A lifelong aviation enthusiast who joined&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;in 2007, Curt came to&nbsp;the publication&nbsp;from the broadcast industry where he was a national science and technology television reporter and producer. He writes on the FBO field, aviation finance, and sustainable aviation and occasionally contributes to&nbsp;AIN&nbsp;sister publication&nbsp;Business Jet Traveler. Curt was a member of the AINtv reporting staff that won the 2008 Aerospace Journalist of the Year award for Best Airshow Daily. That same year, he was a finalist for another AJOYA award. He earned an AJOYA for Best Business Aviation Submission in 2018 and was a finalist in that category in 2021. He received the National Air Transportation Association’s&nbsp; Aviation Journalist Award in 2012 and won a Pegasus Sapphire Business Aviation Award for outstanding journalism in 2021.
Before joining AIN, Curt worked with&nbsp;Consumer Reports’ television division, CRTV, and for several local television news staffs. An honors graduate of the State University of New York at Stony Brook, he earned a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University in 1995. Curt lives in New York State with his wife and two young sons.

Senior Editor

Curt Epstein

Hamish Harding—the chairman of Dubai-based aircraft brokerage Action Aviation, an air transport pilot, and a Living Legend of Aviation—is among five individuals onboard the Titan submersible that lost contact during a visit to the Titanic site on Sunday morning.
Harding is one of four commercial “mission specialists” who paid to join the vessel’s pilot on the 13,000-foot descent to view the Titanic’s remains. The Titan is believed to have up to 96 hours of life support reserves, and a multinational search instituted by the U.S. Coast Guard and the Canadian military has been ongoing.
Ahead of the mission, Harding had posted a message on Instagram that he was “proud to finally announce that I joined @oceangateexped for their RMS TITANIC Mission as a mission specialist on the sub going down to the Titanic.” He added that the expedition was likely to be the first only manned mission to the Titanic this year given that Newfoundland had experienced its worst winter in 40 years.
“A weather window has just opened up and we are going to attempt a dive tomorrow,” he wrote.
A noted adventurer who flew into space as a commercial astronaut aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket last year, Harding set a world record for global circumnavigation in a Gulfstream G650ER&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/business-aviation/2019-07-09/g650-crew-attempts-record-polar-circumnavigation" target="_blank">in 2019</a>, ventured to the South Pole multiple times, and has visited the Challenger Deep, the lowest depth on Earth.
A frequent speaker at aviation events, Harding has been a driving force in the brokerage market and full of optimism about&nbsp;the industry. “The business is great. The business is booming still,” he told AIN recently.
In a message on the Action Aviation website this morning, the company and Harding’s family expressed their gratitude for the continued efforts of the authorities and companies that have stepped in to aid the rescue efforts and requested privacy at this time. “The team at Action Aviation are extremely proud of Hamish and we look forward to welcoming him home.”

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