Philadelphia University Grad Among Missing Titanic Sub Crew: Reports

PHILADELPHIA — A Philadelphia University graduate has been identified as one of the five people on an expedition to tour the Titanic wreckage who are now missing.

Shahzada Dawood, 48, is among those aboard the Titan submersible craft that was chartered to tour the sunken remains of the Titanic.

Dawood, according to Action News, graduated from Philadelphia University in 2000. Philadelphia University merged with Thomas Jefferson University in 2017.

The United Kingdom resident is aboard the underwater craft with his 19-year-old son Suleman, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports.

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Dawood runs Pakistan-based Dawood Hercules Corp., is a member of the Global Advisory Board at the Prince’s Trust International, and serves on the board of trustees for the California-based SETI Institute, according to NBC10.

The OceanGate Expeditions vessel was reported overdue around Sunday night after diving to the wreck, which is in the Atlantic Ocean about 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, according to the U.S. Coast Guard and media reports.

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The ruins of the Titanic are at a depth of around 12,500 feet. The 21-foot submersible has a 96-hour oxygen supply, and there were left than 24 hours of oxygen supply left as of early Wednesday, officials said.

U.S. Coast Guard officials said in a Tuesday news release that it has established a unified command with the U.S. Navy, Canadian Coast Guard, and OceanGate Expeditions to continue its search for the vessel—Titan—from the Research Vessel Polar Prince.

The submersible was launched at 8 a.m. and expected to resurface at 3 p.m. Sunday, but an hour and 45 minutes into their dive, it lost contact with the Polar Prince, officials said.

The expedition was OceanGate's third annual voyage to chronicle the deterioration of Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew. Since the wreckage's discovery in 1985, it has been slowly succumbing to metal-eating bacteria.

Those aboard the Titan include the Dawoods, British billionaire Hamish Harding, explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, OceanGate’s founder and CEO, Reuters reported.

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As of Tuesday morning, a total of 10,000 square miles had been searched in favorable weather conditions with an increase in visibility from the previous day, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Three vessels arrived on-scene Wednesday morning and searches are continuing alongside the Skandi Vinland and the Atlantic Merlin, according to officials.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.