A top expert on the sinking of the Titanic is one of the crew members of the missing submarine, reports The Daily Mail world

One of the passengers on the tourist submarine that disappeared on an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic is Paul-Henri Nargolet, a former commander of the French Navy who is considered the leading expert on the wreck site, according to media in Canada and Canada. England.

The Guardian newspaper said Narguleh was believed to have been on board the submarine. Radio Canada attributed the information to another passenger: Hamish Harding.

British billionaire Hardin claimed on his Facebook page that he will be on the tourist submarine. He mentioned on the social network that he would be accompanied by famous explorers, and mentioned the name of Paul-Henri Nargolet.

The radio also heard a diver from Canada, Larry Daly, confirm that Nargolite had plans to take part in this cruise.

In 1987, the Frenchman took part in the first expedition to recover items from the Titanic. Since then, he has led several expeditions to the site and oversaw the recovery of 5,000 artifacts, including a 20-ton fragment of the Titanic’s hull.

Narjolet, in addition to being a former French Navy captain, is an experienced diver and submarine pilot.

As Director of Underwater Research for E/M Group and Titanic, Inc, he is considered the leading expert on the wreck site and likely was in charge of the submarine during the dive, with four other passengers besides him.

In a 2012 interview, Narjoleh described his first dive on the wreck of the Titanic. At the time, he said, the trim on the ship’s keel was still shiny, “as clean as if someone had polished it this very week.”

The ex-soldier stated that he was moved to see the thousands of objects on the ocean floor and the gradually deteriorating remains of the ship.

“It’s absolute darkness. We use projectors, but they’re a bit like the lights in a car, they don’t reach very far. The water is very cold, between zero and one degree, and there’s a more or less strong current,” Nargoulet said.

“Visibility varies, and on some days it looks like the boat is snowing because of the particles that generally come down from the Gulfstream,” he said.

He also spoke of the first expedition: “There were three of us in the submarine. For ten minutes there was not a word. There is usually a lot of talk in a submarine, but the excitement was so strong. It was great. We were lucky to get to the front, we walked around the hull We were sure it was the Titanic.”

The vanished tourist submarine belonged to the OceanGate Company, which conducts expeditions to the wreck of the Titanic. There are five people inside the ship.

The remains of the Titanic lie about 600 kilometers off the coast of Canada.

The Coast Guard in the United States and Canada conduct search and rescue operations. The Canadians stated that they had sent military aircraft and a ship to help.

OceanGate charges each passenger $250,000 (R$1.19 million) for a place on their expedition to view the wreck.

Last week, the company began its fifth “mission” to the wreck of the Titanic, according to the company’s website. The expected date for the end of the trip was next Thursday.

The trip takes eight days. To descend to the wreck site, which is located at a depth of 3800 meters in the Atlantic Ocean, the submarine takes about 2.5 hours.