BRITISH businessman, Hamish Harding, who collaborated with the Indian government to reintroduce cheetahs to India, is among five people who went missing in the Atlantic Ocean aboard a tourist submersible on a mission to view the wreckage of the iconic ocean liner the Titanic.
He worked with India to reintroduce eight wild cheetahs from Namibia to India in September last year, under the auspices of the Explorers Club.
Harding also worked on a project to launch a regular business jet service to the Antarctic, working with a company called White Desert.
Contact with the small sub was lost about an hour and 45 minutes into its dive in the mid-Atlantic on Sunday (18).
US-based OceanGate Expeditions, which arranged the trip, confirmed that its submarine was lost at sea with crew members on board.
British-Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet were also thought to be on board, according to a Facebook post by Harding before the dive started.
Reports said that Harding, who is known for his exploratory escapades across the globe, arranged a customised Boeing 747-400 aircraft for the mission.
The Brit visited the South Pole multiple times, flown into space in 2022 onboard Blue Origin’s fifth human-crewed flight, and set three world records – including the longest time spent at full ocean depth during a dive to the deepest part of the Mariana Trench.
The trip to Titanic’s wreckage was the latest in a string of adventures.
Over the weekend, Harding said on social media that a ship had set off from the city of St John’s, in Newfoundland, Canada, for the destination of the Titanic wreck.
From there, he and the crew were planning to start diving operations in the submersible down to the wreck on Sunday morning.
He wrote on Facebook that he was “proud to finally announce” that he would be aboard the mission to the wreck of the Titanic.
Due to the “worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years,” he said, “this mission is likely to be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023”.
“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow.” Action Aviation said on Sunday that the sub had had a successful launch and Harding was “currently diving”.
Later, his stepson Brian Szasz said in a now-deleted post on Facebook, "He has gone missing on (the) submarine.”
Patrick Woodhead, the founder of British tour operator White Desert Antarctica, said Harding was an “incredible” aviation explorer and a great advocate for discovering new pathways to make the world a better place.
Harding had travelled with them to Antarctica a number of times, he said, including with US astronaut Buzz Aldrin.
On an inquiry about Harding, a spokesperson from the UK’s foreign office said it was “in contact with the family of a British man following reports of a missing submarine off the coast of north America.”
Military planes, a submarine and sonar buoys have so far been used in the search for the vessel.
(PTI)
Damian Talbot