On June 17, Hamish Harding made an announcement on Facebook.
"I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic," the British billionaire wrote. "Due to the worst winter in Newfoundland in 40 years, 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," he said. "More expedition updates to follow IF the weather holds!"
And now Harding is among five people on board tourist submarine that went missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Renown Explorer
The vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, was carrying five people when its mothership lost contact with it on Sunday morning, about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent to explore the Titanic wreckage, CNN reported.
Also on board were Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Sulaiman Dawood, and French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet, who completed 35 dives to the Titanic wreck and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts.
The fifth person on board has been identified only as the vessel’s pilot.
Harding, 58, is the founder of Action Group and chairman of Action Aviation, an international aircraft brokerage company based in Dubai. He is also a renowned explorer.
In July 2019, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing, Harding, along with former International Space Station Commander Col. Terry Virts led a team of aviators that broke Guinness World Record for circumnavigation of the earth via North and South Poles.
Pushing the Boundaries
A statement on the Action Aviation website said "the attempt pushed the boundaries of human ingenuity – just like the Apollo 11 mission half a century ago."
Last June, Harding flew to space on the fifth spaceflight by Blue Origin, the company founder by Amazon's (AMZN) Jeff Bezos.
In 2020, he became one of the first people to dive to Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, widely believed to be the deepest point in the world’s oceans.
Harding has also been part of two record-breaking trips to the South Pole: in 2016, he accompanied the astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he became the oldest person to reach the South Pole.
In 2020, he went there with his son Giles, who, at 12 years old, became the youngest person to get to the spot.
Harding is also a founding member of the board of trustees of The Explorers Club, a New York-based group that has been involved in many of the world’s most prestigious discoveries.
