BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS: One of Pakistan’s richest men and his teenaged son were reportedly among the five people who went missing after their submarine disappeared on a dive to see the wreck of the Titanic. Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19, were on board the OceanGate Expeditions submarine, Titan, taking tourists to view the famous wreck, which lies 12,500ft beneath the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
"Our son Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, had embarked on a journey to visit the remnants of the Titanic in the Atlantic Ocean. As of now, contact has been lost with their submersible craft and there is limited information available," the Dawood family said in a statement on Tuesday, June 20. The submarine was launched around 4 am on Sunday, June 18, but lost communication with the sub's mothership, MV Polar Prince, an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour descent. As per reports, the crew had enough oxygen to last underwater until 7am EST on Thursday, June 22.
Who is Shahzada Dawood?
Dawood is a business advisor who also serves as a member of the Global Advisory Board for King Charles’ Charity, Prince’s Trust International. He was born in Mumbai and educated at the University of Sheffield. He holds an MSc in Global Textile Marketing from Philadelphia University, USA, and a LLB from Buckingham University, UK. He also serves as director across the boards of various industries, including investment holdings such as Dawood Corporation (Pvt) Ltd, Dawood Hercules Corporation Ltd and Patek (Pvt) Ltd.
His 79-year-old father, Hussain, is the chairman of the Dawood Hercules Corporation and the Engro Corporation, which produces fertilizers, food, and energy. The Dawood family is one of the richest in Pakistan, but they also have close ties to the UK and are believed to be living in a mansion in Surrey. Apart from Dawood and Suleman, other tourists onboard the missing submersible includes British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.
After news broke, rescuers admitted the sub could have gotten stuck in the wreckage of the Titanic, which is 370 miles from Newfoundland in Canada but lies in US waters.
The desperate search for the Titan
On Monday, June 19, Rear Admiral John W Mauger said in a press conference that the US Coast Guard was working "as hard as possible" to find the Titan even though their "lives are at risk." Meanwhile, David Concannon, an adviser to OceanGate, who had planned to be a part of the expedition, revealed that officials were planning to send a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that could descend to a depth of 20,000ft to the location. C-130s and P-8s from the US and Canada were also being used to assist in the search operations in the remote area of the ocean. According to the Coast Guard, commercial ships participating in the rescue operation have access to sonar buoys that can hear at depths of up to 13,000ft, Daily Mail reported.
