Mother reveals she gave her place on doomed submersible to 'excited' teenage son
26.06.2023 - 11:55
/ manchestereveningnews.co.uk
The mother of the teenager who died on the Titan submersible gave up her place to her son after the original trip was postponed due to Covid, she has revealed.
Suleman Dawood, 19, and his father Shahzada were among five people who died when the vessel imploded on a journey to view the wreck of the Titanic. Christine Dawood told the BBC her son had been disappointed that he was not old enough to accompany them on the original trip scheduled before the pandemic.
She added that her son was 'excited' about the trip and was hoping to break a world record while 3,700 metres below the sea. She told BBC Breakfast on Monday (June 26): “It was supposed to be Shahzada and I going down. I stepped back and gave the place to Suleman because he really wanted to go.”
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Asked how she felt about the decision, she simply said: “Let’s just skip that.” She said “both of them were so excited” and her son had taken a Rubik’s Cube with him because he wanted to break a world record.
Mrs Dawood said her son loved the famous square puzzle so much that he carried it with him everywhere and dazzled onlookers by solving it in 12 seconds. She told the broadcaster: “He said, ‘I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 metres below sea at the Titanic’.”
The family boarded the Polar Prince, the sub’s support vessel, on Father’s Day hoping for the trip of a lifetime.
Mrs Dawood and her 17-year-old daughter Alina were still on board when word came through that communications with Titan had been lost. She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after they did not initially return.
She said: “We all thought they are just going to come up so that