The woman whose husband and son were among the five men killed when their submersible imploded after getting lost on-route to the Titanic wreckage said she planned to be among those on board, but let her teenage son go in her place.
In her first interview since the closely-watched tragedy unfolded, Christine Dawood told the BBC this week she and her husband Shahzada had been planning to go on OceanGate’s ill-fated exploratory trip that set out earlier this month.
“So it was supposed to be Shahzada and I going down,” Dawood told the BBC in a sit-down video interview. “And then I stepped back and gave the space to Suleman because he really wanted to go.”
This summer, Dawood said she is “coping” but not doing very well after living through the horrific tragedy of losing both her husband and son via a catastrophe that so captured the public’s attention.
After the Titan submersible lost communication with OceanGate operators on its deadly voyage earlier this month, critics pointed to evidence they say showed the submersible operation was risky. Even before Dawood’s husband and son died on board, warnings about the safety of OceanGate’s trips abounded from journalists, would-be passengers and even Simpson’s producer Mike Reiss, who took multiple expeditions with the company.
Authorities have continued to investigate OceanGate’s operation since the submersible went missing on June 18. On June 22 it was confirmed all those board died in a catastrophic implosion near the Titanic wreckage.
Son ‘really wanted to go’ to Titanic wreckage, mom says
Dawood and her husband had been planning to go down into the Atlantic Ocean on the Titan submersible for years, she told the BBC. But the couple’s adventure was postponed by the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
When Dawood and her husband first started making plans to venture down to the Titanic wreckage, their son Suleman was not old enough to register for the exploratory trip, she said.
But when her son turned 18 and could get a spot on board the submersible, he said he “really wanted to go,” Dawood told the BBC.
In the interview, Dawood declined to comment on her feelings about the fact her son went on the submersible in place of her.
Wife and mother ‘really really’ misses father and son
In her interview with the BBC, Dawood described her late husband as a passionate, fun-loving history buff who watched documentaries late into the night and connected with other people through telling of stories his past.
“His enthusiasm brought the best out of me,” Dawood said.
The wife and mother said she is grateful to have her 17-year-old daughter, Alina, by her side. The two were on board OceanGate’s larger main ship when their family members went down in the submersible.
“We are there for each other,” the mother said of her daughter, adding the teenager is helping take care of cousins.
Dawood’s son, Suleman, had been eager to venture down to the Titanic wreckage for years, she said, and wanted to be the first person to solve a Rubik’s cube more than 3,000 meters below the ocean’s surface.
The boy loved to solve the popular puzzle cube and never went anywhere without one, his mother said. Suleman also loved watching movies, and Dawood said she and Alina will keep his memory alive by watching all his favorite films together.
He definitely was a “mama’s boy” and “he loved his father,” Dawood told the BBC.
Sharing her final thoughts in the interview, she said, “I miss them. I really really miss them.”
