Titanic submarine missing: Profile member of Belfast Titanic Society who was also due to dive and the five people on missing sub

He was a Dive Safety Operations Manager on the Operation Titanic 2000 Expedition that recovered 800 artifacts.

A former MD of Virgin Records Ireland for 15 years, he has been diving since 1976, as an instructor and commercial diver.

In March 2013 he was a member of the Bezos Expeditions F-1 Engine Recovery Team which salvaged five Apollo F-1 rocket engines from 4200 metres in the North Atlantic.

A member of the Explorers Club of New York, he has climbed Mont Blanc and Kilimanjaro.

The five individuals who are in the missing sub are as follows;-

– Stockton Rush is the chief executive and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, the company behind the missing sub. He originally trained as a pilot, becoming the youngest jet transport-rated pilot in the world aged 19 in 1981, according to his profile on the OceanGate website. He graduated from Princeton with a degree in aerospace engineering in 1984.

Mr Rush was described as “highly professional” alongside pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, by a businessman who Mr Rush led on a previous visit to the Titanic wreck.

Oisin Fanning told BBC Radio 4 that the two men were “consummate professionals” who had made the journey to the Titanic “38, 40 times”.

He added: These are not fly-by-nighters, these are very highly professional people.”

– British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood 48, is vice-chairman of Pakistani conglomerate Engro Corporation, and a long-time adviser to the King’s charity, Prince’s Trust International, with a focus on its work in Pakistan. His son Suleman is a “big fan of science fiction literature and learning new things”, with an interest in Rubik’s Cubes and playing volleyball.

– Paul-Henri Nargeolet is a former commander who served in the French navy for 25 years. Aged 77, he was in the first human expedition to visit the ship in 1987.

– Hamish Harding, 58, is a billionaire pilot and chair of Action Aviation, a sales and operations company in the UAE which manages private jet sales. He joined the expedition as a “mission specialist”.