Remembering Titan sub victims one year on: The life-long adventurer who dreamed of going to Mars, the Cambridge-educated billionaire, a Pakistani businessman on dream trip with his son, and the French explorer dubbed 'Mr Titanic'

One year on from the tragic deaths of five people on what was supposed to be the underwater trip of a lifetime, MailOnline looks back at those who lost their lives.

The five Titanic tourists onboard the Titan submersible were led by Hamish Harding - the buccaneering British billionaire who had a Guinness world record for the longest duration spent at the bottom of the sea.

Inside the sub, that could only be opened from the outside, were five men - some illustrious adventurers, others are amongst the richest in the world.

Cambridge-educated billionaire Harding was joined by Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the French world-renowned explorer nicknamed 'Mr Titanic' for his passion, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush and Shahzada Dawood, 48, a UK-based board member of the Prince's Trust charity, and his son Sulaiman Dawood, who was just 19.

One year on from the tragic deaths of five people on what was supposed to be the underwater trip of a lifetime, MailOnline looks back at those who lost their lives. Pictured: The Titan sub which the five victims perished in 

Hamish Harding - CEO of Action Aviation in Dubai

Businessman, pilot and adventurer Harding, 58, was member of The Explorers Club, visited the South Pole several times, descended to the Challenger Deep of the Mariana Trench, travelled into space, and held three Guinness World Records.

But his remarkable life ended with four others a year ago when the Titan imploded.

He was a graduate of Cambridge University with a degree in Natural Sciences and a post-graduate degree in Chemical Engineering.

The British billionaire Hamish Harding also held a Guinness World Record for the longest duration spent at the bottom of the sea.

The London-born adventurer set it in 2021 after diving to the deepest place on Earth, the Mariana Trench, and traversing it for four hours and 15 minutes.

Hamish Harding was a graduate of Cambridge University with a degree in Natural Sciences and a post-graduate degree in Chemical Engineering

Harding was one of six astronauts to go to space on the fifth human spaceflight by Jeff Bezos' aerospace company - Blue Origin

Harding also had the distinction of taking the oldest man - moon landing astronaut Aldrin, at the age of 86 - and the youngest, his 12-year-old son, to the South Pole.

He previously said a love for space and aviation began while watching the Apollo moon landing aged five.

Harding was one of six astronauts to go to space on the fifth human spaceflight by Jeff Bezos' aerospace company - Blue Origin - aboard its New Shepard rocket.

He was also was awarded a Living Legends of Aviation honour by Morgan Freeman, an award previously given to his friend Mr Aldrin, as well as Richard Branson and Elon Musk.

Besides his life as an explorer, Mr Harding is the CEO and Chairman of Dubai-based aircraft sales and acquisition company, Action Aviation, which caters to the needs of the world's wealthiest people, and has made him hugely wealthy himself.

His friend Victor Vescovo told the Mirror he had warned Harding not to go on the trip as OceanGate was playing 'Russian roulette' with passenger safety, he claimed.

Paul-Henri Nargeolet - Mr Titanic

Paul-Henri Nergeolet, 77, - known as 'Mr Titanic - was one of the five killed when a submersible catastrophically imploded on its trip to the wreckage of the Titanic.

His grieving daughter Sidonie Nargeolet said yesterday that bosses from the firm behind the ill-fated expedition have not even bothered to contact her to offer their condolences or even apologise.

Speaking to 60 Minutes Australia, Sidonie, wearing a blue T-shirt with a picture of a deep-sea diver on the front, said: '[I've heard] nothing from them [OceanGate]. No condolences, no "we are sorry". Nothing.'

She agreed it was 'extraordinary' not to have heard from the Washington-based under-fire company.

Nargeolet came along as a deep-sea guide and it was his 38th trip to the wreckage of the Titanic.

