Senator Ned Nwoko, the husband of actress Regina Daniels, has decribed how he narrowly escaped being on the ill-fated OceanGate Titan submersible vessel which perished in the Atlantic last Sunday.
OceanGate Inc. is a privately owned U.S. company in Everett, Washington, that provides crewed submersibles for tourism, industry, research, and exploration. The company was founded in 2009 by Stockton Rush and Guillermo Söhnlein.
OceanGate uses its Titan vessel to take tourists deep below sea level to visit the Titanic shipwreck, which happened on April 15, 1912 — that is, over 111 years ago. The OceanGate Titan disappeared in the North Atlantic during a trip on Sunday, June 18, 2023.
According to Nwoko, his friend and business partner, Captain Hamish Harding, had invited him to join the ill-fated expedition but he had turned down the offer on account of some “national duties” he was to take up.
Taking to his verified Instagram handle, Nwoko, a lawyer, narrates:
I have lost a very dear friend and business partner. Captain hermish (sic) Harding. We both went on a very dangerous expedition to the Southpole Antarctica few years back.
He was a gulf stream pilot who flew across the world in a record-breaking expedition by Guinness World Record for circumnavigation of the Earth some years ago.
He descended into the Mariana [an oceanic trench located in the western Pacific Ocean].
He also invited me on his space shuttle last year and this very Titan ill-fated adventure but I was tied down with national duties.
Above all he was a partner on the various researches into eradication of malaria in Africa project. He was very enthusiastic about it and always gave his support at every given opportunity.
His last message to me was this last Sunday when he told me they were ready to dive to the titanic if the weather permits. He loved adventure and challenges.
My heart bleeds for his dear wife and kids who have become family friends over the years. We will surely miss his wealth of experience.
According to his Wiki citation, George Hamish Livingston Harding was born on June 24, 1964 and he died in the “catastrophic implosion” that was believed to have rocked the Titan submersible on Sunday, June 18, 2023, six days to what would have been his 59th birthday.
Harding was a British businessman, pilot, explorer, adventurer and space tourist based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
He was the founder of Action Group and was chairman of Action Aviation, an international aircraft brokerage company with headquarters in Dubai, UAE.[
As an adventurer, he was a member of The Explorers Club who visited the South Pole several times, descended into the Mariana Trench, broke a Guinness World Record for circumnavigation of the Earth, and travelled into space.
Between 9 and 11 July 2019, Harding was mission director and crew pilot for the flight mission One More Orbit, which set a world speed record for the fastest circumnavigation of Earth by aircraft over both geographic poles.
