Christine Dawood, the wife of Pakistani Billionaire Shahzada Dawood, who died on the Titanic submersible along with his son, recalled the final moments before the family said goodbyes. Mrs Dawood told the BBC that her husband and son were "so excited" to go down to the ocean floor to see the wreckage of the Titanic. Her comments come days after the US Coast Guard said that the submersible suffered a "catastrophic implosion", leading to the death of all five people on board.
"I think I lost hope when we passed the 96 hours mark. That's when I sent a message to my family on shore and I said 'I'm preparing for the worst'. But my daughter did not lose until the Coast Guard called and said they have found the debris," Mrs Dawood said, recalling the tragedy.
Christine is from Germany and works as a coach and psychologist. She had earlier written a blog post about surviving a near-fatal plane crash in 2019, which profoundly impacted her life and changed her career.
Speaking to the BBC, Mrs Dawood said her son Suleman went to the submersible with his Rubik's Cube because he wanted to break the world record by completing it under water.
The 19-year-old had applied to the Guinness World Records informing them about the attempt he plans to undertake. The BBC said that the teenager's father even took a camera with him to capture the moment.
Christine Dawood was on Polar Prince, the submersible's support vessel, with her daughter when she got the news that contact had been lost. Titan, the submersible, disappeared less than two hours after making the dive to the wreckage of the Titanic, which sank in 1912.
When asked about the final moments of the family, Mrs Dawood said, "We just hugged and joked actually because Shahzada was so excited to go down. He was like a little child."
"He had this ability of child-like excitement, so they both were so excited," she added.
Mrs Dawood said she was happy for them as the father-son duo "wanted to do this for a really, really long time."
Shahzada Dawood and Christine lived in Surbiton, Surrey, and were parents to two children, Alina and Suleman.
