Who is the missing British billionaire trapped in Titanic tourist submarine? UK Adventurer has set three world records and dived to the Earth’s deepest spot
Missing British billionaire Hamish Harding has a Guinness world record for the longest duration spent at the bottom of the sea.
The London-born adventurer set it in 2021 after diving in a submersible to the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, and traversing it for four hours 15 minutes.
It was one of three world records the 58-year-old has earned. He set another one for the longest distance – three miles – covered at the bottom of the ocean. His first was set in 2019, for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via North and South Poles in a Gulfstream 650ER business jet. And last year he went into space.
The father of two – who is friends with astronaut Buzz Aldrin – said recently: ‘I used to read the book of Guinness World Records regularly as a child.
‘I always wondered how I could get into it. I did not think I could do it. And I didn’t want to do something stupid like setting a record for the number of ping-pong balls bounced in a day, or something like that.’
Missing British billionaire Hamish Harding has a Guinness world record for the longest duration spent at the bottom of the sea
Harding pictured exploring the South Pole with his son Giles who became the youngest person to ever do so
As the frantic search for the Titanic submersible was under way yesterday, family members asked for prayers for Mr Harding. The aviator, businessman and explorer is no stranger to perilous expeditions. He told an interviewer in 2021 how his submarine, Challenger Deep, sustained a damaged thruster during his journey to the ‘truly spectacular’ Mariana Trench, which lies seven miles below the surface of the Pacific Ocean.
He said: ‘The sub has many safety features, including four days’ reserve of oxygen, water and emergency rations.
‘The only problem is that there is no other sub that is capable of going down there to rescue you. It will take three years to build another one. So, having four days of supply doesn’t make a difference really. If something goes wrong, you are not coming back.’
Mr Harding, who runs an aviation company in Dubai, also has the distinction of taking the oldest man – moon-landing astronaut Mr Aldrin, at the age of 86 – and the youngest, his 12-year-old son, to the South Pole, saying: ‘Buzz is an old friend of mine. We had always talked about going to the South Pole together and we finally did it in 2016.’
An only child, Mr Harding was born in Hammersmith, London, in 1964, and has degrees in natural sciences and chemical engineering from the Cambridge University.
Last year, he was one of six astronauts to go to space on Blue Origin’s fifth human space flight aboard its New Shepard rocket.
Before another trip – to the North Pole two months before going into space – he said: ‘People, especially as they grow older, tend to give up on their dreams.
‘When I think of something unusual, I just try to find ways to make it happen.’
A social media post from Brian Szasz, the stepson of Hamish Harding
A submersible craft used to take people to see the wreck of the Titanic has gone missing in the Atlantic Ocean with its crew on board
