Dubai-based British billionaire and explorer Hamish Harding was one of the missing and deceased from the submarine exploring the wreckage of the Titanic. The expensive $250,000 per person expedition began in St. John’s, Newfoundland, before heading approximately 400 miles out into the Atlantic and the site of the wreck of the Titanic and now also the site of the catastrophic implosion of the submersible where he and 4 others lost their lives.
Hamish Harding, chairman of Action Aviation, managing director of the Dubai-based aircraft brokerage. Harding, 58, has been remembered as a “loving husband to his wife and a devoted father to his two sons, whom he loved dearly.” Harding’s company, Action Aviation,was in the business of buying and selling commercial aircraft.
Harding had taken off into space as a tourist aboard Blue Origin’s manned flight in June last year. In an interview after his return, he discussed his desire to explore the Titanic. An avid explorer, Hamish has traveled to the South Pole twice and holds multiple aeronautical world records. In 2021, Harding, who was 49 at the time, dove the Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench, the world’s deepest point, in a two-person submarine.
The entrepreneur’s family through a statement issued through the company Action Aviation, has paid a heartbreaking tribute to him. “He was one of a kind and we adored him. He was a passionate explorer, no matter the terrain, who lived his life for his family, his business and for the next adventure.”
His family stated that “what he accomplished in his life was truly remarkable and if we can take any small consolation from this tragedy, it is that we lost him doing what he loved.” “He will leave a void in our lives that can never be filled,” when speaking of his accomplishments that include three Guinness World Records.
Harding’s family added “We know Hamish would have been immensely proud to see how nations, experts, industry colleagues and friends came together for the search and we extend our heartfelt thanks to all for their efforts,” referring to the international search and rescue teams that scoured the Atlantic Ocean for days.
They also said they were “united in grief with the other families who also lost their loved ones in the Titan submersible”.
Through a statement the company that operated the expedition, OceanGate, confirmed Thursday that its CEO Stockton Rush, Harding, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, “are sadly lost.”
“These men were true explorers who shared a distinctive spirit of adventure and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. Our hearts go out to these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We mourn the loss of life and remember the joy they brought to everyone they knew,” he added.
An expatriate in the United Arab Emirates for 15 years, Harding was an accomplished aviator who had been to the depths of space and the ocean.
Mark Butler, CEO of Action Aviation, called him an “extraordinarily accomplished individual who has successfully completed challenging expeditions, including, among others, the One More Orbit project (the unprecedented circumnavigation of the world), a flight into space on Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket as a commercial astronaut (mission NS-21), and the reintroduction of cheetahs from Namibia to India,” via a statement issued earlier.
“He has traveled in a submersible to Challenger Deep in Mariana Trench (the deepest point on Earth) and has been to the South Pole several times.”
Harding was honored with induction into Living Legends of Aviation in 2022.
Published by Emirates Herald, news and information agency.