The stepson of British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding—who is aboard the Titanic submersible that has gone missing in the Atlantic—lashed out at media personality Tucker Carlson in a Facebook post.
Search teams are racing against time to find an advanced submersible named Titan, which was carrying five people to tour the wreckage of the Titanic at a depth of about 12,500 feet. Crews have been searching since Sunday. As of Tuesday, the Coast Guard said there had been no signs of the vessel, and officials now estimate that the people on board are down to just over 24 hours left of breathable air.
The identities of the five passengers aboard the submersible have been confirmed by the authorities and their families as Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate; French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet; billionaire Briton Harding; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood.
In the earlier stages of the search, Brian Szasz, the stepson of Harding, shared a Facebook post in which he asked for wishes for his family.
"Thoughts and prayers for my Mom and Hamish Harding," he had written in a now deleted post on the social media platform, per U.K. newspaper The Mirror. "Hamish Harding, my stepfather, has gone missing on submarine thoughts and prayers."
After deleting the posts, he explained that for the sake of "privacy, my mom asked me to delete all related posts thanks for the support."
With the search and rescue mission dominating headlines, Szasz, an audio engineer based in San Diego, returned to Facebook to complain that he had been contacted by Carlson. The presenter's Twitter show debuted this month, following his abrupt departure from Fox News.
"You know it's a bad day when you get a phone call from Tucker Carlson!" Szasz, 37, wrote in the post.
Amid messages of support, one Facebook user said: "Why wouldn't you look at it as a blessing. You need all the help and coverage you can get."
Another responded by questioning why Szasz attended a Blink-182 concert on Monday. In an Instagram Stories post shared on Tuesday, Szasz defended his decision to attend the concert, writing, per E! News: "Yes I went to @blink-182 last night. What am I supposed to do sit at home and watch the news? Not sorry this band has helped me through hard times since 1998."
In one of his since-deleted Facebook posts, screenshots of which were shared by multiple media outlets, Szasz further wrote of attending the concert: "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!"
Szasz's stepfather is known to be an adventurer, having traveled twice to the South Pole. He has also gone into space on Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin New Shepard rocket, and dived to the lowest depths of the Mariana Trench.
As the search continues for Titan, OceanGate wrote in a statement: "We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crew members in the submersible and their families."
The vessel went missing on Sunday morning. The descent from the surface to the wreckage of the Titanic, which lies around 370 miles south-southeast off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, takes approximately eight hours.
Newsweek is attempting to contact Tucker Carlson for comment.
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