(RepublicanNews.org) – The last picture taken of 58-year-old Shahzada Dawood and his young son Suleman shows the two smiling side by side in the moments prior to boarding the Titan submersible. The Father’s Day picture shows Suleman, 19, with his arm around his father. Both men are smiling widely while wearing safety vests and helmets.
The billionaire of Pakistani-British descent had paid $500 thousand for the pair to board the Oceangate submarine and tour the Titanic wreckage.
The picture was released on July 2nd by Dawood’s wife Christine, who had accompanied the father and son on the trip along with their 17-year-old daughter. She snapped the photo while all were on board the submarine’s mothership. She and her daughter Alina were due to wait above the surface while her husband and son toured the wreckage below.
Dawood’s wife conveyed that the two men would have spent their last minutes listening to music in complete darkness while watching bioluminescent sea life on their way down. It is suspected that 105 minutes into the dive, the Titan imploded, instantly killing all five aboard.
Three months before the trip, Christine said Stockton Rush of OceanGate flew all the way to London from the United States to meet with the Dawoods in an effort to convince the billionaire of his sub’s safety. According to Dawood’s wife, Rush told the family that going to the bottom of the Atlantic in his sub was “safer than crossing the street.”
Christine said they remained clueless as to the engineering and safety behind the submarine’s construction and likened it to flying in a plane but not knowing anything about engine design.
12 weeks after meeting with Oceangate’s chief executive, the Dawoods were on their way to the Atlantic and the Polar Prince mothership.
Following the loss of contact with the Titan, Dawood’s wife and daughter waited aboard the mothership for five days before learning that debris from the vehicle had been discovered.
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