radio “work under water”.
“When the support ship is directly over the sub, they can send short text messages back and forth. Clearly those are no longer getting a response,” Mr Pogue said.
He added that because the passengers are sealed inside the vessel by bolts applied from the outside, “there’s no way to escape, even if you rise to the surface by yourself. You cannot get out of the sub without a crew on the outside letting you out.”
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65953872
I assume they know where the sub is. No details on what the sub was doing at the time. Was it descending to the wreck?
The military would know where as they would have heard the implosion noise.
Hamish Harding is the second person to die after being on a flight on the Blue Origin rocket.
And the story will just have to include an attractive
woman who displays her boobs to everyone. The typical
Hollywood formula.
David Pogue
You may remember that the @OceanGateExped sub to the #Titanic got lost for a few hours LAST summer, too, when I was aboard…Here’s the relevant part of that story. https://t.co/7FhcMs0oeH
faktoider
I assume anyone who wanted to board the Titan had to sign the waiver? ”An experimental submersible vessel, that has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma, or death.” (2:40)
https://twitter.com/faktoider/status/1670902034109800451
My Uncle served in a WWII boat (although in the 50’s), he was a throttle man at 6’ 3”. I remember as a kid he would duck before going through a nomad sized door.
Around 4am on Sunday t lost communication with the sub’s mothership MV Polar Prince an hour and 45 minutes into the two hour descent.....it’s now a terrifying race against time.
Former Coast Guardsman John Mixson told Fox News it was an ‘extremely serious and dire situation’, adding: ‘It’s hard to say whenever you just lose total communications in a situation like that what actually happened until you find the vessel.
‘This isn’t a common occurrence at all. Obviously, something very rapid and very tragic took place.’
Sheesh…normal.
The Titan subs have no way of directing themselves under water. Instead, they rely on text messages from the mothership, instructing them where to go.
The missing tourist sub is classified as a submersible, not a submarine, because it does not function as an autonomous craft, and relies instead on a support platform.
Last year, a CBS journalist was on the mothership when the sub went off course. It was missing for two-and-a-half hours before it returned but none of those onboard were harmed.
Why not just send a submarine down? Wouldn’t radar find it?
The deepest undersea rescue mission ever: Race to get drone to Titanic wreck and search for missing tourist sub in operation that would be 11,000 feet deeper than the deepest successful undersea rescue so far
They should have used 2 tether cables....
I remember the USS Scorpion and Thresher.
Me too....so sad
I think how you feel is actually a perfectly normal human aversion to being trapped in a closed space. I did, however, complete the Disneyland submarine ride without issue!
Hence my use of the term “moderate.” I’ve toured two submarines and I, too, completed the Disneyland ride (and damned proud of it!) . I think the key thing for me is knowing the length of time of confinement. I need to sit in aisle seats on planes, or middle or window, if the adjacent seat is empty
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