In 2000, Rory Golden became the first Irish diver to ever visit the wreck of the Titanic. Now, he is part of a race against the clock to find the five people on board the submersible tourist vessel that went missing on Sunday (18 June).
The US Coastguard is fighting a race against the clock to find the missing Titanic tourist submersible carrying five people to observe the wreckage of the Titanic.
The vessel submerged on Sunday (18 June) morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later, authorities said.
On Monday afternoon, Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard said, “We anticipate there is somewhere between 70 and the full 96 hours available at this point”.
Rory Golden – the first Irish person to ever visit the Titanic wreck
Rory Golden, who hails from Dublin, became the first Irish person to visit the wreckage of the Titanic in 2000. He returned again in 2005.
On 10 June, he posted on Facebook that he was on a Titanic expedition with OceanGate Expeditions. He was the onboard Titanic expert for the company.
Since the news of the missing vessel came to light, he has since taken to social media again to assure people of his safety.
“We have a situation that is now part of a major search and rescue effort being undertaken by major agencies. That is where our focus is right now,” he wrote.
“Our online and internet options are being restricted in order to keep bandwidth available for the co-ordinated effort that is taking place, so please bear that in mind too”. He asked people to remain positive because “we are”.
The expedition – a tourist mission to view the Titanic wreckage
The craft carrying the five missing passengers is the Titan, a deep diving submersible operated by underwater tourism company OceanGate.
OceanGate Expeditions takes paying tourists in submersible vessels to view the famous wreck for an alleged cost of $250,000 (€228,675) per person.
The vessel submerged on Sunday (18 June) morning, and its support vessel, the Canadian research icebreaker Polar Prince, lost contact with it about an hour and 45 minutes later, authorities said.
The company said in a statement that it is “exploring and mobilising all options to bring the crew back safely”.
Since then, David Concannon, an attorney and explorer who pulled out of the adventure last minute, slammed the US government for allegedly holding up rescue efforts because of official paperwork.
He said, “We need to move. We do not have minutes or hours. We need to move now”.
Those on board – the five passengers of the Titan
Paul-Henri Nargeolet (77) is believed to be the pilot of the missing vessel. He is a renowned French diver who has family in Cork.
In October 2019, Nargeolet gave a talk at University College Cork (UCC) on his work with the Titanic. He was quoted at the time saying, “Whether you are 11 metre or 11 kilometres down, if something bad happens, the result is the same”.
British billionaire and renowned explorer Hamish Harding is also believed to be among those trapped in the vessel along with Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, who live in the UK.
The last person on board is Stockton Rush, founder and chief executive officer of OceanGate.
