TYCOON AND SON ON THE LOST SUB

RACE AGAINST TIME TO SAVE TITANIC ADVENTURERS BEFORE AIR SUPPLY RUNS OUT

- Martin Bentham

A LONDON businessman and his son were today named as among the Titanic dive adventurers on a missing submersible that rescuers were in a race against time to find. Shahzada Dawood, 48, a Pakistani-born global board member of the Prince’s Trust charity, and his son Suleman, 19, are with British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding and two others on the tiny vessel that set off on Sunday to see the famous wreck at a depth of 12,500 feet in the Atlantic. The last “ping” connecting the submersible with its mother ship was heard yesterday afternoon above the wreck site before it lost contact, prompting the start of the desperate rescue mission involving sonar and flights over a vast area of sea. The US Coastguard estimated last night that the vessel, which can hold up to five people paying $250,000 (£195,000) each for the trip to see the Titanic, would have between 70 and 96 hours of oxygen left. That gives the rescuers a deadline of midday on Thursday if they want to be sure of finding those inside while it is still possible for them to breathe.

Today, as the race to find the five passengers — who are also thought to include Stockton Rush, the American chief executive of the OceanGate firm running the trip and the French explorer Paul-Henry Nargeolet — continued, the Dawood family released a statement praying for a safe end to the drama.

“Our son Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, had embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean. Contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available,” the statement said.