OceanGate Passenger Suleman Dawood Joins Titan Sub To Please Dad Despite Fear of Titanic Trip

According to his aunt, the university student who perished in the Titan sub disaster was "terrified" about the trip.

Suleman Dawood, 19, and his father, businessman Shahzada, were among the five crew members who perished immediately when the OceanGate submarine sustained a "catastrophic implosion" 1,600 feet from the Titanic wreckage.

Suleman Dawood Join Titanic Sub Trip to Please Dad

British tycoon Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and French Navy veteran Paul-Henri Nargeolet were the other victims. On Sunday, following the Titan's disappearance, a massive search was undertaken for those on board.

Azmeh Dawood, Mr. Dawood's older sister, said her nephew "wasn't very enthusiastic" and was "terrified," but he felt compelled to please his father, who was impassioned about the April 14, 1912 sinking of the Titanic.

She added that the 19-year-old ultimately boarded the Titan because the voyage occurred over Father's Day weekend. She told NBC News from her residence in Amsterdam, "I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19 years old, possibly grasping for air... Sincerely, it has been debilitating."

She added that she would not have boarded the submersible even if a million dollars had been offered. Her remarks follow those of US Coast Guard spokesperson Rear Admiral John Mauger, who stated that the discovered debris was "consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber."

According to experts, those aboard would have been killed instantaneously by the explosion. Dawood and his family, who resided in Surrey, were successors of the Dawood business dynasty and were among Pakistan's wealthiest citizens.

Suleman was an undergraduate at Glasgow's University of Strathclyde. In a statement released earlier this week, Suleman's family described him as a "huge devotee of science fiction literature and new knowledge."

Prior to the dive, his family, including his mother, Christine and sister Alina, had been in Canada for a month. Last night, the Dawood family issued a statement on Twitter announcing the passing of Shahzada and Suleman Dawood.

Titan Sub Disappearance

In recent years, Azmeh, who was "reduced to being in a wheelchair" after being diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis in 2014, has lost contact with her sibling.

Her family members, including her sibling, disapproved of her relocation from England to Amsterdam in order to obtain simpler access to medical cannabis. Upon hearing the tragic news, however, she was reminded of her affection for her brother, as per The Sun.

On June 18, 2023, a submersible transporting five visitors to the Titanic wreck disappeared. Titan, a ship owned by OceanGate Expeditions, was scheduled to transport passengers to the Titanic shipwreck, but communication with the ship was lost two hours into its voyage.

According to Insider, passengers paid $250,000 to travel more than 13,000 feet beneath the ocean's surface. Among the other passengers are the ship's founder and pilot, a British billionaire, and "Mr. Titanic," a French Titanic expert.