BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: A Titanic expedition leader, who claims to know three of the five people on the missing submersible, asserted that he is not optimistic they will be rescued. Operated by OceanGate Expeditions, the submarine known as the Titan, vanished on Monday, June 19, 2023, when it was taking a crew of five people to view the wreck of the Titanic, which lies 12,500ft beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The five people on board the vessel include British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Pakistan millionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman. As per The Irish Examiner, Nargeolet has "spent more time than any other" at the wreckage of the Titanic. Nargeolet ominously told the outlet in 2019, "If you are 11m or 11km down, if something bad happens, the result is the same." He further noted, "When you’re in very deep water, you’re dead before you realize that something is happening, so it’s just not a problem."
'I don’t see anything that can happen'
While rescuers are desperately trying to locate the submarine, G Michael Harris believes his friends in the vessel have already met their fates a lot sooner. The seasoned Titanic diver, who has made multiple visits to the wreck to recover artifacts, recently revealed that he has “unconfirmed reports” that three people he knows are onboard the Titan, including one of his former sub pilots.
Speaking to Fox News host Jesse Watters, he expressed fears about what could have happened to his friends aboard the submarine.
“Worst situation is something happened to the hull and our fear is that it imploded at around 3,200 meters,” Harris said. When asked if there was anything the Navy could do at the moment, Harris directly responded “No.” “I don’t see anything that can happen at this point. When you are talking 6,000 pounds per square inch, it is a dangerous environment," the diver noted.
He said there was oxygen on board and CO2 scrubbers, but ultimately there was no magic solution. "Just not feeling good about it," Harris remarked, adding, "When we deploy it's usually a two-and-a-half hour drop down to the wreck site itself. We go down 3,980 meters. Once we get down there we begin our grid searches and our decay and everything that goes on with Titanic."
'They are trapped without help'
Following Harris’ comments, Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian explorer, who knew Harding, said she fears his submersible is trapped on the sea bed. “My biggest fear is knowing that they are trapped, without being able to get help. There is no one who can reach him on the bottom," Mikkelsen told Chris Cuomo on NewsNation. The cinematographer also noted that she was deeply concerned by the fact the crew missed their ascent window. "My fear is that they didn't make their last ascent window. They didn't. We are starting to make worst-case scenarios," she noted.
Mikkelsen said Harding acted as a mentor to her and was well aware of the risks he took. "Hamish is an explorer at heart and this is one of the things he wanted to explore, on his checklist," she said, adding that she knows he would be "calm" amid the crisis.
"Hamish knows the risks before he starts. I know that Hamish will be calm, they will work together through their checklist of options,” she continued. Meanwhile, Rear Admiral John W Mauger said in a press conference that the US Coast Guard was working "as hard as possible" to find the Titan.
