The stepson of British billionaire Hamish Harding - who is among those missing onboard the Titan submersible - has spoken out after attending a Blink-182 concert.
The underwater vessel, named Titan, was in the process of giving five people onboard an in-depth look at the infamous Titanic wreckage on Sunday (June 18).
The journey would see the submersible venture on a 12,500 feet deep expedition, overseen and operated by OceanGate. However, about one hour and 45 minutes into the dive, the sub stopped sending regulated signals back to a Canadian research vessel.
This instantly raised alarm bells, which led to a major search operation being set up by US Coast Guard, as well as OceanGate Expeditions.
The five confirmed names on the missing submersible (including Harding) are CEO and founder of OceanGate Expeditions Stockton Rush, French submersible pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman Dawood.
While the concern for those onboard continues to grow, Harding's stepson, Brian Szasz, revealed that he attended a Blink-182 concert on Monday (June 19) night.
According to The New York Post, Szasz initially took to Facebook to share a now-deleted photograph of himself smiling in a Blink-182 shirt in front of an official merchandise tent at the show.
He captioned it: "It might be distasteful being here but my family would want me to be at the [B]link-182 show as it’s my favorite band and music helps me in difficult times!"
The 37-year-old - who is an audio engineer based in San Diego - then took to Instagram to defend his decision to see the band during the ongoing high-stakes rescue mission.
Taking to his Instagram Stories, he posted a picture of him outside the venue, writing: "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."
Meanwhile, on Twitter, Szasz expressed his gratitude to Blink-182 band members Tom DeLonge, Travis Barker, and Mark Hoppus, writing: "My stepdad Hamish is on this submarine lost at sea. I'm devastated but coming to the San Diego show tonight so you guys can give me hope and cheer me up."
It was reported on Wednesday morning that banging noises have been detected by a Canadian P-3 aircraft using sonobuoys - a special type of buoy with underwater sonar capabilities - after it was deployed in the search for the missing vessel.
This discovery was shared by Department of Homeland Security leadership via an internet email - obtained by Rolling Stone - which stated that the crews heard the sounds in 30-minute intervals while scouring where the sub's five passengers disappeared.
The email does not disclose what might have caused the banging sounds, but, another email obtained by CNN revealed the discovery of additional "acoustic feedback".
"Additional acoustic feedback was heard and will assist in vectoring surface assets and also indicating continued hope of survivors," the email said, according to the publication.
However, the US Coast Guard took to their social media on Wednesday (June 20) to inform people that the investigation of the noises by specialist underwater equipment had "yielded negative results".
"Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area. As a result, ROV (remote operating vehicles) operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises," they wrote.
Nevertheless, three more vessels - including one with "side-scanning sonar capabilities" - have been deployed to the seen, per a recent tweet from the US Coast Guard.
An estimated 10,000 square miles have been searched, but there has been no sign of the sub which vanished on Sunday morning.
Our thoughts go out to those working tirelessly to locate the missing sub and to the loved ones of those onboard.