HAMISH HARDING

 

 
Hamish Harding, a visionary aviation pioneer and intrepid explorer, has left an indelible mark on the world as he fearlessly ventured into the deepest realms of the ocean and the vastness of space. His relentless pursuit of discovery earned him esteemed accolades in the Guinness World Records and led him to an unforgettable descent to the haunting depths of the Titanic wreckage, resting more than two miles beneath the surface of the North Atlantic.

In a prophetic interview in 2021, following his record-breaking dive to the Challenger Deep—the deepest part of the Mariana Trench—Mr. Harding seemed to foreshadow his own destiny. Plummeting to depths of nearly 36,000 feet below the western Pacific Ocean, surpassing the height of Mount Everest, his extraordinary four-hour and fifteen-minute voyage went three times further than the Titanic site. This groundbreaking expedition, undertaken alongside American explorer Victor Vescovo, secured two prestigious Guinness World Records: one for the longest distance traversed at full ocean depth by a crewed vessel, and the other for the longest time spent on a single dive.

Notably, only 18 individuals had ever ventured to the bottom of the Challenger Deep, in contrast to the 24 astronauts who had orbited or landed on the moon and the thousands who triumphantly scaled the peak of Mount Everest, as highlighted by Esquire Middle East magazine.

Aware of the perils that accompanied his audacious pursuits, Mr. Harding embraced them with unwavering resolve. "If something goes wrong, you are not coming back," he candidly stated in an interview with The Week, an esteemed Indian newsmagazine. Yet, both in business and in his adventurous life, he fearlessly welcomed challenges.

As a licensed pilot proficient in flying both business jets and airliners, Mr. Harding launched the first regular business jet service to Antarctica in 2017 through a collaboration with the luxury Antarctic tourism company, White Desert. The inaugural flight, a Gulfstream G550, gracefully touched down on a new ice runway known as Wolf's Fang.

His lifelong fascination with space led him to Antarctica in 2016, where he joined Buzz Aldrin, the Apollo 11 astronaut and the second person to walk on the moon, in an extraordinary expedition. At 86 years old, Mr. Aldrin became the oldest person to reach the South Pole. Four years later, Mr. Harding embarked on a similar voyage, accompanied by his son Giles, who at the age of 12 became the youngest individual to accomplish this remarkable feat.

In 2019, Mr. Harding embarked on yet another record-setting endeavor with former astronaut Colonel Terry Virts. Together, they completed the fastest circumnavigation of the world, traversing both the North and South Poles aboard a Qatar Executive Gulfstream G650ER long-range business jet.

In June 2022, Mr. Harding realized his lifelong dream of experiencing space firsthand, soaring approximately 60 miles aboard the New Shepard spacecraft from Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin space tourism company, reaching the outer edges of the Earth's atmosphere. Reflecting on this awe-inspiring journey, he shared in an interview with Business Aviation Magazine, "Once the liquid hydrogen/oxygen booster rocket gets the capsule to the edge of space, 350,000 feet above the Earth, the sky above you is totally, completely black, even right next to the sun."

Despite a life filled with daring quests that seemed lifted from the pages of boys' adventure books, Mr. Harding was, at his core, an explorer rather than a thrill-seeker, as Colonel Virts attested in an interview with the BBC.

"As an explorer and adventurer, I want this expedition to contribute to our shared knowledge and understanding of planet."