Cal Gaunt
The teenager killed in the missing Titanic submarine ‘implosion’ was said to be ‘terrified’ about the trip.
The OceanGate Titan vessel was en route to the iconic wreckage of the Titanic in the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean when it suddenly vanished, approximately two hours into the voyage on Sunday.
On Thursday evening, after a significant development in the search effort where debris was discovered, the devastating news was confirmed that the crew members had lost their lives.
Safety concerns were apparently raised about the OceanGate vessel before it went missing. Find out more in the video below…
One of those crew members was 19-year-old Suleman Dawood.
According to his aunt, the British university student reluctantly joined the crew of the ill-fated OceanGate submersible to fulfil his father’s wish for Father’s Day, despite his own fears about the trip.
The crew was made up of Suleman’s father, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, and British billionaire Hamish Harding.
The US Coast Guard believe the sub suffered a catastrophic implosion just 1,600ft from the Titanic’s bow, resulting in instant fatalities.
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Azmeh Dawood, Suleman’s devastated aunt, shared with NBC News that her nephew had expressed his lack of enthusiasm for the voyage to a relative but felt compelled to please his father, who had a deep fascination with the 1912 shipwreck.
She said: “I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19, in there, just perhaps gasping for breath… It’s been crippling, to be honest.
“I feel disbelief. It’s an unreal situation.”
She added: “I feel like I’ve been caught in a really bad film, with a countdown, but you didn’t know what you’re counting down to.”
Azmeh said she ‘personally found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them’, saying: “It’s been unlike any experience I’ve ever had.”
The aunt, speaking through tears, admitted that she herself would never have boarded the Titan submersible, even if offered ‘a million dollars’.
The news of her brother’s tragic death rekindled Azmeh’s love for him, despite having grown distant in recent years due to differences in lifestyle and disapproval of her use of medical cannabis to manage her primary progressive multiple sclerosis.
Azmeh – the older sister of Suleman’s father – fondly remembered her bond with Suleman, describing him as a thoroughly good-hearted individual.
The grandparents of Suleman, Hussain and Kulsum Dawood, have also expressed their sorrow at the unimaginable loss of their beloved grandson and son.
The US Coast Guard, who led the search mission, announced that the discovered debris was consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber, confirming the fate of the victims.
Rear Admiral John Mauger offered his deepest condolences to the families on behalf of the Coast Guard and the unified command.
Tragically, the men aboard the submersible are thought to have faced instantaneous death, with little hope of recovering their remains.
Suleman Dawood, along with his father, was part of the renowned Dawood business dynasty and among the wealthiest individuals in Pakistan.
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They held British citizenship and resided in Surbiton, Surrey.
Suleman, a student at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, had just completed his first year at the Business School.
Before his death was announced, the university’s Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Sir Jim McDonald said in a statement: “I write to you with a heavy heart to share the news that one of our students, Suleman Dawood, is a passenger on board the submersible that is missing in the North Atlantic.
“We are deeply concerned about Suleman, his father and the others involved in this incident. I know you will join me in sending our thoughts and prayers to their families and loved ones.”
A family statement earlier in the week described Suleman as ‘a big fan of science fiction literature and learning new things’.
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