Suleiman Daoud didn’t want to go aboard the minivan-sized deep-submarine to explore the sinking of the Titanic on Sunday.
In fact, according to his aunt, he was “terrified”.
But the 19-year-old, who had just finished his first year at Strathclyde Business School in Glasgow, Scotland, knew the dangerous expedition was important for the 49-year-old father of Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood. So even though he “wasn’t ready for it” and had expressed his concerns to another family member, Solomon joined his lifelong Titanic-obsessed father and four other strangers on a trip to the $250,000-a-head wreck, which is located 400 km away. Newfoundland miles this weekend.
“If you gave me a million dollars, I wouldn’t have entered Titan,” Shahzadeh’s sister, Shahzadeh, told NBC on Thursday.
Daoud’s harrowing confession comes after the US Coast Guard confirmed Thursday that all five people aboard the Titan were believed to have died after the missing ship suffered a “catastrophic implosion.” Officials say the submarine’s tail cone was found 1,600 feet from the bow of the RMS Titanic and that the “catastrophic loss of an airlock” would have killed everyone on board instantly.
The tragic news comes after days of searching for the ship, which lost contact with its support vessel less than two hours into the expedition, organized by OceanGate Expeditions. Among the passengers on the boat were Suleiman and his father. OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush; British businessman Hamish Harding; and French diver Paul-Henri Nargolet.
Dawood added, “I feel bad because the whole world had to go through so much trauma, so much suspense.” “I feel like I got caught in a really bad movie, with the countdown, but you didn’t know what you were counting down to.”
To the friends and family of Nargeolet, who was affectionately referred to as “Mr. Titanic” Given his reputation as a veteran explorer of the famous shipwreck, his decision to take the trip to see the site wasn’t unusual. The 77-year-old had already made more than 35 dives at the site and worked for the RMS Titanic, which owns the rights to salvage the boat.
So when Narjoleh’s daughter Sidon Narjoleh learned her father was among the five people missing on the submarine, she said she was immediately filled with “a lot of tension, very mixed feelings.” In an interview with Reuters Ahead of Thursday’s grim confirmation about Titan, Saida said her father knows “how to deal with problems” on the submarine and she’s confident he’s handling the situation well.
“Shehzada Dawood and his son Suleiman Daoud and Stockton Rush”.
Engro Ltd./Shannon Stapleton/Reuters
“What I like most is being in a submarine, [near] Titanic.” “It’s where I really like to be. I prefer him [dying] In a place where he is happy.
Matt Tulloch, who met Nargolet while working on the RMS Titanic in the 1990s, confirmed to Connecticut New Times Thursday that his friend was “a consummate professional and in many ways, a scouting legend”.
“Our thoughts are with the families and friends of those aboard the submarine as we collectively and individually mourn the loss of our longtime employee and colleague Paul Henri ‘PH’ Nargeolet,” the RMS Titan said in a statement Thursday. “The marine world has lost an iconic and inspiring leader in deep-sea exploration, and we have lost a dear and beloved friend.”
Explorers ClubThey, where Harding and Nargelot are members, also issued a statement Thursday saying their “hearts are broken” by the “tragic news” of the failed expedition. Action Aviation, a Dubai-based company that counts Harding as president, remembers the British businessman as “one of a kind” and said his staff “had a crush on him”.
“It will leave a hole in our lives that can never be filled,” the statement said.
Before the news of the exploding submarine Titan, Harding’s stepson also took to social media to discuss his feelings about the submarine.
“This whole situation is a fucking nightmare,” he said, “everything about it, especially what Hamish is going through there, it’s just fucking God.” “I haven’t slept for days, it’s not about me, I’m obviously very worried about my mom and the situation.”
Dennis Reese, who has been on several expeditions with Rush before, also paid tribute to OceanGate’s CEO. In several Facebook posts, Reese – the wife of former The Simpsons showrunner Michael Reese – described Rush as “cautious and cool, dealing with the limits of what’s possible.”
“We deeply regret his passing on the way to the Titanic,” she added.
Hamish Harding and Paul Henry Nargolet.
Jannicke Mikkelsen via Reuters/HarperCollins France via Reuters
For Muhammad Malik, Thursday’s tragic news was a grim confirmation of what he already believed about the fate of his friend Shahzada Dawood.
“I actually accepted it… I wasn’t hopeful,” Malik, 30, who lives in London, told The Daily Beast. “I thought it would end up being a recovery mission, not a rescue mission.”
He also indicated that others close to the Daoud family felt false hope after the search teams heard “buzzing noises” underwater on Tuesday evening and Wednesday morning. However, officials said Thursday that the noise did not come from anywhere near where Titan was eventually found and there was no communication with the submarine.
Malik added, “My parents talked to the family, they were very hopeful for a while, and now they’re shocked.” “They were obviously shocked when it first happened. And then they heard the news about the noise.”
Malik also paid tribute to his family friend, with whom he was fortunate enough to form a relationship. Noting that Shahzadeh was “one of those guys who really thinks outside the box… like Pakistan’s Elon Musk,” he added that the businessman takes pride in being so close to his teenage son.
“He was very close to his son. He took him to university last year, and the whole family has been very close-knit.