‘Every minute feels like hours,’ says friend of man on missing Titanic sub
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British billionaire Hamish Harding is said to be among the passengers on board a submersible that went missing on a trip to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
PHOTOS: AFP
SVALBARD, Norway - A friend of one of the passengers on board the submersible vessel that went missing on a trip to explore the wreckage of the Titanic said that “every single minute” feels like hours as time ticks away to find them alive.
Speaking from Svalbard in Norway on Tuesday, Ms Jannicke Mikkelsen said she is not sleeping and just hoping for good news, as rescuers scour thousands of square miles in the remote North Atlantic to find her friend Hamish Harding, 58,
One pilot and four passengers were inside the submersible early on Sunday when it lost communication with a ship on the surface
The submersible was the highlight of a tourist expedition that cost US$250,000 (S$330,000) per person.
Ms Mikkelsen said Mr Harding was “being branded as British billionaire going for a sightseeing trip to the Titanic”.
But, she said, these expeditions are also for scientific research.
“These types of expeditions are very expensive, and we need people like Hamish who can pay and sponsor such an expedition, but also take the risk of joining such an expedition with his expertise,” Ms Mikkelsen said.
Ms Mikkelsen said she met Mr Harding in 2017 while working at the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Kennedy Space Centre.
Together they took part in 2019‘s “One More Orbit” flight mission that set a record for the fastest circumnavigation of Earth by aircraft flying over both geographic poles.
The Titanic expeditions start in St John’s, Newfoundland, before heading out approximately 640km into the Atlantic to the wreckage site, according to the website of OceanGate, the private company that operates the submersible vessel.
In order to visit the wreck, passengers climb inside Titan, the five-person submersible, which takes two hours to descend approximately 3,800m to the Titanic.
Ms Mikkelsen said she last spoke to Mr Harding right before his dive to the Titanic and wished him “Godspeed”.
“I didn’t consider that this type of expedition would be as dangerous as it’s turned out to be,” she said.
“As explorers, we are pessimistic and objective. And as it stands right now, it would be a miracle if they are recovered alive.” REUTERS
