Tom Zaller, president and CEO of Imagine Exhibitions and producer of Titanic: The Exhibition, sat down with Fox News Digital on Tuesday to discuss ongoing efforts to search for the Titan, a tourist submersible that disappeared on its way to visit the wreckage of the Titanic.
Zaller, who has visited the Titanic wreckage on another vessel, said had spoken with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush before he and four other people on board went missing.
"I just hope and pray that there’s still a chance that they’ll be found," Zaller said.
Zaller said he and Rush had recently exchanged emails and had plans to expand the Titanic exhibition with footage from previous dives.
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"We were talking before the dive out there about how we might describe the journey … because the journey’s an incredible part of the story," Zaller said. "The Titanic is what touches people’s hearts, but the adventure of going down there is also a compelling story."
Zeller is also an acquaintance of Paul-Henry Nargeolet, a French mariner and Titanic expert who is reported to be among the five people on board the Titan.
Zaller described Nargeolet as "probably one of the foremost experts on the Titanic."
"He’s a great guy," Zaller said. "If anybody can get him out of that situation … he’d be the guy you want on your side."
Nargeolet had made multiple trips to the wreckage across several decades. He is director of underwater research for E/M group and RMS Titanic, Inc., and has completed 37 dives to the wreck and supervised the recovery of artifacts, according to his profile.
The other three people on board the Titan are British businessman and aviator Hamish Harding and father-and-son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood, members of one of Pakistan’s most prominent families.
The submersible Titan was reported overdue Sunday night about 435 miles south of St. John’s, Newfoundland, according to Canada’s Joint Rescue Coordination Center, spurring a desperate international rescue effort. Rescuers were racing against the clock because the oxygen supply could run out by Thursday morning.
The expedition was led by OceanGate, making its third voyage to the Titanic, which struck an iceberg and sank in 1912, killing all but about 700 of the roughly 2,200 passengers and crew.
Titanic: The Exhibition opens in Los Angeles on June 30 and runs through September 15.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
