The chilling final text of a British billionaire trapped inside the Titanic-bound submersible that vanished deep below the water off Newfoundland on Sunday revealed that weather had been bad for sea travel in the days leading up to the trip.
A day before the OceanGate Expeditions-operated sub was launched, renowned world explorer Hamish Harding sent his friend, retired NASA astronaut Col. Terry Virts, an update on his grand voyage set to drop 12,500 feet beneath the surface to view the famous shipwreck.
‘Hey, we’re headed out tomorrow, it looks good, the weather’s been bad so they’ve been waiting for this,’ Harding, 58, messaged Virts.
While sharing the final message with ITV’s ‘Good Morning,’ Virts said he and his adventure-seeking friend ‘don’t really talk about risks.’
‘He understood the risks for sure, there’s no doubt about that,’ Virts added.
‘He went down to the deepest part of the ocean, set a few world records … at the Mariana Trench [the deepest part of the ocean] and we talked quite a bit about the risks and the different things that they were going to be able to do. So he was very excited about it,’ he said.
A day before the expedition took off, Harding shared his excitement about the trip on Instagram.
The deep-sea voyage was poised to be only the latest in Harding’s impressive travel resume, with the explorer having been one of six astronauts to visit space aboard the Blue Origin mission last year.
Harding, who boasts three Guinness World Records for his daring exploits, has also made multiple trips to the South Pole, including one with retired Apollo astronaut Buzz Aldrin, who became the oldest person to reach the pole at 86.
The vessel — which cannot submerge and return to port on its own like a submarine — was reported missing Sunday night after it failed to return to its support ship on time.
The search is focused on an area about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod at a depth of roughly 13,000 feet — making it the deepest-ever rescue mission in history if successful.
