Chilling Last Text Of Man Missing From Titanic Sub
Searchers desperately comb the Atlantic Ocean to try and locate missing British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding, who was on board a submersible that vanished deep below the water off Newfoundland on Sunday.
Harding, 58, a retired NASA astronaut, entrepreneur, and three-time Guinness World Record holder, has been traveling the world for decades on exploration trips. Only a day before the OceanGate Expeditions-operated sub was launched, Harding sent his friend, retired NASA astronaut Col. Terry Virts, an update on his grand voyage, which was set to descend to depths of 12,500 feet to view the famous shipwreck.
"He was very excited about it," Virts said, "Hey, we’re headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather’s been bad so they’ve been waiting for this."
Though searching for diamonds and memorabilia of the infamous Titanic has been a dream for Harding and others, it seems the weather in the days leading up to their spirited mission was less than ideal.
Now, the race is on to rescue the men, and the mission before their slow decline into the depths runs out of oxygen, as authorities note that the search is focused on an area roughly 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod at a depth of 13,000 feet.
One of the five trapped on the submersible is Shahzada Dawood, 48, one of Pakistan’s wealthiest men, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, 19, who accompanied Harding and three others on the fateful voyage.
The vessel used for their trip was unable to submerge and return to port on its own like a submarine, and the search effort has been led by Coast Guard crews as aircraft and ships are scouring the area. Specialists are working to get a remotely operated vehicle that can reach depths of up to 20,000 feet to the location of the missing submarine.
Though a difficult mission amidst murky waters and failing light, the search is an all-hands-on-deck endeavor for locating the famed deep-sea explorer and his compatriots before it’s too late. With a former astronaut heading the mission and heroes descending from the surface to save the sea explorers, even the most ambitious endeavors and dreams of exploration can now be humbled by the harsh realities of the sea.