It’s been a while since the world sat glued to those oxygen countdown clocks on the news, but the tragedy of the OceanGate submersible still feels raw. People still find themselves scrolling through social media, asking who was on the titan sub and why, exactly, they were down there in the first place. This wasn't just a group of random tourists. It was a mix of a billionaire explorer, a legendary French diver, a prominent Pakistani businessman, his teenage son, and the CEO who thought he could reinvent deep-sea physics.
The Titan didn't just disappear. It suffered a "catastrophic implosion." To understand why that happened, you have to look at the people inside that 22-foot carbon fiber tube. They weren't just names in a headline.
Stockton Rush: The CEO who broke the rules
Stockton Rush was the guy behind it all. As the co-founder and CEO of OceanGate, he was the one who famously said that "safety is just pure waste." He didn't say that because he wanted people to die; he said it because he truly believed that government regulations and industry standards—like using titanium instead of carbon fiber—were holding back innovation. He was a pilot first, graduating from Princeton and becoming the youngest jet transport-rated pilot in the world at age 19.
He was visionary. He was also, by many accounts from former employees like David Lochridge, dangerously stubborn. Rush was the pilot on that final dive on June 18, 2023. He wasn't just a businessman selling tickets; he was a true believer in his own tech, even when experts from the Marine Technology Society warned him that his "experimental" approach could lead to disaster. He wanted to make the Titanic accessible to more than just government researchers.
Paul-Henri Nargeolet: "Mr. Titanic" himself
If you're wondering who was on the titan sub that actually knew what they were doing, it was Paul-Henri Nargeolet. This guy was a legend. At 77 years old, he had spent more time at the Titanic wreck site than almost anyone on the planet. He was a former commander in the French Navy and a deep-sea diver who had completed over 35 dives to the wreck.
He was nicknamed "Mr. Titanic" for a reason.
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Honestly, his presence on the sub is what gave a lot of people confidence. If the world’s leading expert on the Titanic wreck was willing to get inside that sub, surely it was safe? Nargeolet knew the risks better than anyone. He had spent decades working with IFREMER (the French Research Institute for Exploitation of the Sea) and had retrieved thousands of artifacts from the debris field. For him, the deep ocean was home. His loss was a massive blow to the underwater archaeology community.
Hamish Harding: The billionaire who lived for the edge
Hamish Harding didn't just have money; he had a thirst for records. The British billionaire based in the UAE was the chairman of Action Aviation. But more than that, he was a Guinness World Record holder. He had been to the South Pole with Buzz Aldrin. He had flown to space on Jeff Bezos’s Blue Origin rocket. He even held the record for the fastest circumnavigation of the Earth via both poles.
Harding was a classic explorer. He was the kind of person who saw a challenge and reached for his checkbook to be part of history. The night before the dive, he posted on Facebook about how proud he was to be joining the mission as a "mission specialist." He mentioned that the weather had been rough and this was likely the only window for a dive in 2023.
Shahzada and Suleman Dawood: A family tragedy
This is the part that still gets people. Shahzada Dawood, 48, was one of the wealthiest men in Pakistan, a vice chairman of Engro Corporation and a big supporter of the Prince’s Trust International. He was a British-Pakistani businessman who loved science and discovery. But he wasn't alone. He brought his 19-year-old son, Suleman.
Suleman was a student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. There was a lot of back-and-forth in the media later about whether he wanted to go. His aunt, Azmeh Dawood, told NBC News that the teenager was "terrified" and only went to please his father for Father’s Day. However, Shahzada’s wife, Christine, later clarified that Suleman was actually excited and even took a Rubik’s Cube with him, hoping to break a world record for solving it at the bottom of the ocean.
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The image of a father and son together in those final moments is what makes the question of who was on the titan sub so much more than a technical or legal discussion. It’s a human one.
The technical reality they faced
They were roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes into their descent when the Polar Prince lost contact. They were nearly 12,500 feet down. At that depth, the pressure is about 6,000 pounds per square inch. To put that in perspective, imagine the weight of an elephant standing on a postage stamp.
The sub was made of a carbon fiber hull with titanium end caps. Most deep-sea submersibles, like the Alvin or the Limiting Factor, use a spherical titanium or steel hull because those materials handle the crushing pressure of the deep ocean uniformly. Carbon fiber is great for aerospace—where you're trying to keep internal pressure in—but it’s not traditionally used for external pressure. It can delaminate. It can fail suddenly.
When the implosion happened, it was instantaneous. We're talking milliseconds. The nervous system can't even process pain that fast.
Why it matters for the future of exploration
The fallout from the Titan disaster changed the world of private exploration. It wasn't just about the loss of life; it was about the ethics of "innovation" versus "safety."
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- Certification is now non-negotiable: Most experts now agree that "experimental" tags shouldn't allow companies to bypass third-party certification (like DNV or Lloyd’s Register) when lives are at stake.
- The "Tourist" vs. "Explorer" debate: There is a growing divide between those who believe the deep sea should be open to anyone who can afford it and those who believe it should remain the domain of scientific research.
- Liability waivers: The OceanGate waiver famously mentioned "death" three times on the first page. Legal experts are still dissecting how much protection these waivers actually provide if "gross negligence" is proven.
The investigation by the U.S. Coast Guard and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has been exhaustive. They recovered "presumed human remains" from the debris field on the ocean floor, located about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
Moving forward: What you can do
If you're fascinated by the deep sea but want to avoid the risks associated with unregulated "adventure tourism," there are better ways to engage.
First, support legitimate oceanographic organizations like NOAA or the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. They use ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) that provide stunning 4K footage of the Titanic and other wrecks without putting human lives at risk.
Second, if you're ever looking into high-risk travel—whether it's space or the deep sea—always ask if the vehicle is "classed." Being "classed" means an independent organization has reviewed the design and construction to ensure it meets safety standards. If a company tells you that their tech is "too innovative" to be classed, that's a massive red flag.
The story of who was on the titan sub is a reminder of human curiosity, but it's also a stark lesson in the physics of our planet. The ocean doesn't care about your bank account or your ambition; it only cares about the integrity of your hull.
To truly honor the legacy of people like P.H. Nargeolet, we should focus on exploring the deep with the respect and the rigorous engineering it demands. Look into the work of OceanX or the Schmidt Ocean Institute to see how deep-sea exploration is being done the right way—with safety, science, and transparency as the primary goals.
Understanding the risks of the deep sea requires looking at the actual physics of pressure. You can research the history of the Trieste or the Mir submersibles to see how engineers successfully reached these depths for decades before carbon fiber was ever considered for a pressure hull. Check the official U.S. Coast Guard Marine Board of Investigation reports for the most current findings on the Titan’s structural failures.