Pakistani businessman's son takes his mother's place on Titan submersible

Christine Dawood was supposed to accompany her husband on the ill-fated Titanic diving expedition, but gave her place to her son Suleman.

Suleman Dawood, 19, and his father, businessman Shahzada, 48, were among five people who died on the Titan submersible during an expedition to the Titanic wreck in the Atlantic Ocean on June 18. They were from one of Pakistan's richest families, which had given large sums of money to the government.

Shahzada’s wife, Christine, said on June 26 that she was supposed to accompany her husband on the fateful expedition, but she gave it up to her son. The dive was scheduled before Covid-19 and Suleman was disappointed because he was not old enough to accompany his parents.

"The original plan was for Shahzada and I to dive in," she said. "I let Suleman go because he really wanted to go."

Suleman (left) and his father, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada. Photo: AP — Suleman (left) and his father, British-Pakistani dual-nationality businessman Shahzada. Photo: AP

Christine declined to say how she felt about her decision. She said that "both of us are extremely excited," and Suleman even brought the cube with him because he wanted to set a world record. She said her son loves solving the cube and carries the toy with him everywhere. He can solve the cube in 12 seconds.

"He said, 'I'm going to solve a Rubik's cube 3,700 meters below the seabed, next to the Titanic wreck,'" Christine said.

The information she gave contradicts the statement of Azmeh Dawood, Mr. Shahzada's sister. Ms. Azmeh said that Suleman was "very scared and not very happy" when he learned that his father planned to invite him to explore the ocean on the Titan. He confided this to a family member, but still decided to follow his father, who had always wanted to see the Titanic.

The Dawood family boarded the Polar Prince, the ship transporting the Titan submersible to the Atlantic, on Father's Day, hoping to mark the occasion with the trip of a lifetime.

Christine and Shahzada. Photo: StatesMan — Christine and Shahzada. Photo: *StatesMan*

Christine and her daughter Alina, 17, were on board the Polar Prince when the Titan submersible lost contact with its mother ship.

"We thought they were going to surface. After 10 hours, we started to get scared," she said. "We had a lot of hope. Hope is what got us through the waiting time. We talked about what the captain could do to lighten the boat, what we could do to float the boat."

"We kept looking at the water. We went through so many emotions, just saying to ourselves, 'It's going to come up, it's going to come up,'" she said.

They lost hope after 96 hours, the time it took for five people to survive, when she texted her family saying she was “preparing for the worst,” until the Coast Guard announced they had found the wreckage.

How the Titan submarine disappeared. Click on the image to see details — How the Titan submarine disappeared. *Click on the image to see details*

The family returned to St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada, on June 24 and held a vigil for Shahzada and Suleman the following day. Christine said she and her daughter would learn to solve Rubik’s cubes in Suleman’s memory. She will take over her husband’s job.

"He did so much, helped so many people. Alina and I really wanted to continue that legacy, to keep his work going, and to build a foundation for my daughter," she said.

"Alina and I are going to learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube. It's a challenge because we don't know how to solve it, but we're going to learn."

Hong Hanh (According to SCMP )

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