According to various sources, including the BBC, three people, from the five onboard have been confirmed as Hamish Harding, a 58-year-old British businessman and explorer, and a Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.
Mr Harding, who is chairman of Action Aviation, tweeted 2 days ago saying “I am proud to finally announce that I joined OceanGate Expedition for their RMS Titanic Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic”.
This was followed by a tweet a day later by Action Aviation that at “4am start this morning on the RMS Titanic Expedition Mission 5 with OceanGate. The sub had a successful launch and Hamish is currently diving”.
The Titan submersible was thought to be approximately 900 miles (1450km) off the coast of Cape Cod at the time contact was lost. The US Coast Guard estimated the sub had between 70 and 96 hours of emergency oxygen, as of 17:00 EST (22:00 BST) on Monday.
OceanGate operate submarine tourist trips to the wreck of the RMS Titanic at a cost of $250,000 per person.
We will update as information becomes available.
