A family friend of Hamish Harding, one of the victims in the Titanic submersible tragedy, has opened up about her desperate behind-the-scenes efforts to get a remotely operated vehicle deployed for the search.
Tracy Ryan, co-founder of NKore Biotherapeutics and an avid NASA fan, told People magazine that she was shocked to learn that the British billionaire was aboard the doomed vessel, which disappeared on its way to the famed shipwreck.
“When I heard it was Hamish my heart dropped to my stomach,” Ryan told the mag.
She said she felt for Harding’s wife, Linda, who was “very, very overwhelmed” during the agonizing search for the Titan, which had an oxygen supply of 96 hours.
“She has such a beautiful soul,” said her friend, who described her actions to help speed things along for the search-and-rescue efforts in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean.
Her priority was deploying the Magellan, a remotely operated vehicle with a manipulator arm that could attach to a hull and possibly lift it off the ocean floor.
“I had been working behind the scenes for four days to get the Magellan sub there and get their permits approved because they did have the capabilities to dive all the way down to the site,” Ryan told People. “And I actually brought a United States congressman in to work with the Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard trying to get them clearance.”
She said she sought the help of Rep. Eric Salwell (D-Calif.).
“He responded to me within like 60 seconds,” Ryan said. “For two days he was on the phone with these guys trying to get the Magellan deployed. And I had been, you know, messaging all this back and forth with Linda the whole time.”
She said Linda was “so thankful” for her help in trying to get a capable sub in the water.
“This was really more of an effort for me to try and help the family get answers faster,” she said.
At one point, banging and tapping sounds were detected every 30 minutes, raising hopes that the occupants had survived.
But officials later said the noise was unrelated to the missing submersible.
Eventually, authorities announced that the Titan had suffered a “catastrophic implosion,” which killed Harding, 58, famed Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, 61, Pakistani tycoon Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman Dawood.
Before news of the vessel’s destruction was released, current and former US Navy members reportedly exchanged text messages to express their frustration with the military branch’s delayed response.
“They dragged their feet,” one master diver said in the exchange, a Navy source told People.
The Post has reached out to the US Navy for comment.
“My big thing is that there were more capable submarines ready on the tarmac waiting to be deployed that were blocked for days,” Ryan said. “It’s my understanding that they called the submarine ‘redundant.’ They believed that they had all the equipment that they needed.”
Bretton Hunchak, the former president and CEO of RMS Titanic Inc., a group that has exclusive rights to salvage artifacts from the ocean liner, told the mag that the Magellan never ended up getting clearance.
Hunchak said he also worked behind the scenes during the search, adding that the five victims “would have moved heaven and earth for us had the tables been turned. It was a truly irreplaceable group of folks.”
The Wall Street Journal has reported that a top-secret team with the US Navy detected the implosion of the Titan submersible on June 18, meaning that the international rescue effort was futile from the outset.
Ryan said she has made it her lifelong mission to help people in need because of her 10-year-old daughter, Sophie, who has been battling incurable brain cancer since she was 8 months old.
She said her daughter was aware of her mom’s efforts for the Titan Five.
“She’s been very proud of me for trying to help,” Ryan said.
