Two Royal Air Force planes have left Scotland with equipment and personnel to assist in the hunt for the missing Titan submersible as Strathclyde University confirmed a student from the business school is on board.
Billionaires Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood, Mr Dawood's son who is a student at Strathclyde University in Glasgow, pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet and Stockton Rush, the founder of the company which made the submersible have been missing since Sunday June 18 in international waters.
Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal & Vice Chancellor at Strathclyde University said in a letter to students and lecturers: "I write to you with a heavy heart to share the news that one of our students, Suleman Dawood, is a passenger on board the submersible that is missing in the North Atlantic.
"We are deeply concerned about Suleman, his father and the others involved in this incident. I know you will join me in sending our thoughts and prayers to their families and loved ones.
"Suleman is a Strathclyde Business School student and has just completed his first year with us."
It comes as RAF planes left from Scotland to aid in the recovery mission.
The aircraft will fly to St John’s in Canada to aid the effort to recover a five-person mission to the wreck of the Titanic.
Sources within the Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed the RAF received a request overnight for assistance with movement of additional commercial equipment.
Read More: Glasgow student onboard missing Titan submersible
The C-17 Globemaster and A400 Atlas aircraft departed RAF Lossiemouth in north-east Scotland on Thursday.
Squadron Leader Simon Philips said: “The RAF is always ready to support civilian authorities in emergency and humanitarian situations.
“We hope that the RAF contribution to the international rescue effort is of assistance.”
The US Coast Guard is still treating the hunt for the missing Titan submersible as an “active search and rescue”, despite hopes fading as the 96-hour oxygen supply dwindled.
More ships and expertise were scrambled to help find the missing deep-sea vessel, which lost communication on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada.
Initial estimates stated that the craft's oxygen would likely run out by late Thursday morning.
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