Suleman Dawood declined to explore the Titanic shipwrecks in the minivan-sized deep-sea submersible on Sunday.
According to his paternal aunt, he was even “terribly scared.”
But the 19-year-old, who had just completed his first year at Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland, knew the dangerous expedition was important for Pakistani tycoon father, 49-year-old Shahzada Dawood. Though he “wasn’t very ready to do it” and had voiced his concerns to another family member, Suleman accompanied his lifelong Titanic-obsessed father and four other strangers on the $250,000-a-head trip to the wreck 400 miles away, according to This Weekend Newfoundland.
“If you gave me a million dollars, I wouldn’t have gotten on Titan,” Azmeh Dawood, Shahzada’s sister, told NBC on Thursday.
Dawood’s harrowing confession comes after the US Coast Guard confirmed on Thursday that all five people aboard the Titan are presumed dead after the missing ship suffered a “catastrophic implosion”. Officials say the sub’s stern cone was found about 1,600 feet from the bow of RMS Titanic and that the “catastrophic loss of hyperbaric chamber” would have killed everyone on board instantly.
The tragic news comes after a days-long search for the ship, which lost contact with its support vessel less than two hours after the start of the expedition organized by OceanGate Expeditions. On board the boat were Suleman and his father; Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate; British businessman Hamish Harding; and French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
“I’m so sorry that the whole world has had to go through so much trauma and tension,” added Dawood. “I feel like I got into a really bad movie, with a countdown, but you didn’t know what point you were counting to.”
For friends and family of Nargeolet, affectionately known as “Mr. Given his reputation as a seasoned explorer of the famous shipwreck, his decision to take a tour of the site was not uncommon. The 77-year-old has been on more than 35 dives and worked for RMS Titanic, which owns the salvage rights to the boat.
When Nargeolet’s daughter, Sidone Nargeolet, learned that her father was among the five people on the missing submersible, she said she was immediately overcome with “a lot of stress and very mixed feelings”. Speaking to Portal ahead of Thursday’s somber Titan confirmation, Sidone said her father knows “how to respond to problems in a submarine” and that she is confident he is handling the situation well.
“Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman Dawood and Stockton Rush.”
Engro Corporation Limited/Shannon Stapleton/Portal
”His favorite thing was to be in a submarine, [near] the Titanic,” she said. “He’s where he really wanted to be. I would prefer him [dying] in a place where he is happy.”
Matt Tulloch, who met Nargeolet while working on the RMS Titanic in the 1990s, told the Connecticut New Times Thursday that his friend was “a consummate professional and in many ways a legend of exploration.”
“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those on board the submersible as we collectively and individually mourn the loss of our longtime collaborator and colleague Paul Henri ‘PH’ Nargeolet,” organization RMS Titan said in a statement Thursday. “The maritime world has lost an iconic and inspirational leader in deep sea exploration, and we have lost a dear and cherished friend.”
The Explorers Club, to which Harding and Nargelot belonged, also issued a statement Thursday, saying they were “heartbroken” at the “tragic news” of the failed expedition. Before news of the imploded Titan broke, Harding’s stepson also took to social media to open up about his feelings about the submarine.
“But this whole situation is a bloody nightmare, everything about it, especially what Hamish is going through down there, it’s just bloody awful,” he said. “I haven’t slept in days, it’s not my fault, I’m obviously just too worried about my mother and the situation.”
Denise Reiss, who had previously participated in several expeditions with Rush, also paid tribute to the CEO of OceanGate. In several posts on Facebook, Reiss – wife of former The Simpsons showrunner Michael Reiss – called Rush “cautious and brilliant, pushing the boundaries of what is possible.”
“We deeply regret his death en route to the Titanic,” she added.
“Hamish Harding and Paul-Henri Nargeolet.”
Jannicke Mikkelsen via Portal/HarperCollins France via Portal
For Mohad Malik, Thursday’s tragic news was a grim confirmation of what he already believed about the fate of his friend Shahzada Dawood.
“I kind of accepted it. I wasn’t optimistic,” Malik, a 30-year-old from London, told The Daily Beast. “I thought it would end up being more of a salvage mission than a rescue mission.”
He also noted that others close to the Dawoods felt a sense of false hope after search parties heard “popping noises” underwater Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. However, officials said Thursday that the noises were not coming from near where the Titan was eventually found and that there was no connection to the submarine.
“My parents spoke to the family and they were very optimistic for a while but now they’re devastated,” Malik added. “They were obviously shocked when it first happened. And then they heard the news of the noises.”
Malik also paid tribute to his family friend, with whom he was fortunate to develop a relationship of his own. He pointed out that Shahzada was “one of those guys who really thinks outside the box… like a Pakistani Elon Musk,” adding that the businessman is proud to be very close to his teenage son.
“He was very close to his son. He took him to university last year and the whole family was very close,” added Malik.