The Titan was carrying Dubai-based billionaire Hamish Harding and Pakistan-born businessman Shahzada Dawood (inset). ARCHIVE

Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum prayed for the “hopeful return” of five people onboard a missing Titanic tour submarine that has been the subject of a massive search and rescue operation since Sunday. The missing submersible was still nowhere to be found on Thursday (June 22), with its 96-hour supply of oxygen estimated to have run out as of 3pm GMT. The Titan had gone on an expedition to the Titanic wreckage on Sunday, with Dubai-based British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistan-born businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, OceanGate Expeditions founder and CEO Stockton Rush and French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet. It lost contact with its support vessel an hour and thirty minutes after it submerged. "While search teams are working hard to rescue passengers of the OceanGate Submarine: Hamish Harding, Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush; Dubai and its people pray for their safety and hopeful return home. We are following the updates anxiously and are unified in our prayers for them and their families during these difficult times," Sheikh Hamdan said in a Twitter post. Leading deep-sea explorer David Gallo had told CNN that teams searching for the missing submersible “need a miracle” to find it before oxygen supplies run out. “The good news there is that miracles can happen,” added Gallo, the senior adviser for Strategic Initiatives at RMS Titanic Inc. Meanwhile, a remote operated vehicle “has reached the sea floor” and has begun searching for the missing Titanic submersible early Thursday morning, according to the US Coast Guard. “The Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has deployed an ROV (remotely operated vehicle) that has reached the sea floor and began its search for the missing sub,” the US Coast Guard tweeted. The French vessel L'Atalante is also preparing their ROV to enter the water, the Coast Guard added. ICA/Expat Media
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