Dad and son who died in Titan sub had their remains returned as 'slush' in 'shoeboxes' to family
The widow and mother of Titan submersible victims Shahzada and Suleman Dawood has revealed how their remains were returned to her.
On the morning of June 18, 2023, the father and son were onboard the tragic vessel commanded by OceanGate co-founder Stockton Rush as it imploded off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
French deep-sea explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet and British businessman Hamish Harding also lost their lives that fateful day, during an expedition that descended towards the iconic RMS Titanic wreckage.
All five passengers of the Titan are believed to have been instantaneously vaporised as the killer chain reaction took less than a second.
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Almost three years on from the incident, Christine Dawood has told The Guardian about the emotional aftermath.
"My first thought was, thank God. When they said catastrophic [implosion], I knew Shahzada and Suleman didn't even know about it," she said.
"One moment they were there and the next they weren't. Knowing they didn't suffer has been so important. They're gone, but the way they went does somehow make it easier."
As for the condition of her deceased loved ones, Dawood claimed that her husband and teenage son were reduced to 'slush', but this was sent back to her way any way.
"We didn't get the bodies for nine months," she recalled. "Well, when I say bodies, I mean the slush that was left. They came in two small boxes, like shoeboxes.
"There wasn't much they could find. They have a big pile they can't separate, all mixed DNA, and they asked if I wanted some of that, too. But I said no, just what you know is Suleman and Shahzada."
Dawood herself was originally the fifth passenger on Titan, but she gave up her ticket for Suleman at the last second.
This comes after OceanGate safety diver Tym Catterson weighed in on being the last person to see the five victims alive.
In last year's Netflix documentary Titan: The OceanGate Submersible Disaster, he described how the British-Pakistani youngster knew very little about the Titan trip.
"Suleman was close to the last to going in and when he came up I grabbed him by the back of his flotation device and pulled him to make sure he isn't going to go sliding off into the water," shared Catterson.
"I helped him get in. I helped him get into the sub and then I said 'have a good dive.'"
Christine also appeared in the Netflix feature, where she blamed CEO Rush for the deaths of everybody that day.
"I wanted to hear the confidence of the person who built it, who ran the company, but also he surrounded himself with literal experts," she reflected.
"I mean, one died with them. If you have an expert like this with you, I mean, you don't doubt. The arrogance of the people in charge when they think that they're above everything. That really gets to me.
"Why is ego and arrogance more important than safety? The irony is not lost on me that the Titanic sunk for exactly the same reasons."
Topics: Titan Submersible, Titanic
Dan Seddon