In a poignant revelation, a close friend of the British billionaire currently trapped inside the missing submarine bound for the Titanic wreckage has shared the last text message he received from him.
Retired NASA astronaut Colonel Terry Virts disclosed that Hamish Harding had reached out to him, stating, “Hey, we’re headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather’s been bad so they’ve been waiting for this.”
While rescue teams tirelessly continue their search for the submersible vessel carrying five individuals, Colonel Virts emphasized that he and his friend rarely discuss the risks involved in such endeavors.
Mr. Harding, the chairman of private plane firm Action Aviation, is known to be one of the mission specialists aboard the OceanGate Expeditions vessel, which was reported overdue on Sunday, approximately 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada.
A comprehensive search and rescue operation, led by the US Coast Guard and involving military aircraft situated 900 miles east of Cape Cod, is ongoing. During an interview with ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Colonel Virts shared, “We don’t really talk about risks, it’s known. He understood the risks for sure, there’s no doubt about that. The last text I got was, ‘Hey, we’re headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather’s been bad so they’ve been waiting for this.’ He went down to the deepest part of the ocean, set a few world records… at the Mariana Trench [deepest part of the ocean] and we talked quite a bit about the risks and the different things that they were going to be able to do. So he was very excited about it.”
Mr. Harding notably holds a Guinness world record for spending the longest duration at the bottom of the sea. In 2021, the London-born adventurer dived in a submersible to the Mariana Trench, the deepest point on Earth, and traversed it for four hours and 15 minutes.
This achievement marked one of the three world records the 58-year-old has earned, including the longest distance covered at the ocean’s floor—three miles. In 2019, he embarked on the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via the North and South Poles in a Gulfstream 650ER business jet, and just last year, he ventured into space.
Regarding the Titanic expedition, Colonel Virts added, “They are actually going there for a fun trip, but they’re doing some serious science also. The wreck of the Titanic has been changing over the years; it’s starting to disintegrate. And there are several scientists on the mission that are actually looking at the sub-sea surface and how the Titanic is going. So it wasn’t just a fun trip, they were actually doing real exploration for all of humanity. Titanic is not only important to Britain, it’s important to everybody. So they are able to see how the vessel is deteriorating over the years under the ocean.”
The US Coast Guard has reported that the Canadian research vessel Polar Prince and the 106th Rescue Wing will continue to conduct surface searches, while two C-130 flights have been deployed in the search for the missing submersible.
Mr. Harding’s cousin, Kathleen Cosnett, expressed her admiration for his daring and inquisitive nature and conveyed her devastation upon learning of his disappearance.
On social media over the weekend, Mr. Harding proudly announced his participation in the mission to the Titanic wreckage, the ill-fated luxury liner that sank in 1912 after colliding with an iceberg, resulting in the loss of over 1,500 lives.
We wish them a fast recovery.
