In an interview with BBC special correspondent Lucy Manning, Lucy Cosnett asked what safety checks had been in place before the tragedy. "It should be fully investigated, to see what went wrong, why it happened, why they didn’t survive," Cosnett said. "He [Harding] was going to have his birthday tomorrow. He’d be 59 years old. I would have sent him a message or tried to call him to wish him happy birthday.” Reflecting on the last few days, Cosnett said: "When I read they had heard banging noises I was feeling hopeful that maybe it was coming from the submersible. "But then yesterday was the worst when I heard that he didn’t make it, that they all died," she said.

DN