Yahoo News Grandfather pays tribute to 'amazing father and son' who died on Titanic submersible
Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, Suleman, 19, were among five people who died when the Titan submersible imploded.
Watch: Father and son who died on Titanic submersible were 'best friends'
The "amazing" father and son who died on the submersible used to visit the shipwreck of the Titanic were "best friends", their memorial service has heard.
British businessman Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son, Suleman, 19, were among the five people killed when the Titan submersible, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, imploded earlier this month.
They died along with British billionaire explorer Hamish Harding, 58, French deep sea diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, 61.
Speaking at a virtual memorial service held on Tuesday, Christine Dawood, the wife of Shahzada and mother of Suleman, spoke about her son's birth and his father's reaction.
"When he then held his son for the first time, I just knew these two belonged together," she said.
"His expression was like he had found a long-lost companion for his adventures to come.
"These two best friends – because that's what they were – embarked upon this last voyage, their final journey together."
Shahzada Dawood's father, Hussain Dawood, broke down in tears while speaking at the memorial.
"Both of them [were] so excited, so terribly excited about going to see the Titanic," he said.
"Shahzada and Suleman both convinced us that we should go to Antarctica with them this coming winter and how excited they were – an amazing father and son."
The family had been living in Surbiton, south-west London.
Read more: Titan submersible - what happens next?
Earlier this week, Mrs Dawood said she had given up her place on the submersible to her son after the original trip was postponed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
“It was supposed to be Shahzada and I going down,” she told the BBC. “I stepped back and gave the place to Suleman because he really wanted to go.”
She said “both of them were so excited” and her son had taken a Rubik’s Cube with him because he wanted to solve it at the site of the Titanic.
Mrs Dawood and her 17-year-old daughter Alina were on board support vessel the Polar Prince when they received word that communications with Titan had been lost.
She said she “lost hope” when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible, which indicated they had run out of oxygen.
Last week, emails emerged in which Rush dismissed safety concerns about the submersible.
The BBC said he had written that he had heard “baseless cries” of “you are going to kill someone” – which he believed were a “serious personal insult”.
In the emails between Rush and deep sea exploration specialist Rob McCallum, the OceanGate founder had said he was “tired of industry players who try to use a safety argument to stop innovation”.
Titanic film director James Cameron, who is also a submersibles expert, criticised OceanGate for “not heeding warnings”, the BBC reported.
Watch: Titanic submersible suffered 'catastrophic implosion'
