Hamish Harding as a pilot, the Titan, and OceanGate founder Stockton Rush.
Withersworldwide has disclosed that one of the passengers on the doomed Titanic submersible was a client.
On Wednesday, when there was still hope for the occupants of the vessel, the firm posted on social media to express its "hope and support for our client, Hamish Harding, and all others aboard the Titan submarine”.
“During this challenging time, we wish to share our heartfelt thoughts and prayers with all concerned and hope to see their safe return”, said the private client specialist in a LinkedIn post, alongside a picture of a lighthouse.
Harding is one of five people who died in the Titan when it imploded during an attempted dive to the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic.
The 58-year-old businessman made his fortune brokering sales of private jets from his headquarters in Dubai, and used his wealth to pursue a passion for exploring and flying.
In 2019 he set a world record of 46 hours and 40 minutes for the fastest circumnavigation of earth by aircraft over both poles, and in 2021 he set two more world records during a dive to the deepest point of the Mariana Trench.
Withersworldwide, which has the very applicable tagline “What would you do in a crisis?”, declined to give further details of its work for Harding.
The firm’s use of social media to broadcast sympathy for its client contrasted with the approach of Harding’s stepson, who, in a since-deleted Facebook update, posted photos of himself at a Blink 182 concert earlier this week captioned, “It might be distasteful being here but my family would want me to be at the blink-182 show as it's my favorite band and music helps me in difficult times!"
The Titan submersible was operated by OceanGate, a deep sea tour company which charged $250,000 per ticket for a trip to the Titanic.
Also onboard with the 58-year-old businessman were Shahzada Dawood, a British-Pakistani businessman; Suleman Dawood, his 19-year-old son; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a veteran submersible pilot and former French Navy commander; and Stockton Rush, the chief executive and founder of OceanGate.
Since the sub went missing, concerns about the seaworthiness of the craft, which could not be opened from the inside and was operated by a jerry-rigged £25 wireless games controller, re-emerged.
When CBS News accompanied a dive attempt last year, Rush told its reporter, "At some point, safety just is pure waste. I mean, if you just want to be safe, don't get out of bed. Don't get in your car. Don't do anything”.
The Marine Technology Society wrote to Rush in 2018 expressing "unanimous concern regarding the development of 'TITAN' and the planned Titanic Expedition", stating that his "experimental approach… could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)”.
Titan’s passengers, which OceanGate called ‘mission specialists’, were required to sign a waiver acknowledging that the vessel "has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body, and could result in physical injury, disability, emotional trauma or death”.
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Comments
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Does every client-in-peril get a shout-out, or just newsy ones?
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Before anyone condemns Withers as opportunistic or tasteless for rushing to attach itself to a tragedy in the headlines, and for going so far as to reveal the identity of a client in order to do so (presumably unilaterally, given Harding was dead or trapped underwater at the relevant time), it would behoove us all to remember that it is impossible to offer thoughts and prayers privately.
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Oh dear Withers, this is very bad taste. PR Team: Hey, let's let everyone know we act for a billionaire! No need to mention he was a client, just a publicity stunt.
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What Fishy said.
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I feel sorry for the kid and the families. But does anyone really feel sorry for a couple of billionaires and a moronic CEO?
And in relation to that British billionaire, it's pretty laughable that he called himself an "explorer". Anyone could be an explorer if they were a billionaire - it wasn't due to his talent or abilities.
Sorry, had to be said.
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Just wanted to offer mindfulness and meditations unto the Lord on their behalf.
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In Withers' defence, now that firms are fully on board with posting statements about emotive events in the news, eg condemning the murder of George Floyd, supporting the defence of Ukraine, etc, it isn't completely bizarre (some would say it's less bizarre) to do the same for a client, with whom they at least have a tangible connection.
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Withers seems particularly gaffe prone at the moment.
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Not being a chippy communist, I feel sorry for them all. Awful way to go, and tough for their families. Rich folk are people too, ffs.
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Seems to me like a heartfelt personal message of hope from a big law firm. Refreshing. Better than “this month, we’re [black/LGBT+/whatever ticks the box]! Celebrate with us!” ?
