Who Is on the Missing 'Titanic'-Bound Sub? All About the Passengers

The 'Titanic'-bound submersible included five passengers, including an operator and four mission specialists

OceanGate has given a new update on the five passengers aboard the Titan, a Titanic-bound submersible, after it went missing on June 18.

On June 22, the company shared a statement with PEOPLE announcing that the five people onboard the missing submersible are believed to have died.

"We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost," the company said in a statement.

"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew," the statement continued.

Operated by OceanGate Expeditions, the submersible first set out on Sunday morning, June 18. However, nearly two hours into the dive, the crew of the Canadian expedition vessel Polar Prince lost contact with the submersible, per the United States Coast Guard. A search for the Titan began shortly after.

During a press conference held on June 20, United States Coast Guard Captain Jamie Frederick confirmed there were five passengers on board, including an operator and four mission specialists.

Among them included Shahzada Dawood, who worked with the Prince’s Trust International and The British Asian Trust, set up by King Charles, and French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet, who had a long-standing history with the Titanic.

Here’s everything to know about the passengers of the Titan.

Hamish Harding

British businessman Hamish Harding was on board; he previously shared on Instagram on June 17 that he would be a part of the trip.

Harding was a British businessman and pilot based in the United Arab Emirates. He previously told Business Aviation Magazine that he grew up in Hong Kong with his parents before qualifying as a pilot in the mid-1980s while studying at Cambridge University.

The owner of global sales company Action Aviation, Harding had been on several explorations over the years, including visiting the South Pole several times (once with Buzz Aldrin) and going to space as part of the suborbital Blue Origin NS-21 mission in June 2022.

Shortly after the Titan went missing, Harding’s stepson Brian Szasz, from his wife’s previous relationship, confirmed that Harding was aboard the vessel as he asked for “thoughts and prayers” in a since-deleted post.

Szasz later shared a series of emotional videos on his Instagram Story on June 22, just hours before the vessel’s breathing air supply was expected to run out.

Shahzada and Suleman Dawood

Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood were both aboard the submersible, their family and King Charles' Prince’s Trust International confirmed to PEOPLE on June 20.

Shahzada was a trustee at the SETI Institute, a non-profit research organization on life and intelligence in the universe. Per his bio on the website, he “has an M.Sc. in Global Textile Marketing from Philadelphia University, USA, and an LLB from Buckingham University, UK.” The website also states that Shahzada, a British citizen, lived "in the UK with his wife, Christine, his children Sulaiman and Alina” as well as their dog and cat.

He also worked with the Prince’s Trust International and The British Asian Trust, set up by King Charles.

“Prince’s Trust International has a longstanding relationship with Shahzada Dawood and his family,” DEO Will Straw said in a statement. “We are shocked by this awful news, praying for a rescue and sending our thoughts to his family during this deeply challenging time.”

Paul-Henry Nargeolet

French diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet was also on board.

Born in Chamonix, France, Nargeolet lived in Africa for 13 years with his family before returning to France to complete his studies. Afterward, he joined the French Navy where he eventually became a Commander before retiring in 1986 after 22 years of service.

Nicknamed “Mr. Titanic,” Nargeolet had a long history with the vessel as he was part of the first expedition to visit it in 1987, and had visited it many times since. He also served as the Director of Underwater Research for E/M Group and RMS Titanic, Inc.

Per his bio on E/M Group, “P.H. has led several expeditions to Titanic, completed 37 dives in the submersible himself, and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts, including the recovery of the “big piece” a 20-ton section of Titanic’s hull (now on display in Las Vegas).”

During a 2019 interview with the Irish Examiner, Nargeolet discussed his involvement with the Titanic wreckage and whether he ever got scared traveling so far down in the ocean.

“If you are 11m or 11km down, if something bad happens, the result is the same,” he told the outlet at the time. “When you’re in very deep water, you’re dead before you realize that something is happening, so it’s just not a problem.”

Stockton Rush

OceanGate CEO and co-founder, Stockton Rush, was among the five passengers aboard the submersible “as a member of the crew.”

In addition to being the CEO of OceanGate, Rush is the co-founder and member of the Board of Trustees of OceanGate Foundation, “a non-profit organization which aims to catalyze emerging marine technology to further discoveries in marine science, history, and archaeology,” per the company’s website.

The website adds that before founding OceanGate, “Rush became the youngest jet transport rated pilot in the world when he obtained his DC-8 Type/Captain’s rating at the United Airlines Jet Training Institute in 1981 at the age of 19.”

Additionally, he served as a DC-8 first officer while studying mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton University, before joining the McDonnell Douglas Corporation as a Flight Test Engineer on the F-15 program in 1984.

A previous Princeton feature on Rush reported that he went on “every one of OceanGate’s dives.” In the feature, he also spoke excitedly about the Titanic expeditions. “Part of what we do is get people to appreciate that most of human history is underwater,” he said.

“If you think about it from an archeological perspective, if you had a caravan of precious items — records, books, gold, or whatever — and you were snowed in on the passes of Mongolia, all that stuff got stolen, pillaged. If you were in a ship carrying King Herod’s possessions to Rome and you sank, [it’s] still there.”

Rush's wife Wendy Rush — who is director of communications at OceanGate — is also the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Strauss, two first-class passengers who died when the Titanic sank in 1912, according to archival records cited by The New York Times.

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