The youngest person on the doomed Titanic tourist submarine was “terrified” of going on the trip and “only did it for his dad,” a relative has revealed.
British resident Suleman Dawood, 19, was on-board the vessel when it “catastrophically imploded” shortly after starting its journey to see the wreckage of the Titanic.
He was in it alongside his father and fellow British resident Shahzada, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British national Hamish Harding and French pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
READ MORE: Titanic submarine’s fate – full details of ‘catastrophic’ incident that doomed vessel
Speaking the NBC News from her home in Amsterdam, the boy’s aunt Azmeh said that he “wasn’t very up for it” and was “terrified” about the trip before it took place.
(Image: DAWOOD HERCULES CORPORATION/AFP)
And she claimed he only went on it because it happened on Father’s Day.
She added: “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.
“I personally have found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them.
“If you gave me a million dollars, I would not have gotten into the Titan.”
(Image: EyePress News/REX/Shutterstock)
The vessel was discovered 1,600 feet away from the Titanic last night, and OceanGate Explorations, who operated the doomed submersible, confirmed the deaths shortly after the US Coast Guard revealed debris was found.
It has been confirmed that the vessel “catastrophically imploded”, something which the US Navy has now admitted to knowing four days before it was found.
The navy maintains an acoustic detection system around the US coast for early detection of enemy submarines, and has done since the 1950s.
“The US navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,” a senior US Navy official told The Wall Street Journal in a statement.
(Image: PA)
“While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.”
The sound was picked up from the same area that debris from the sub was located.
The sonar buoys used by rescue crews did not detect the the implosion, which suggests it happened before they arrived and was indeed heard by the US navy.
It is feared that their remains might never be found, but a search is still ongoing.
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