Pennsylvania man waits anxiously as friends remain missing on Titanic submersible

PHILADELPHIA -- A Pennsylvania man is waiting anxiously as the search for the Missing Titanic submersible continues.

Alfred "Fred" Hagen has several friends on the deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, which lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply.

The United States Coast Guard, in coordination with the Canadian Coast Guard and the Canadian Armed Forces, immediately launched a search and rescue operation for the 21-foot sealed craft, named Titan.

"It's this iconic moment, and you've dreamt about it, and you've read about it, and suddenly it's there, and you've achieved this dream," said Hagen, who owns Hagen Construction in Bensalem.

He captured the unforgettable moment of approaching the Titanic when he was on the Titan in July 2022.

During that trip, he was with Paul-Henri Nargeolet, who is the Underwater Research director at RMS Titanic and is currently onboard the missing submersible.

Hagen called him the greatest living deep diver in history.

"Just a charming, warm wonderful person who has done the most incredible things underwater," said Hagen. "He personally supervised or salvaged all of the more than 5,000 objects that were salvaged off the sea floor around the Titanic."

Hagen prays his friend Nargeolet, and four other specialists make it home, including Stockton Rush.

Rush is the CEO of OceanGate, which is the company leading the difficult and dangerous expedition.

"That concept that you're sitting there comfortably having hot coffee and he's freezing and suffering and gasping for air, it tortures you at a certain level," said Hagen.

Although the Titan lost communication, Hagen said he's not losing hope.

WEB EXTRA: Fred Hagen talks about his voyage to the Titanic and the conditions his friend may be facing

A Bucks County man waits anxiously as the search for the Titanic submersible continues. He has two friends on the vessel and says he's taken the trip himself.

Back in 2021, he went on the vessel twice, and they were out of contact many times but eventually reconnected. However, those missions didn't make it to the wreckage.

"The most likely possibility is they got stuck in a fishing net that was adrift or they got stuck in the wreckage of the Titanic and are unable to maneuver out of their predicament," said Hagen.

However, Hagen said time is ticking and every second counts. He added it took decades to find the Titanic, and now teams are searching for a 21-foot vessel at the bottom of the ocean where divers and many vessels can't reach.

He urges the U.S. and Canadian crews to go to the ends of the Earth and back to find them.

"My heart aches for the families of these men," said Hagen. "This is the time to go above and beyond to do everything we can to save those lives because these are very, very special people."

Hagen said they have until Thursday morning to find them before the oxygen supply on board runs out on the Titan.