The aunt of Suleman Dawood, the youngest passenger aboard the Titanic-bound submarine that officials believe imploded on Sunday, said that he decided to join the voyage because he hoped to bond with his father over the trip.
Azmeh Dawood, the aunt of 19-year-old Suleman, told NBC News that her nephew had been “terrified” about the trip but decided to join her brother, Shahzada Dawood, on the expedition to spend time with him over the Father’s Day weekend.
“I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19, in there, just perhaps gasping for breath … It’s been crippling, to be honest,” Azmeh told NBC, adding that she was still in “disbelief” about the whole situation.
“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,” she said. “I personally have found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them.”
Suleman Dawood was ‘terrified’ of Titan trip but wanted to please his Titanic-obsessed dad, aunt says https://t.co/tjTvMoHB12 pic.twitter.com/DLtovzyLTc
— New York Post (@nypost) June 23, 2023
“He was my baby brother,” Azmeh said of Shahzada. “I held him up when he was born.”
Other victims onboard the sub included billionaire Hamish Harding, French maritime expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and OceanGate CEO and founder Stockton Rush.
According to Azmeh, her younger brother had long been fascinated by the story of the Titanic and repeatedly watched the 1958 Titanic drama “A Night to Remember,” growing up. The Titanic sank in 1912 and lies some 12,500 feet below the surface, and about 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland in the Atlantic Ocean.
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Hussain and Kulsum Dawood, the parents of Shahzada and Azmeh, asked for continued prayers for those lost in the sub.
“The immense love and support we receive continues to help us endure this unimaginable loss,” they said.
After several days of searching, the Coast Guard confirmed on Thursday that they found debris from the sub which had gone missing on Sunday.
Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger said in a news conference that a remote-operated vehicle (ROV) searching the seabed for the missing submersible found the rear cover of the Titan around 1,600 feet from the Titanic’s bow
The parts of the submersible found by the Coast Guard led them to rule that the debris discovered is consistent with “the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” meaning all five aboard the Titan likely died from a massive amount of underwater pressure that killed them instantly.
Mauger added that it would be difficult to locate the bodies because the debris showed that it imploded due to the intense pressure
Zach Jewell contributed to this report.