Titan sub victim told wife expedition was 'so cool' despite briefing on danger
One of the victims of the Titan sub disaster had told his wife how "cool" it was after hearing about previous trip mishaps.
Christine Sawood, whose husband Shahzada and son Suleman died when the sub imploded, revealed new details about their final hours before the descent.
The mum and her daughter Aliena joined their doomed family members on the mothership - Polar Prince - as they headed towards the launch sight.
She was on board on June 18 when she got word that communications with the Titan submersible had been lost an hour and 45 minutes during its voyage to the ocean floor.
After a frantic five day search it was announced that search crews had found the wreckage and the five passengers were declared dead.
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Shahzada Dawood died along with his son (AP)
Suleman wasn't originally going to make the trip but delays meant he was finally old enough (AP)In the days before the descent the passengers went through hours and hours of briefings.
During one, sub pilot Paul-Henri Nargeolet gave a presentation about his 37 previous dives to the Titanic.
He also told the group about one descent where they were “stuck down there for three days and the sub was out of communication,” Ms Dawood recalled to the New York Times.
Mr Dawood was thrilled after hearing this story.
“Oh, my god, this is so cool,” Ms. Dawood recalled him saying. “He was lapping everything up. He had this big glow on his face talking about all this nerdy stuff.”
Mr Nargeolet died along with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding and the Dawood men.
Christine Dawood said the family hugged and joked before Suleman and Shahzada boarded the Titan (BBC)The US Coast Guard announced Thursday June 22 that Stockton Rush and the other four men aboard the submersible died when the craft imploded this week in the North Atlantic.
For the descent to the ocean floor, the passengers in the doomed submersible were told to load up their favourite music to play via a Bluetooth speaker. Mr Rush had banned country music.
As they descended the lights inside were switched off to conserve battery.
They would have sat in darkness with little light apart from that from the bioluminescent creatures floating past.
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Christine and her daughter watched as the sub set off for what proved to be its final descent.
OceanGate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush (AP)Contact with the sub was lost an hour and 45 minutes into the trip.
The wreckage of the sub was found on Thursday June 22.
In the days before going down, the paid passengers were repeatedly offered to watch the famous 1997 movie about the Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Director James Cameron immortalised a fictionalised version of the story in his movie about the tragedy, which shows a shot of an older couple embracing in bed as waters rise.
The OceanGate submarine imploded during the descent (OceanGate)Archival records show that Wendy Rush, the wife of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, is the great-great-granddaughter of Isidor and Ida Straus, the two people Cameron depicted in that scene.
Isidor and Ida Straus have become known for a Titanic story about reportedly choosing to go down together on the sinking ship, arm in arm.
Survivors said Isidor Straus would not get on a lifeboat while women and children were still waiting to be rescued, and his wife of four decades declared she would not abandon her husband.
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