Titanic Submersible: Teenager Who Accompanied His Dad on Trip Was Hesitant About Mission, Felt Terrified
- Young Suleman Dawood reluctantly joined his father on the ill-fated submersible expedition to the Titanic wreck, driven by the desire to please his dad on Father's Day weekend
- Azmeh Dawood, Shahzada's sister, was devastated by her brother and nephew's presumed death in the submarine explosion
- The missing Titanic submersible, carrying five passengers who paid millions for the expedition, has captivated the world's attention
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It has emerged that young Suleman Dawood was hesitant about joining his adventurous dad Shahzada Dawood to visit the wreck of the historic Titanic ship in the ill-fated submersible that disappeared off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
Source: UGC
Trip fell on Father's Day weekend
According to the business mogul's older sister Azmeh Dawood, the 19-year-old university student, Suleman, told a relative that he "wasn't very up for it" and felt "terrified" about the expedition.
Suleman and his dad Shahzada were among the five people who were declared dead after the submersible they had boarded to take them into the depths of the oceans presumably exploded.
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NBC News reports that despite being terrified of the expedition, the 19-year-old ended up going aboard OceanGate's 22-foot submersible because the trip fell on Father's Day weekend and he was eager to please his dad, who has always been passionate about the lore of the Titanic.
"I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19, in there, just perhaps gasping for breath ... it's been crippling, to be honest," Azmeh said in a phone interview from Amsterdam.
Azmeh and Shahzada are scions of a prominent corporate dynasty
Azmeh was devastated when the OceanGate, the company behind the Titan expedition, confirmed that all five passengers aboard were presumed dead. On Thursday, June 22, the U.S. Coast Guard said that debris in the search area was consistent with a "catastrophic implosion."
"I feel disbelief, it's an unreal situation," Azmeh said, through sobs.
Despite being estranged from her brother for years, the last four days were agonizing for Azmeh as she was desperate for updates about her brother and nephew — and fearing the worst.
"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;I personally have found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them," she said.
Azmeh and Shahzada are scions of one of the most prominent corporate dynasties in Pakistan. The family’s business empire, Dawood Hercules Corp. boasts investments in agriculture, the health sector and other industries.
Shahzada was the vice chairman of the Karachi-based Engro Corporation and an adviser to Prince’s Trust International, a charitable organization founded by King Charles III.
Azmeh and Shahzada fall out
In recent years, Azmeh had fallen out of touch with Shahzada because she was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis in 2014 and reduced to being in a wheelchair.
She and her husband moved from England to Amsterdam so she would have easier access to medicinal substances that were illegal in other countries. The decision put her at loggerheads with her family which was against the habit.
She said that she continued to feel close to Suleman, a young man she described as thoroughly good-hearted. The bad blood with the rest of the family did not, however, stop her from mourning her beloved brother.
"He was my baby brother, I held him up when he was born," she said.
Azmeh recalled that Shahzada was "absolutely obsessed" with the Titanic from a young age. When they were kids in Pakistan, the Dawood siblings would constantly watch the 1958 film, A Night to Remember. The latter was a British drama about the sinking of the cruise liner.
She was not surprised when she learned that her brother had purchased tickets for the OceanGate mission.
"If you gave me a million dollars, I would not have gotten into the Titan," she said.
News of missing Titanic submersible grips the world
Another story revealed that the submersible, identified as Titan, set out on an adventure with five on board, 3800 metres below the surface of the North Atlantic Ocean.
The passengers had paid millions of shillings to explore the wreckage of the Titanic ship, but an hour and 45 minutes into its dive, it lost contact with its surface ship.
The harrowing news of the missing Titanic Submarine has gripped the entire world as the 96-hour mark hit today, Thursday, June 22.
Source: TUKO.co.ke
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