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Here comes the peanut gallery, without a pair of nuts in sight, as the arbiters of "good taste." I don't even know what Withersworldwide is or why in the hell they have that name [seriously, what is that?], but good for them for being a little different here. Dare I say... a little human ,even? How gross, right?Half of us are about be replaced by LawyerGPT, and so you may come to miss the human touch in law one day (especially some of you who will be sitting at home chatting with your AI therapist about how AI took your job while you use AI to post comments on RollOnFriday. I agree with the one who said it is refreshing. This human, for one, approves.
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Horrific and tragic, yes - but not unforeseeable. Diving to the depths of the ocean comes with significant risk.
But, tragic deaths of wealthy folks seems to attract an awful lot of coverage and sympathy.
Meanwhile, the migrants tragic plight in Greece last week was tragedy on an epic scale; but that attracted much less attention and sympathy. Why?
Makes you question if, as a society, we are dishing out sympathy commensurately with victims bank account balances.
Moral compasses need to be configured, me thinks.....
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New Contributor is right.
People only cared about the Thai boys down the mine because they were all billionaires.
Our whole society is rotten because we don't spend enough time weeping over the deaths of people with no connection to the UK who perish in self-inflicted maritime emergencies despite repeated warnings not to make the crossing and the best efforts of the coast guard to save them.
Only prostration and penitence can cure our wicked souls.
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Selling private jets from a tax haven. Hmmm... What a caring type.
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I’d have gone to see blink too. As would anyone. Ffs, Matt skiba was great and all, but Tom being back in the band? F**k yeah. I’d miss birth of first born, granny’s funeral, you name it. Total sympathy with the dude.
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@D.Nutz (can’t believe I just wrote that): “Withersworldwide” is likely meant to be Withers, worldwide. Ingenious world play, by the six year child that came up with it. For the uninitiated, it’s an old English firm that acts for people of varying degrees of wealth (millions to gazillions) in their personal and biz affairs. It’s much more of a people business than most law firms. Their post makes perfect sense in that light and probably works well for them and their audience members (exactly none of whom are in the whiny “peanut gallery” here). This human also agrees that they are onto something with the “human touch” thing in that context - not sure about LawyerGPT replacing half of us though! Maybe a third.
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Just like to add my condolences also to the once respected BLM who also recently imploded and sunk, and disappeared with no trace of any survivors.
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No-one I know is interested in this story any more than they were in Philip Schofield. The news seems invested in bigging up issues that no-one cares about at the moment.
The only comment I've heard about this is along the lines of "I wouldn't have got in that" even before we knew it was built in someone's shed.
Similar with Schofield, the biggest surprise seems to be that he only came out recently. Everyone I know thought he was gay back in the 90s.
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So one of their partners seems to have known him well. Looks like the he does aviation, which makes sense since it said somewhere that the guy made his money in aviation. Honestly, 1 vote in favour... and it seems like the type of place I would want to work at or, if my shtcoins ever make me a billionaire, the type of firm I would want working for me! Nice to be human sometimes.
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Don’t think the Greek tragedy elicited less sympathy. They were different situations and with Titan there was a hope initially of a rescue.
Diving to depths carries a risk, so does boarding a boat which is obviously not seaworthy and which is overloaded. If you want to be a dick you can ascribe blame all around. I don’t. Both awful, both tragedies.
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Partner: "Thoughts and prayers."
Also Partner: "Were those January to May invoices already paid?"
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https://www.linkedin.com/posts/paul-jebely-83807738_like-the-protagonist-in-his-favourite-poem-activity-7077838248760250368-yDmj?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios
So one of their partners seems to have known him well. Looks like the he does aviation, which makes sense since it said somewhere that the guy made his money in aviation. Honestly, 1 vote in favour... and it seems like the type of place I would want to work at or, if my shtcoins ever make me a billionaire, the type of firm I would want working for me! Nice to be human sometimes.
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Reading the above posts, the point is that they revealed a client's identity which for this type of law firm is usually a big no no. So what are the two reasons for doing that - publicity or 'trying to be human'. I hardly imagine its the latter.
I don't believe this firm has paid back the £500k of furlough money it took from taxpayers. Not quite the human touch.