Billionaire Who Paid $250,000 To Join Underwater Titanic Expedition Among Missing In Submersible

A British billionaire is among the five people on board the OceanGate submersible that went missing in the Atlantic Ocean over the weekend.

According to Mediaite, 58-year-old Hamish Harding was one of the passengers, or "mission specialists," of the underwater vessel who paid $250,000 each for the chance to see the wreckage of the Titanic that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1912.

On Sunday, Harding posted on his Instagram account that he would join an OceanGate underwater expedition.

"I am proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic," Harding, the chairperson of Action Aviation, said.

Harding said the mission to get to Titanic is "likely to be the first and only manned mission" going to the ill-fated cruise ship this year, noting that the Canadian province of Newfoundland is experiencing its worst winter in 40 years.

"We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4 a.m. tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do," Harding said.

The British businessman vowed to post more expedition updates "if the weather holds."

In a statement, Richard Garriott de Cayeux, the president of The Explorers Club, a group to which Harding belonged, said the billionaire adventurer was "looking forward to conducting research" at the Titanic.

Garriott said his group hopes the missing submersible is "located as quickly as possible," the Associated Press reported.

Harding holds three Guinness World Records, including the longest duration at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel.

In March 2021, Harding and ocean explorer Victor Vescovo went to the lowest depth of the Mariana Trench.

Last year, Harding went to space on board Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.

On Monday, U.S. Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said an international search-and-rescue effort is ongoing to locate the missing Titan submersible.

The search operation is currently taking place in water about 13,000 feet deep and 900 miles off Cape Cod in Massachusetts, Mauger said.

The coast guard official noted that the mission to find the missing craft is challenging since they are scouring a remote area.

Mark Butler, the managing director of Harding's Action Aviation, expressed concern over the fate of the submersible since it has only "80 plus hours of oxygen remaining."

According to OceanGate's court filing at a U.S. District Court in Virginia, the company said the Titan can dive 4,000 meters (13,120 feet) "with a comfortable safety margin."

The submersible could also "withstand the enormous pressures of the deep ocean" as it is made of "titanium and filament wound carbon fiber," the OceanGate said.

While the Titan had already undergone over 50 test dives, the OceanGate revealed in its November 2022 court filing that the submersible had suffered "modest damage" from a battery issue on its first dive and had to be manually attached to its lifting platform.