the ceo, stockton rush of oceangatings as well as british billionaire, hammish harding. and paul-henri nargeolet. so, you know, our thoughts with all of their families at this point as well. >> let's give you a little bit more information about who was on board, hammish harding, as you mentioned, a 58-year-old british billionaire, he visited the south pole with astronaut buzz aldrin. he holds three guinness world records, including one more more than a four-hour dive in the deepest part of the mariana trench. so he's familiar with this deep sea diving or he was. he was also on blue origin last year, that sub orbital flight founded by jeff bezos. p.h. nargeolet was a 77-year-old former commander of the french navy. he is also a deep sea search expert who has completed at least 35 dives to the wreck of the titanic. he's considered one of the foremost experts on the titanic. he also is the director of underwater research at rms titanic which has the exclusive rights to salvage artifacts from the wreck. nargeolet was also part of the effort to find air france flight 447. whi

. >> reporter: tonight abc news learning that among the missing are ha hammish harding, a weather window has just opened up and we're going to attempt to dive tomorrow. more expedition updates to follow if the weather holds. >> time certainly of the essence. james joins us. b what more do we know about who was on board and how the coast guard is searching for them tonight? >> reporter: there's one pilot or commander on board and four mission specialists. they include paying passengers. the coast guard says they're using sonar buoys to listen for sound in the water. >> james, thank you, and as we come on tonight. dangerous storms are slamming the south after a deadly tornado outbreak. 20 reported tornadoes over the weekend. at least six more today, including this confirmed tornado in moss point, mississippi, trapping eight people inside this bank and causing widespread damage. a flooding threat in alabama after heavy rain there, and now a new tropical storm is brewing named bret. chief meteorologist ginger zee is tracking it all. >> tonight, a tornado ripping across southeastern mississip

. >> ainsley: our next guest is holding on to hope the friend, french hammish harding one of the britishers on board the subis still alive. >>ian can a mychalson joins us now when's the last time you had a conversation and was he apprehensive at all about going down? i received a message before he went seaside. diving for the titanic. weather window is open and i answered him godspeed hammish and wished him good luck in our expedition language. >> have you been in jacket have you been in contact with the family and if you have what are the authorities telling him? nominee is all together. i'm helping them navigate press. the family's wish is to be left alone right now and that the press respects their privacy in this difficult time. >> ainsley: jannicke tell us about hammish he went to buzz aldrin. billionaire clearly very successful. tell us more about him and why he wanted to do adventurous explorations hammish is larger than life he works hard and explores hard. is he detail-oriented. is he a perfectionist. and if someone hasn't done something, hammish wants to achieve it. i can see i

hammish harding on the titan sub.to the deepest part of the ocean. the challenger deep. that's three times deeper than where the titanic wreckage is. so you and hammish went down there. he's been down to the titanic 35 or more times. he was very experienced. >> there was also my technical advisor for evaluating the safety of my submersible and my safety officer. >> so you have great respect for him and trust him. >> absolutely. >> so are you surprised they decided to do this? they must have had the same knowledge and basics you're sharing here on steroids. >> yes but they also have a burning desire to explore. i think he was incredibly passionate about the titanic. he had been there so many times and wanted to share that experience and i also feel that by being part of oceangate he could help them enhance their safety by being there. and hammish i think just very much wanted to see the titanic and they were the only operation offering people to go down. >> i know this is a tragedy for you having this happen to your in

world explorer hammish harding is said to be on board.ions to bring the crew back safely. the submarine, the size of a medicine my van, w -- minivan. 350 miles southeast in the atlantic ocean. it was reported missing sunday night when it did not return. oceangate's website advertises seven night voages to see the titanic for $250,000 a head. a storm brewing in the atlantic ocean, tropical storm bret began forming yesterday. forecasters anticipate it to strengthen into a hurricane as it travels toward the eastern caribbean thursday. meanwhile, more weather news, tornadoes in mississippi killing one and injuring nearly two dozen. one town is showing destroyed homes and mangled trees after a jet stream blew through the area. the emergency management agency saying more than 49,000 homes in central mississippi still without power. unbelievable. at&t saying it's closing its flagship store in san francisco as the retail exodus there continues. the store at one pound street in down ton union square area will shut its doors in the beginning of aug

two days ago an instagram account with captain hammish harding, a billionaire from united kingdom postedproud to announce i joined oceangate ex-petition for the rms titanic mission as a mission specialist. i o in the past few hours, a congressman said the navy should deploy the best submarine and best submarine operators in the world. >> thank you. as you heard, five tourists are trapped in a submarine, likely more than 10,000 feet under the atlantic ocean, been there since sunday on a tour to find the titanic wreckage. the president of a water rescue and training company, butch hendrick, joins me now. butch, that's the question. how much longer do the five individuals have? >> from all the research we have had, we know that the machine is submersible at a 96 hour window of survival. so if it went in the water yesterday morning, we are now somewhere into the neighborhood of 40 hours, so you look at just that, they still have a reasonable 50 hours of life support on board, if nothing else has gone wrong. if we look at that, we have another day and a half they could still be alive. >> butc