Paul-Henri Nergeolet, 77, - was known as 'Mr Titanic

Commander Paul-Henri Nargeolet laughs, at Black Falcon Pier in Boston on Sept. 1, 1996

This photo shows a young Paul Henri-Nargeolet who was one of the five killed when a submersible catastrophically imploded on its trip to the wreckage of the Titanic

Nargeolet (pictured younger) came along as a deep-sea guide and it was his 38th trip to the wreckage of the Titanic

In the 1990s, he left his job in the navy to explore and retrieve relics - managing to retrieve the first objects from the site, some of which he returned to the owners.

He took 5,500 in total and faced criticism from other explorers but he was 'obsessed' and retrieved the objects to honour the memory of those who died.

Ms Nargeolet told the Sunday Times she went sailing with her father in the Mediterranean before he sank it.

'My family made fun of him. They said it was a bit like the Titanic. I didn't think it was funny at the time, but now...' she told the newspaper.

His daughter slammed the firm behind the sub and said it stopped communicating with the families after the accident.

She said: 'That is not normal. The least they could do is offered their condolences.'

The tragedy is still being 'actively' investigated and it later emerged that experts had flagged concerns with the firm - OceanGate - about the sub.

Ms Nargeolet said it is 'better' that the firm's boss Mr Rush is no longer around as it would have been 'hell for him to be alive' after the disaster of OceanGate Expeditions, which offered the trips for $250,000.

In a disturbing interview a month before the disaster, Nargeolet said the risks to the experimental sub didn't worry him because 'under that pressure, you'd be dead before you knew there was a problem'.

His former navy colleagues organised a ceremony for him in Toulon, and a building at the naval diving school has been named in his memory.

Stockton Rush - CEO of OceanGate

Richard Stockton Rush, the CEO and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, was aboard his company's submarine when it imploded last year while on its way to explore the wreck of the RMS Titanic.

The ship, which sank over a century ago and resulted in the tragic deaths of 1,517 people, has fascinated many throughout the years, and Rush, 61, had managed to tap into that obsession with OceanGate Expeditions.

Last year's tragedy, which quickly grabbed the world's attention, in particular shone a light on Rush, a self-styled 'innovator', who bragged about 'breaking rules', and how his ambitious voyage was doomed from the start.

Before co-founding OceanGate in 2009, San Francisco-born Rush was more interested in space than deep seas: At 19, he became the youngest jet transport-rated pilot in the world, qualifying with the United Airlines Jet Training Institute.

For the next three years he flew for Saudi Arabian Airlines on his summer holidays from his aerospace engineering course at Princeton.

Richard Stockton Rush, the CEO and founder of OceanGate Expeditions, was aboard his company's submarine when it imploded last year

From 1984 he worked with the US Air Force on F-15s and anti-satellite missile programs, with the aim of eventually taking part in the space program.

Rush obtained an MBA from Berkeley and went on to work for multiple companies, specialising in sonar, subsea technology and radars.

He built a Glasair III experimental aircraft which he flew regularly, and his own Kittredge K-350 two-man submersible.

His dream was to be the first person to reach Mars. 

Rush always intended to take tourists to the Titanic: in 2017, he said he planned to then branch out to excursions to hydrothermal vents or deep-sea canyons, and underwater battlefield tours.

His maverick approach to innovation earned him comparisons with visionaries like Elon Musk but caused concern among peers in the industry.

But when the Titan imploded, colleagues and friends of the CEO said it was a tragedy they had been warning would happen for years, with some having begged Rush not to plough ahead.

Rush always intended to take tourists to the Titanic: in 2017, he said he planned to then branch out to excursions to hydrothermal vents or deep-sea canyons, and underwater battlefield tours

Leaders in the field of deep-sea exploration even wrote to the father-of-two in 2018 - five years before the ill-fated voyage - warning the company's 'experimental' methods could end in a 'catastrophic' disaster.

But instead of heeding the warnings, Rush shrugged them off, even suggesting that to question the Titan's safety credentials was 'personally insulting' to him as he branded claims he was 'going to kill someone' as 'baseless'.

Shahzada Dawood - Heir to a great business dynasty

Shahzada Dawood was a Pakistani businessman and philanthropist. Dawood, 48, and his teenage son were on board the small underwater craft taking paying tourists to view the famous wreck.

