Titanic sub’s Suleman, Shahzada Dawood died ‘hand-in-hand’, family says

NEWSWEEK

The family of two passengers of OceanGate’s Titan sub, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman Dawood, said that the two died “hand in hand” in the catastrophic implosion of the vessel.

Father and son were among the five passengers aboard the Titan. The advanced submersible vessel went missing on Sunday on its descent to the site of the RMS Titanic wreck, which lies at a depth of about 12,500 feet, some 425 miles south-southwest off the coast of Newfoundland. They were joined by three other passengers, including Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate, a private company organizing deep-sea expeditions; French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet; and British explorer Hamish Harding.

For days, rescuers raced against time to find the vessel before its passengers ran out of the limited oxygen available on board, estimated to be 96 hours from their departure on Sunday morning. But on Thursday, U.S. officials said all five passengers had died immediately when the vessel imploded that morning, when it lost contact with the surface, one hour and 45 minutes into the dive.

In an obituary shared exclusively with local Scottish news outlet Glasgow Live, the family said that the 19-year-old Suleman and his 48-year-old dad had moved on to the “next leg of their spiritual journey hand-in-hand.”

“In this unfathomable tragedy, we try to find solace in the enduring legacy of humility and humanity that they have left behind and find comfort in the belief that they passed on to the next leg of their spiritual journey hand-in-hand, father and son,” the obituary reads.

The family said the relationship between father and son “was a joy to behold; they were each other’s greatest supporters and cherished a shared passion for adventure and exploration of all the world had to offer them.”

The pair both loved learning with an “unwavering curiosity,” the family added, and were there for each other. “They embodied valuable lessons on the pursuit of knowledge, exploration of the unknown, and bonds of familial friendship,” the obituary reads. “Family values are a guiding beacon for the Dawood family, and Shahzada always strived to emulate these, teaching his children to do the same.”

The family asked for the public to respect their grief and privacy “as they come to terms with the loss of two of their dearest members.”

Strathclyde University in Glasgow, where Suleman Dawood was a business student, said everyone was “shocked and saddened” by the tragedy.

The post Titanic Sub’s Suleman, Shahzada Dawood Died ‘Hand-in-Hand’, Family Says appeared first on Newsweek.