Titan submersible implosion victims paid N185m each for Titanic’s expedition

The victims of the Titan submersible has been reported to have paid a whopping sum of about $250,000(N185 million) each, to see the Titanic shipwreck

One of the victim , a university student who was killed in the tragic Titanic submarine ‘implosion’ was ‘terrified’ about the trip and only joined the crew to please his dad for Father’s Day, his heartbroken aunt has disclosed.

Also present in the submersible is Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, 19,who were two of the five victims killed instantly when the OceanGate submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, the US Coast Guard announced on Thursday.

The other victims were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet nicknamed “Mr Titanic” for his frequent dives at the site and British billionaire Hamish Harding.

Tragically, Azmeh Dawood – the older sister of Mr Dawood, who is vice chairman of Engro Corporation – told NBC News that her nephew ‘wasn’t very up for it’ but felt compelled to please his father, who was passionate about the 1912 shipwreck.

‘I am thinking of Suleman, who is 19, in there, just perhaps gasping for breath … It’s been crippling, to be honest,’ she told the US outlet from her home in Amsterdam.

She added: ‘I feel disbelief. It’s an unreal situation.’

Azmeh, who like the other anxious relatives were hoping for a miracle, continued: ‘I feel like I’ve been caught in a really bad film, with a countdown, but you didn’t know what you’re counting down to.’

She said she ‘personally found it kind of difficult to breathe thinking of them’, adding: ‘It’s been unlike any experience I’ve ever had’.

It comes after Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard revealed at a press conference today: ‘The implosion would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up,’ explained.

The Titanic’s watery grave is situated 400 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and more than two miles below the surface of the North Atlantic.

The Titanic hit an iceberg and sank in 1912 during its maiden voyage from England to New York with 2,224 passengers and crew on board. More than 1,500 people died.

It was found in 1985 and remains a lure for nautical experts and underwater tourists.

The pressure at that depth as measured in atmospheres is 400 times what it is at sea level.

In 2018, OceanGate Expeditions’ former director of marine operations David Lochridge alleged in a lawsuit that he had been fired after raising concerns about the company’s “experimental and untested design” of Titan.

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