Off The Record
Youngest Titan Passenger ‘Terrified’ Before Embarking On Titanic Expedition
The youngest passenger on OceanGate Expeditions’ Titan, Suleman Dawood, is said to have raised concerns about the journey in the days leading up to the expedition to the ocean floor, according to Dawood’s aunt.
However, since Father’s Day weekend coincided with the trip, he decided to accompany his father, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood.
CopyShahzada’s older sister Azmeh Dawood told NBC News that her nephew “wasn’t very up for it” and was “terrified” by the Titanic excursion.
To appease his father, who had been “absolutely obsessed” with the Titanic from an early age, the 19-year-old made the decision to join the voyage.
Azhmeh was not shocked to learn that her younger brother had booked tickets for OceanGate’s current mission, since she remembered the siblings viewing film after film about the disaster and visiting museums about the ship.
“I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19, in there, just perhaps gasping for breath … It’s been crippling, to be honest,” she said.
Azmeh expressed “disbelief” after hearing that the Titan had likely had a “catastrophic implosion” from the United States Coast Guard.
“It’s an unreal situation.”
Azmeh spent the days leading up to the discovery of the debris field devoted to her TV.
“I feel like I’ve been caught in a really bad film, with a countdown, but you didn’t know what you’re counting down to,” she said. “I personally have found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them.”
The Dawoods have issued a plea to “keep the departed souls and our family in your prayers.” They have thanked the search teams for their “unturning efforts” as well.
The Dawood family, and the families of all those lost in the tragic underwater explosion, are in our prayers.
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