How doomed Titan sub's passengers are believed to have spent final moments

AP
It's thought the Titan's crew would have descended through bioluminescent creatures that looked like 'falling stars.'

The passengers of the Titan sub spent their final moments in total darkness, the wife and mother of two of the late passengers has said.

On Sunday, Christine Dawood told the New York Times about father-son duo Shahzada and Suleman Dawood's fatal journey to see the Titanic wreckage.

As the sub descended into the mid-Atlantic on June 18, its floodlights and indoor lights were turned off to conserve power, Ms Dawood said.

Through the porthole, they may have see bioluminescent creatures, which create a sensation like falling through stars, she said.

Suleman, aged 19, took a Rubik’s Cube onto the Titan. Shahzada, 48, carried a Nikon camera as he wanted to capture the view of the seafloor through Titan’s single porthole.

Shahzada "was like a vibrating toddler” Ms Dawood said.

Debris from the Titan, which is believed to have imploded as it made its descent, was located roughly 1,600 feet from the Titanic on the ocean floor.

Sulaiman Dawood (left) and his father, Shahzada. Credit: Dawood Family

Ms Dawood and her 17-year-old daughter, Alina, had stayed on the mother ship in order to support Shahzada and Suleman as they set off.

After the US Coast Guard confirmed communication with the sub had been lost, Ms Dawood said she began "looking out on the ocean, in case I could maybe see them surfacing”.

Four days later, Coast Guard officials announced that they had found debris from the Titan. They said it had most likely imploded, instantly killing everyone on board.

Christine Dawood is the mother and wife of Titan victims Suleman Dawood, 19, and Shahzada Dawood Credit: BBC Breakfast/PA

Shahzada and Suleman were killed alongside Stockton Rush, the Titan's pilot and CEO of OceanGate, the company that owned and operated the submersible. British adventurer Hamish Harding and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet also died.

As of 2021, the company charged passengers $100,000-$150,000 (around £78,260 to £117,400) each to participate in the voyage.

The Coast Guard hopes its investigation will result in measures to improve the safety of submersibles.

Other government agencies in the US and Canada are participating in the investigation.

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