Wife and mum of Titan victims 'wasn't told of implosion possibility'

2023-06-26

Grieving wife and mother of Titanic submersible victims ‘was not told about possibility of implosion’ during agonising four-day wait for vessel to resurface – despite US Navy detecting sounds ‘consistent’ with the event when it disappeared

Christine Dawood said she had finally ‘lost hope’ when 96 hours had passed

The grieving wife and mother of two of the Titanic submersible victims did not know about the possibility of an implosion during an agonising wait for the vessel to resurface – until a call with the US Coast Guard confirmed they had found debris.

UK-based billionaire Shahzada and his son Suleman Dawood were two of the five victims killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, according to the US Coast Guard.

The US Navy had detected sounds ‘consistent with an implosion’ soon after Titan lost contact on Sunday, but it was deemed ‘not definitive’ and the detail was not released publicly – with the search and rescue mission continuing until debris was found.

Wife and mother of Shahzada and Suleman, Christine Dawood, has said that she believed they would initially be fine when they first lost communication.

But she lost hope after 96 hours – followed by the call from the US Coastguard which confirmed debris had been found.

Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Sulemanlost their lives on the Titan submersible

Shahzada Dawood, 48, (pictured with his wife Christine) was a UK-based board member of the Prince’s Trust charity. She said his enthusiasm ‘brought out the best’ in her

In an extraordinary BBC interview where Mrs Dawood was praised for her composure in the face of interminable double mourning, she revealed how she and her daughter Alina, 17, were on the Titan’s support ship Polar Prince, and hugged and joked with the ‘excited’ Shahzada and Suleman as they said goodbye and went to get in the doomed sub.

Hours later they lost communication on June 18. On that day she and Alina believed they would be fine after they did not initially return.

But Mrs Dawood said she had finally ‘lost hope’ on Thursday when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible, meaning they had run out of oxygen.

Her daughter held out a bit longer, she said, until a call with the US Coast Guard hours later when they were informed debris had been found – something they did not know about until that point.

It was then announced the Titan had imploded and the five adventurers on board were dead.

Christine Dawood paid tribute to her son and husband in an interview with the BBC

Suleman Dawood, 19,was the youngest victim of the Titan sub tragedy. He is pictured with his mother, Christine

Christine revealed that she had planned to go with her husband to view the Titanic wreck in the OceanGate sub, but that their trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

‘Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go,’ she said.

After contact was lost with the vessel, Christine and her daughter Alina, 17, waited for news at the site where Titan was last seen during the search and rescue mission.

‘We had loads of hope, that was the only thing that got us through it because we were hoping,’ she said.

As well as her husband and son, three others died on board Titan: OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a former French navy diver and experienced Titanic diver.

Christine said those above water tried to remain hopeful, telling themselves: ‘There were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface… they would drop the weights, then the assent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.’

She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after being they did not initially return.

She said: ‘We all thought they are just going to come up so that shock was delayed by about 10 hours or so.

‘By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time…. when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings started.’

Despite the bleak outlook as the hunt dragged on, she said her teenage daughter never lost hope of her father and older brother’s rescue.

Billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, who lost his life onboard Titan, is pictured looking out to sea before boarding the submersible

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition, also lost their lives on Titan

Salvage operations are continuing and investigators have mapped the accident site, Cpt Neubauer told a press conference in Boston.

He also said the convening of a Marine Board of Investigation is the highest level of investigation conducted by the US Coast Guard. It is unclear how long it will take. The US Coast Guard said it does not charge for search and rescue operations.

The Coast Guard opened what it calls a marine board investigation on Friday, Neubauer said, and is working with the FBI to recover evidence.

This includes a salvage operation at the debris site on the seabed about 1,600 feet (488 metres) from the bow of the Titanic wreck, about 2-1/2 miles (4 km) below the surface.

The findings will be shared with the International Maritime Organization and other groups ‘to help improve the safety framework for submersible operations worldwide,’ Neubauer said.

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