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A pilot and four passengers were aboard the submarine that went missing Sunday, the US Coast Guard said, adding that the submarine can stay underwater for up to 96 hours, though it was not clear if it reappeared but was unable to communicate.
Those on board the submarine named Titan, the most prominent tourist expedition costing $ 250,000 per person, including a British billionaire Hamish Harding and Pakistani businessman Shehzada Daoud with his son Suleiman.
77-year-old French explorer Paul-Henri Nargolet and Stockton Rush, founder and CEO of US-based OceanGate, were also reported to be on board.
“We are very grateful for the concern expressed by our colleagues and friends and would like to ask everyone to pray for their safety,” Dawood’s family said on Tuesday.
US and Canadian ships and planes began swarming the area Monday about 900 miles (1,450 km) east of Cape Cod, and some dropped sonar buoys that could monitor as deep as 13,000 feet (3,962 meters), US Coast Guard Adm. John Mauger said. .
“We are deploying every available asset to make sure we can locate the vehicle and rescue the people on board,” he told reporters on Monday. “It’s a remote area and it’s hard to do research in that remote area.”
He said officials had asked merchant ships for help.
The wreckage of the Titanic, which sank in 1912 after hitting an iceberg, lies at an altitude of 12,500 feet (3,810 meters). Titan usually takes two hours to descend to the wreck.
OceanGate Expeditions, the private company that operates the submarine, said it was “mobilizing all options” to rescue those aboard Titan.
The US Coast Guard said on Twitter that a boat is on the surface – Arctic prince Contact was lost with the submarine about 1 hour and 45 minutes into the dive to the Titanic wreck site on Sunday.
Billionaire on board
The OceanGate website says that excursions to the Titanic begin in St. John’s, Newfoundland, before heading some 400 miles (640 km) into the Atlantic Ocean to the wreck site.
Harding, the UAE-based entrepreneur and adventurer and president of Action Aviation, posted a message on his Facebook page on Saturday saying: “Given the worst Newfoundland winter in 40 years, this will likely be the first and only manned mission to the Titanic in 2023.” .
“The weather window has just opened and we’ll try diving tomorrow.” He added, “More flight updates to follow the weather!”
Harding’s stepson later wrote on Facebook that Harding had “disappeared on the submarine” and asked for “ideas and invitations”. He then removed the post, citing respect for the family’s privacy.
The expedition headed out to sea on Friday, and the first dive was scheduled for Sunday morning, according to Harding’s website.
Fellow tourist Dawood is the Vice President of Engro Corporation, one of Pakistan’s largest conglomerates with investments ranging from fertilizer and energy to automobile manufacturing.
The California-based SETI Research Institute, of which he is a trustee, said on its website that Daoud lives in Britain with his wife and two children.
The British passenger liner sank on its maiden voyage, killing more than 1,500 people, a tragedy immortalized in books and movies, including 1997’s Titanic.
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