Devastated mum who lost husband and son on Titanic sub recalls moment she finally lost hope
The mother of Suleman Dawood, the teenager who died on board the OceanGate submersible, said there was a point she lost hope
A devastated woman who lost her husband and son on the Titanic submersible has recalled the moment she finally lost hope.
The OceanGate submersible Titan that went missing last week is now known to have suffered a 'catastrophic implosion' which killed all five people on board.
Hamish Harding, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son Suleman were the five who lost their lives aboard the missing sub.
An investigation into how exactly the sub was destroyed and what happened to cause this has been launched, which will aim to get to the bottom of the matter.
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As for the families of those who died, they are left to grieve their loved ones and have been told that the chances of recovering the remains of anyone on board the sub is incredibly unlikely.
While the sub was destroyed by a 'catastrophic implosion' on Sunday 18 June, there were several days afterwards when search and rescue efforts had hoped the sub was just missing and the people on board could be saved.
During this time the families of those on board the sub could do little but wait for updates and hope they'd see their loved ones again.
Christine Dawood, the mum of 19-year-old Suleman, was on board the ship Polar Prince, the vessel the sub launched from along with her 17-year-old daughter Alina.
The mum remembers joking with her husband and son as they got into the submarine, and remembers that Suleman brought a Rubik's Cube with him in the hopes of setting a new world record, while her husband had a camera with him to film the attempt.
When word came through to the Polar Prince that they'd lost contact with the sub, she told the BBC she 'didn't comprehend at that moment what it meant' and that the situation 'went downhill from there'.
She recounted the moment she lost hope of her son and husband returning to the surface alive.
"I think I lost hope when we passed the 96 hours mark. I said: 'I'm preparing for the worst.' That's when I lost hope," she said, referring to the point when the sub was predicted to have run out of oxygen.
She said her daughter Alina held out hope for a little while longer than she did, adding: "She didn't lose hope until the call with Coast Guard. When they basically informed us that they found debris."
Dawood said she'd been booked onto the sub trip to the Titanic alongside her husband before the trip was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
When the chance came round again, she gave up her space on the sub to son Suleman as he 'really wanted to go'.
Joe Harker