The Wokingham borough family of the adventurer killed with his fellow passengers aboard a submarine want a full investigation into the tragedy.
Hamish Harding, 58, was killed with four others on board the Titan, which was on its way to explore the wreck of the Titanic.
On Thursday last week, US authorities said a debris field located in the North Atlantic meant it was likely the OceanGate-owned submersible imploded, instantly killing all on board.
The US Navy says it detected sounds “consistent with an implosion” shortly after the sub lost contact on Sunday during a descent to the Titanic wreck at 3,800m (12,467ft) below sea level – but this information was only made public on Thursday.
Mr Harding’s goddaughter Lucy Cosnett, 38, of Twyford told BBC news: “There should be a full investigation as to why it happened, into what exactly went wrong.”
Canadian and US officials have indicated there will be investigations. Lucy, a nursery nurse working as a member of bank staff at nurseries in Wokingham borough, told Wokingham Today: “I heard the news from my cousin Robert, I couldn’t talk for long. I felt sad and shocked.”
Later, singing with Henley Rock Choir, she spotted a rainbow in the sky. She’s grateful to the choir leader who comforted her at that emotional moment.
“Hamish was very important to me. I feel I don’t want to believe he’s not there anymore,” she said.
Lucy had known adventurous Mr Harding would be making the dive. She spent anxious days waiting for news after the submarine lost contact with its surface vessel an hour and 45 minutes into its dive on June 18.
The debris was found off Newfoundland, where the sea in the area is up to 2.4 miles deep. News of the tragedy emerged last Thursday.
As Lucy waited for news, she talked to Wokingham Today about the explorer and adventurer’s kindness towards her.
In August last year, she flew to Austria to see Mr Harding, who was head of Action Aviation based in Dubai, being awarded a medal for his contributions to aviation and aerospace at the European Living Legends of Aviation Awards.
From Austria, she flew in his private jet to Dubai where he lives.
“While I was there we went to an indoor theme park – when I was younger we went to Alton Towers and also Disneyland in America,” she said.
Lucy knew Mr Harding as a very kind, intelligent man, saying: “He paid for my schooling and towards nursery training college. He has played an important part in my life.”
She flew to Texas last June to see Mr Harding fly into space on the Blue Origin space rocket. “We saw him briefly before take-off and said goodbye to the astronauts. He wasn’t nervous. We were driven to the viewing platform to see the take-off,” she said.
Lucy’s mother, Kathleen Cosnett, 69, of Twyford, is Mr Harding’s cousin. After the deaths were announced she said: “I’m thinking about all the families involved. Hamish was doing what he loved doing.
“I’m devastated. I put the television news on and that’s when I heard all five had been killed.”
Mr Harding had been due to celebrate his birthday last Saturday. “His mother was staying in my parents’ house in London when she was due to have him. I watched his mother going off to the hospital to have him,” said Mrs Cosnett.
Mrs Cosnett, a member of Twyford Singers, has criticised Mr Harding’s old college, Pembroke at Cambridge, for going ahead with a submarine-themed ball on Wednesday last week.
“The ball was unbelievable, what bad timing. They could have changed it at the last minute. It could be easily done,” she said.
She has also expressed concern about the time it took to get services organised to try to rescue the submarine’s passengers.
She has described Mr Harding as a “kind and caring man and very adventurous”.
Mrs Cosnett is known to many local people for giving lifts to hospital and other medical appointments as part of the volunteer drivers service.