those on board, hammish harding, shazada shula man dawad, french exploreser paul henri.n rush who owns expeditions and the missing sub. stockton rush, the individual who is on that "titan" capsule, the submersible, was developing it in 2018. this is a very small and serious bunch of people who do this sort of underwater exploration. and the marine technology services sent a letter to rush when he was developing this "titan" capsule they're searching for now, in part it says that, your representation at a minimum is misleading to the public and breaches an industry-wide professional code of conduct for all, we all endeavor to uphold." there was great concern what he was developing with this sub didn't make the standard the rest of the industry set for themselves. they asked him if they could watch and see what sort of testing he was doing on that sub. it is not clear how that all resolved itself. this is something, a letter that "the new york times" found some time ago. but there were concerns raised early on about this "titan" capsule. now a massive search under way. the

incorporated, we now believe that our ceo, stockton rush, dawood and his son suleman da wood, hammish hardingheir families during this tragic time. we grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew. this is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. the entire oceangate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide ranging resources and have worked so hard on this mission. we appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families. this is a very sad time for the entire explorer community and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. we respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time. i want to bring in larry daley, president of titanic expedition logistics. he's also an expert on the titanic and has led expeditions there. also with me, retired army lieutenant general russell hono

hammish harding, the chairman of action aviation, paul henry -- one of the leading experts on the titanicalso feared to be among those five people when who went missing, and a conglomerate in pakistan focused on energy agriculture, they tweeted that the company's vice chairman along with his son, quote, embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the titanic in the atlantic ocean. the coast guard has also reached out to the u.s. navy in hopes of potentially using some naval assets. the navy had some deep sea capabilities that the coast guard simply does not, so they're keeping that on standby as well with. back to you. brian: molly line, thank you for that that report. for her, let's welcome a rescue diver with more than 30 yearses of experience, butch hendrick. welcome welcome to the program. i want to start with where holly left off. at this point the entire effort is just about search, and there are a lot of assets being deployeded to help with that. but, frankly, it sounds like they are searching for a needle in a haystack, and the likelihood of finding it is not good. what's your

will hammish harding. one of the leading experts on the titanic also feared to be amongst the five. the come glom her rat in pakistan tweeted that the company's vice chair along with his son suleiman were also on the expedition. the navy is on standby to show up if they are needed because they may have some technology that the ghocoast guard has acc. >> bret: keep track of that breaking tore. thank you. >> a plea deal for the president's son hunter and the strong reaction to it. hunter biden will plead guilty to federal tax offenses and avoid prosecution on the separate gun charge in a deal with the justice department. it is expected that he will avoid prison time so where does this leave the other part of the investigation into hunter biden? correspondent david spunt has details on the agreement and what's being said about the deal tonight. good evening, david. >> bret, good evening. the charges are narrow and do not implicate president joe biden or any larger web of corruption in allegations made by republicans, mainly on capitol hill. hunter biden will plead guilty to two tax off

hammish harding. son said by dad is on the submarine my thoughts and prayers. teenage son also on board. coast guard officials say they're exhausting every search effort possible. >> this particular submersible is advertised to have 96 hours of survival time. and so that gives us some time to continue searching and continue to using all means to try to locate the crew members. >> todd: ocean gate releasing its own statement, reading, quote we are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. we spoke with titanic historian who made the same wreckage to the titanic twice. this is the only submersible to go to that depth. i'm not too certain what can be done. it takes about two hours to reach the wreck. so what happened happened happened on the way down or as soon as they got there i'm just, you know, i'm kind of baffled by something how something could have happened so quickly. >> todd: as of now, expert say the vessel has less than 70 hours before it runs out of air, meaning it could run out of air by thursday morning. back to you. >> will

winning pilot, the company tweeting pictures showing harding out at sea, and several of the photos writing the sub had had a successful launch and hammishrently diving. french mariner, paul henry nargolet, he was named on a facebook post a day before the mission by hamish harding, and overnight, another company tweeted their company's vice chairman, shahzada dawood, along with his son sulaiman, the company noting contact was lost with their craft. i also had a conversation with the petty officer, chief petty officer just before the press conference got underway, seeking a little more clarity on the timeline. they believe that the vessel submerged around 8:00 a.m. and then later on in the evening that the coast guard was notified around the 5:00 hour, so there was quite a bit of time that went by when contact was lost with the submersible before authorities and the big team and the big assets were brought in to bear to begin looking for the submarine and all of those missing on board. john. >> john: molly line outside headquarters in boston. >> sandra:former navy diver joins us now. what does through your mind as the hours tick by, what

it's also believed uk billionaire hhammish harding is on the visit including his stepson tweeting my step dad hammishs on board the submarine thoughts and prayers. they lost communication just under two hours after it left. officials now fear it sunk too far down for rescue and only has enough oxygen to last under water until 12:00 p.m. on thursday. listen. >> the vessel was designed with a 96-hour sustainment capability if there was an emergency on board. and so we're using that time, making the best use of every moment of that time to locate the vessel >> brooke: ocean gate releasing its statement we are exploring and mobilizing all option toss bring the crew back safely. our entire focus is on the crew members in submersible and their families. one coast guard veteran warning the situation is getting worse by the minute. listen. >> i would say it's getting probably pretty dire situation. it's going to be a very uncomfortable dark experience. lot of hope and prayers >> brooke: guys, if the calculations on timing are correct, rescuers have less than 70 hours to find the vessel before it runs out of

with the submarine was the size of a minivan with only five landing on board there was also a hammish. harding guinness book record holder who has conquered space and the south pole, and circumnavigated the world. through two poles , one of the versions of the us coast guard was destroyed by a deep-sea submersible, implosion is a good example of what happened in cameron's thriller the abyss titan experienced pressure comparable to the fall of the eiffel tower on him yet another