PIGEON FORGE, Tenn. — A museum in Pigeon Forge is paying respect to the five people who recently died on an expedition in a submersible to the Titanic wreckage.
The wreckage lies around 2.4 miles below the ocean surface. The OceanGate Expeditions' third annual voyage to the wreckage started Sunday morning, and its support vessel lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes later. Four "mission specialists" were onboard, along with the pilot. The "mission specialists" paid a $250,000 "mission support fee" for the 2023 expedition.
They included Hamish Harding, who lives in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, and Paul-Henrie Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic researcher. Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, both members of a prominent Pakistani family, also died. Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, died as well.
"Exploration will continue, whether it's in the deep sea or Mount Everest. The world continues on and we will pay respect to those who lost their lives," said Mary Kellogg-Joslyn, who owns the Titanic Museum in Pigeon Forge with her husband. "We quickly gathered and decided we wanted to pay a memorial tribute to those individuals."
They displayed a wreath that sits beside a list of the people who died on the Titanic. Kellogg-Joslyn also described Nargeolet as a family friend who explored the Titanic with her husband.
"They spent 44 days at sea and they did 33 dives and Paul, who was a part of that expedition with OceanGate, was his commander on his expedition. Sometimes people would say to me, long before this happened, 'Aren't you kind of scared he's out there?'" she said. "Now, you realize how challenging it is to go down to the Titanic."
Kellogg-Joslyn said that the Titanic exploration community is small, and said members of that community will be grieving.
"Pray for their families. They were explorers. They loved Titanic as much as we all love Titanic," she said.
Owners of the museum said they will add the names of the five people who died to a wall dedicated to those who died on the Titanic.