One year after the Titan submersible disaster claimed billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, their family members are still grappling with way of coming to terms with their loss and coping with everyday life.
The Pakistan-born businessman’s sister, Azmeh Dawood, exclusively told The Post: “I still wake up every morning and it hits me like a ton of bricks that they’re gone.
“There’s nowhere to share the grief, we just have to carry it inside us.”
The submersible was lost during a deep sea dive to visit the wreck of the Titanic on June 18th 2023, and the world watched in dismay as the chances of it being found intact and the survival of its five passengers aboard dwindled. The craft’s wreckage was then found on June 26.
On the anniversary of the tragedy Azmeh was with her immediate family in Amsterdam where she lives, but said other family members including her brother’s wife, Christina, and daughter, Alina, had gathered together to share their grief.
“I sent a message to my mother saying how are you, it’s the anniversary and she informed me that the whole family were together because it’s so difficult to be alone,” Dawood said.
“I asked her how are Christina and Alina doing and she simply said they’re both on meds to help them cope with the situation and nothing more.”
Christina and Alina were on the support boat in the Atlantic ocean when Shahzada, 48, and 19-year-old son Suleman embarked on their fateful voyage.
Christina had originally been booked to take the $250,000-a-seat tourist trip, but had given her seat up so Sulaiman could spend Father’s Day with his dad.
French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58, and the sub’s inventor and captain Stockton Rush were also lost aboard the Titan.
Recalling the panic as she first found out the Titan was missing, Azmeh said: “My first husband gave me a call – I had no idea whatsoever. Then I started to realize, ‘Oh my god they’ve gone on this and it’s gone missing.’”
The last text from Azmeh’s beloved nephew, Suleman, also took on a new poignance.
“It started to kind of make sense that a couple days before that Sulemon had sent me a short text saying, ‘I love you and I miss you’ and offered to come visit.”
Tearfully, she shared her frustration with her brother, whom she admits to having had a rocky relationship with in the years before his passing, for taking him on what turned out to be such a dangerous excursion.
“My brother was passionate about the Titanic. So yeah, great, [he] got to to do this. But Suleman, he’s 19,” she said.
“Obviously I miss my brother, my God, I would do anything to bring him back, but I guess the older sister in me is really, really furious with him for taking Sully,” referring to Suleman by his nickname.
Suleman and Azmeh’s son Lehhaan, were inseparable, and played video games together until right before he left for the trip.
He found it very hard to take a recent boat trip in Greek waters to an island, that resulted in him having a seizure.
“Because he was very close to Suleman – I think for a few moments he tapped into the fear that he must have felt,” she explains.
“He just curled up on the floor of the boat and we were holding him in place and he was just shaking. Because it was just too close. It was just too close to the terror that we all know that Suleman must have held.”
After the implosion, it was found the 22-foot Titan suffered from serious design flaws and wasn’t able to cope with the pressure 20,000 feet below the surface, as Rush had assured his passengers.
Azmeh says she’ll never forgive Rush, noting the sad irony he and his passengers perished visiting a shipwreck.
“It was just kind of pretty much just like Titanic wasn’t it. It was hubris or arrogance beyond measure.”
“Thinking he [Rush] was amazing. Compared to the ocean, the ocean is a natural force. It’s breathtaking. To have assumed we can take it on.
“I personally don’t get why someone would raise so much money to visit what is in essence, a mass grave site. It should be left alone. It should be respected.
“It’s not tourism, it’s voyeurism,” she added.
The accident also amplified existing rifts within her family, with Azmeh admitting she was “not told about the funerals,” and has been cut off by Christina.
“We’ve had a lack of rituals and grieving opportunities … we were told we’re not family,’ she added.
Azmeh added she has written poetry as a way to cope with the pain of her loss, and has a book “In The Wake of the Titans,” being published at the end of the month.