The pair were heirs to the great Dawood business dynasty and amongst the richest people in Pakistan - although they lived in Surrey, England.

They were amongst the richest in Pakistan, but had strong links to the UK and Shahzada was believed to live in a Surrey mansion with his wife Christine, who works as a life coach, son Suleman and daughter Alina.

They lived in Surbiton, south-west London, but had gone to Canada for a month before the fateful Titanic expedition.

Shahzada Dawood was a Pakistani businessman and philanthropist

He is pictured hugging his son Suleman in happier times before they perished on the sub

Shahzada was the Vice Chairman of Engro Corporation, which makes fertilisers, food and energy, as well as the Dawood Hercules Corporation, which makes chemicals.

He was born in Pakistan but moved to the UK where he studied law at the University of Buckingham.

He was also a trustee of SETI, the California-based research institute. SETI is a generic acronym that stands for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence.

Scientists doing SETI experiments are looking for proof – not merely of life elsewhere – but of intelligent beings in other star systems.

Shahzada also served as a Member of the Global Advisory Board, Prince’s Trust International, contributing towards its vision that every young person should have a chance to succeed.

Suleman Dawood - The teenager with the Rubik's Cube

The youngest victim of the Titan sub disaster had dreams of breaking a Rubik's Cube world record while exploring the Titanic wreckage in the depths of the Atlantic.

Suleman Dawood, 19, loved the coloured cube and would dazzle friends by solving it in 12 just seconds, his heartbroken mother Christine has revealed.

The talented teenager had applied to Guinness World Records and was 'so excited' to try and solve the puzzle some 3,700 metres below the ocean surface. His father Shahzada, who also died, had taken a camera on the doomed voyage to capture the moment.

Suleman could complete a Rubik's Cube at a 'quite impressive' speed and was known to show off his skills. Since his death, poignant footage of him solving the puzzle as a challenge in a Glasgow city centre bar around Christmas last year has come to light.

A companion who witnessed the university student's party trick said Suleman had his 'whole life in front of him.'

Suleman Dawood (pictured), 19, loved the coloured cube and would dazzle friends by solving it in 12 just seconds, his heartbroken mother Christine has revealed

Suleman, who was with his father (pictured), was the youngest victim of the Titan sub disaster

Suleman's mother said he loved the famous cube puzzle so much that he carried it with him everywhere. He was also adept at solving it at high speed.

The teenager, who recently completed his first year at Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, had contacted officials about attempting to break the Guinness World Record for the puzzle while on the OceanGate voyage.

After losing her husband and son, Christine Dawood paid a poignant tribute to them on the one year anniversary of their deaths. 

Posting a picture of a lit candle on Facebook she wrote: 'When people pass, they take a piece of you with them.

'As the one-year anniversary is coming closer, I'm reflecting back on a time that nearly broke me, and yet the love and support I've received was, and still is, so huge that I can't feel anything but being grateful.

'I miss them every day, every hour, every minute, they will never be replaced. With these candles, I'd like to send their light to anyone who's open enough to receive it.

'I'd like to thank everyone for their love and prayers. I felt them and they helped.

'Light a candle for the missing people in your life and send their light into the world.'

She previously revealed that she was meant to be on board - but gave her spot to her only son because he 'really wanted to go'.

Speaking about initially holding out hope, Mrs Dawood told the BBC in June last year: 'We all thought they are just going to come up, so that shock was delayed by about ten hours or so.

'By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time.... when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed, the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings, started.

'We had loads of hope, I think that was the only thing that got us through it because we were hoping and... there were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface... they would drop the weights, then the ascent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.

'There was so many things we would go through where we would think "it's just slow right now, it's slow right now". But there was a lot of hope.'

She said she 'lost hope' when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible.

She revealed that is when she sent a message to her family saying she was 'preparing for the worst'.

Mrs Dawood revealed that she had planned to go with her husband to view the Titanic wreck in the OceanGate sub, but that their trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

'Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go,' she said.

'I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time.'