Sub passengers included CEO of expedition company, experienced explorers and Pakistani father and son from prominent family

“The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, the US Coast Guard First District commander, told reporters Thursday.

The small vessel – roughly the size of a minivan – had been missing since Sunday when it lost contact with its mothership on the surface about 1 hour and 45 minutes into its descent to explore the Titanic wreckage.

The suspected implosion left two debris fields, but authorities didn’t say whether the bodies of the submariners were spotted or might be recovered.

These were the five people who were on board:

OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush

Stockton Rush cultivated a reputation as a nature lover, adventurer and visionary.

He graduated from Princeton in 1984 and went to work for the McDonnell Douglas Corp. as a flight test engineer on the F-15 program. He obtained an MBA from University of California, Berkeley, in 1989, according to his company bio.

Rush founded OceanGate in 2009, with a stated mission of “increasing access to the deep ocean through innovation.”

In his eagerness to explore, Rush, 61, often appeared skeptical, if not dismissive, of regulations that might slow innovation.

The commercial sub industry is “obscenely safe,” he told Smithsonian Magazine in 2019, “because they have all these regulations. But it also hasn’t innovated or grown — because they have all these regulations.”

Rush said he believes deeply that the sea, rather than the sky, offers humanity the best shot at survival when the Earth’s surface becomes uninhabitable.

“The future of mankind is underwater. It’s not on Mars,” he told Mexican YouTuber Alan Estrada. “We will have a base underwater. … If we trash this planet, the best lifeboat for mankind is underwater.”

In his interview with Smithsonian in 2019, he relayed his almost-spiritual attraction to the deep sea. He called it “the deep disease.”

“I went to 75 feet. I saw cool stuff. I went 100 feet and saw more cool stuff. And I was like, ‘Wow, what’s it gonna be like at the end of this thing?’”

British businessman Hamish Harding

Harding, who had an impressive list of extreme expeditions under his belt, was based in the United Arab Emirates and was a trained jet pilot. He was the chairman of Action Aviation, an aircraft brokerage.

He made headlines in 2019 for being part of a flight crew that broke the world record for the fastest circumnavigation of the globe via both poles.

In 2020, Harding became one of the first people to dive to Challenger Deep in the Pacific Ocean, widely believed to be the deepest point in the world’s oceans. Last year, he paid an undisclosed sum of money for one of the seats on Blue Origin’s space flight.

He also was part of two record-breaking trips to the South Pole: In 2016, he accompanied the astronaut Buzz Aldrin when he became the oldest person to reach the South Pole. In 2020, he went there with his son Giles, who, at 12 years old, became the youngest person to get to the spot.

Harding was a founding member of the board of trustees of The Explorers Club, a New York-based group that has been involved in many of the world’s most prestigious discoveries.

The day before the vessel went missing, Harding wrote on social media that he was “proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expeditions for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic.”

French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet

French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet had decades of experience exploring the Titanic. He served as the director of underwater research at RMS Titanic Inc., the company that has exclusive rights to salvage artifacts from the ship.

According to his biography on the company’s website, Nargeolet completed 35 dives to the Titanic wreck and supervised the recovery of 5,000 artifacts. He spent 22 years in the French Navy, where he rose to the rank of a commander, the website says.

Speaking to CNN before Nargeolet’s presumed death was announced, David Gallo, senior adviser for strategic initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc. and a colleague of Nargeolet, told CNN the French diver was “the best” at deep-sea searching.

Mathieu Johann, a friend of Nargeolet, told CNN that the submariner was a “hero.”

Johann, who spoke to CNN before the crew’s fate was announced, is a director at Harper Collins France and worked with Nargeolet on his book about the Titanic.

Johann described Nargeolet as someone who “risked his life all his life,” adding, “He knows that the slightest expedition represents a danger, but like all those people who are passionate about water and the sea, for them, it’s their daily life. … He’s a great professional. And he knows exactly what he’s doing. And he was always very reassuring about his expedition.”

When asked why Nargeolet worked on the Titanic, Johann said the submariner “became attached to its history.”

“There were still mysteries to be unraveled. I know that his big thing is trying to find out what’s in the Titanic’s safe. I hope with all my heart that one day he’ll manage to penetrate that vault, which remains full of mystery 4,000 meters under the sea. It was still very enigmatic for him, and when I talk to Paul-Henri, I can still see his childlike eyes shining, because this legendary liner has also become his story.”

Pakistani businessman and son, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood

Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, were from a prominent Pakistani business family. Dawood Hercules Corp., their business, is among the largest corporations in the country, with a portfolio spanning energy, petrochemicals, fertilizers, information technology, and food and agriculture.

The business is headed by the family patriarch, Hussain Dawood. His sons, Shahzada and Abdul Samad, led various divisions, with Hussain’s daughter, Sabrina Dawood, in charge of the charitable arm of the business, according to the corporation’s website.

Shahzada Dawood also was trustee of the SETI Institute in California, a research organization, and a number of other foundations.

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