A heartbreaking final photo shows Pakistani-British billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, beaming just moments before boarding the doomed Titan submersible.
In the image taken a short time before the OceanGate vehicle’s ill-fated trip to the Titanic wreckage, the father-and-son duo are seen happily posing together, with Suleman Dawood’s hand resting protectively on the shoulder of his 58-year-old dad.
Both are dressed for the two-and-a-half hour descent into the frigid watery abyss off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, in matching reflective orange jackets, safety vests, specialty gloves and helmets.
A steely-gray ocean that will soon become the Dawoods’ final resting place is seen in the background of the chilling last photo.
It is believed that just moments after that image was snapped on board OceanGate’s mothership, the Polar Prince, on June 18, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood boarded the 22-foot Titan submersible, along with three others — OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush, 61, renowned Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58.
Another image that has been released by the Dawood family shows the father and son sharing a tender hug before embarking on their tragic last adventure.
Just one hour and 45 minutes into the dive to the Titanic shipwreck, the OceanGate vessel apparently imploded 12,000 feet below sea level, killing everyone on board.
Shahzada Dawood’s widow, Christine Dawood, spoke about OceaGate’s catastrophic final expedition in an interview with the New York Times published Sunday, revealing that the passengers — among them her husband and son — likely spent their final moments listening to their favorite songs in complete darkness while gazing out the windows at deep-sea bioluminescent creatures.
Christina Dawood and her 17-year-old daughter, Alina, were aboard OceanGate’s mothership to bid farewell to the two men as they embarked on the $250,000-per-person trip in honor of Father’s Day — a trip they very nearly missed because of flight delays.
Christine said that both her husband and son were thrilled about the dive to the Titanic’s resting place after nursing a years-long obsession with the 111-year-old wreckage.
“He was like a vibrating toddler,” Christine told the Times of her husband’s excitement ahead of the descent. “It was a good morning.”
When contact with the submersible was lost less than two hours later, Christina said she was reassured that communications problems were not uncommon, and if the disruption lasted more than an hour, the dive would be aborted and the sub would bob back up to the surface.
“I was also looking out on the ocean, in case I could maybe see them surfacing,” the wife said.
Last week, the US Coast Guard announced the recovery of “presumed human remains” in chunks of the OceanGate sub’s debris that were found at the site of the implosion.