The youngest person to die in the OceanGate Titan submarine tragedy that killed five was said to be “terrified” of the excursion to view the Titanic’s deep-sea resting place.
Azmeh Dawood, whose nephew is the Pakistani college student identified as Suleman Dawood, said the young man also told another family member he did not necessarily want to go on the trip but decided to because he wanted to be with his father, Shahzada, Fox News reported Friday.
An image shows the father and son with smiles on their faces:
“I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19, in there, just perhaps gasping for breath… It’s been crippling, to be honest,” Azmeh Dawood explained of her grief over the tragedy.
The father and son also loved science, according to News Nation:
U.S. Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said the debris found Thursday was “consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel” and offered condolences to the families of those lost:
Mauger noted that the Titan submersible’s tail cone was found laying about 1600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.
Meanwhile, Mike Reiss, the former showrunner of The Simpsons, has pointed to communication problems during dives with the Titan submersible, per Breitbart News.
He claimed the vessel lost contact with the surface during four dives he participated in and also spoke about the waiver tourists sign that notes “death three times on the first page” of the documents.
Azmeh Dawood said, over the past week, it felt like she had been trapped in a terrible movie, adding, “I personally have found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them.”
Breitbart News reported Friday that the Discovery Plus show titled Expedition Unknown previously canceled an excursion with OceanGate, citing “safety concerns” regarding the Titan submersible.
On Wednesday, the outlet reported OceanGate previously fired its director of marine operations once he demanded safety tests be performed before taking passengers onboard:
David Lochridge, the Titan project’s director of marine operations, was let go in 2018 after calling for more stringent safety inspections of the submersible, including “testing to prove its integrity.” Lochridge was quoted as having “disagreed with OceanGate’s position to dive the submersible without any non-destructive testing to prove its integrity, and to subject passengers to potential extreme danger in an experimental submersible.”
Shahzada Dawood had always been fascinated with the Titanic’s story, according to Azmeh Dawood, who called him her “baby brother.”
He was also among the wealthiest men in Pakistan, per the Fox article.