Mom of teen in Titanic sub tragedy says she gave up seat for him because he ‘really wanted to go’
The mother of the 19-year-old, who was among the five passengers that died in the Titanic sub tragedy, said she gave up her seat so her son could join the exploration.
In a June 26 interview with BBC, Christine Dawood said that her son Suleman “really wanted to go” and see the Titanic wreckage via a submersible with his dad Shahzada, so she decided to “step back” and “give them space to set [him] up.”
Suleman even brought a Rubik’s cube with him on the trip with an aim to be its “fastest solver” in the world—“3,700 meters below sea at the Titanic.”
"I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time,” she said.
CNN International reported that the submersible lost contact with its mother ship about an hour and a quarter into its descent to the bottom of the North Atlantic Ocean on the morning of June 18.
According to the BBC report, Christine and her daughter were on Titan’s support vessel Polar Prince when they found out that it lost communication with the sub. "I didn't comprehend at that moment what it meant—and then it just went downhill from there.”
“I think I lost hope when we passed the 96 hours mark," Christine recalled, adding that it was when she messaged her family and said: “I’m preparing for the worst.”
On June 22, the US Coast Guard confirmed the death of Suleman and Shahzada as well as three other people aboard the submersible after their vessel suffered a “catastrophic implosion” in the ocean depths.
The Dawood family paid tribute to Suleman and Shahzada on June 23. "In this unfathomable tragedy, we try to find solace in the enduring legacy of humility and humanity that they have left behind and find comfort in the belief that they passed on to the next leg of their spiritual journey hand-in-hand, father and son."
Describing the relationship between them as “a joy to behold,” their loved ones said the two “were each other’s greatest supporters and cherished a shared passion for adventure and exploration of all the world had to offer them.”
