The mother of the teenager who died in the Titan sub disaster with his multi-millionaire father has revealed she had originally intended to go on the doomed voyage – but gave her spot to her son because he ‘really wanted to go’.

Christine Dawood and her husband Shahzada Dawood had initially booked a trip to the Titanic wreck for themselves but had to cancel due to the pandemic.

She said that when their family reserved spots on this year’s OceanGate Expeditions mission, she ‘stepped back’ because her son Suleman, 19, was so keen to go.

The family boarded the Polar Prince, the sub’s support vessel, on Father’s Day hoping for the trip of a lifetime. Mrs Dawood and her daughter Alina, 17, were still on board when word came through on June 18 that communications with Titan had been lost.

She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after they did not initially return – but admitted she ‘lost hope’ when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible, which indicated they had run out of oxygen.

Her daughter held out a bit longer, she said, until a call with the US Coast Guard last Thursday when they were informed debris had been found – something they did not know about until that point. It then became clear that an implosion had taken place.

The US Navy had detected sounds ‘consistent with an implosion’ soon after Titan lost contact on Sunday, but it was deemed ‘not definitive’ and the detail was not released publicly – with the search and rescue mission continuing until debris was found. 

Speaking about initially holding out hope, Mrs Dawood told the BBC: ‘We all thought they are just going to come up so that shock was delayed by about 10 hours or so.

‘By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time…. when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed, the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings, started.

‘We had loads of hope, I think that was the only thing that got us through it because we were hoping and… there were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface… they would drop the weights, then the ascent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.

‘There was so many things we would go through where we would think ‘it’s just slow right now, it’s slow right now’. But there was a lot of hope.’

She said she ‘lost hope’ when 96 hours had passed since her husband and son boarded the submersible.

She revealed that is when she sent a message to her family saying she was ‘preparing for the worst’.

Her daughter held out a bit longer, she said, until the call with the US Coast Guard when they were informed debris had been found.

UK-based businessman Shahzada and Suleman were two of the five victims killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic, according to the US Coast Guard.

Mrs Dawood revealed that she had planned to go with her husband to view the Titanic wreck in the OceanGate sub, but that their trip was cancelled due to the Covid pandemic.

‘Then I stepped back and gave them space to set [Suleman] up, because he really wanted to go,’ she said.

‘I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time.’

Mrs Dawood shared how she and Alina hugged and joked with Shahzada and Suleman before the pair entered the submersible.

Suleman, a student at Strathclyde University, had taken his Rubik’s Cube on the trip as he hoped to break the world record for solving the puzzle at the greatest depth, she revealed.

‘He said: ‘I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 meters below sea at the Titanic’,’ Mrs Dawood recalled.

Her son, she said, was practical and intellectual, and wouldn’t go anywhere without his Rubik’s Cube – which he taught himself to solve it in just 12 seconds.

‘Suleman did a 10,000-piece lego Titanic. He applied for a world record because he wanted to solve a Rubik’s Cube at the deepest point.

While his application was rejected, they were still planning to film the attempt.

Mrs Dawood said she and her daughter have vowed to try to learn to finish the Rubik’s Cube in Suleman’s honour, and she intends to continue her husband’s work.

She said: ‘He was involved in so many things, he helped so many people and I think Alina and I really want to continue that legacy and give him that platform when his work has continued and it’s quite important for my daughter as well.

‘Alina and I said we are going learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube. That’s going to be a challenge for us because we are really bad at it but we are going to learn it.’

And the heartbroken mother said through tears: ‘I miss them. I really, really miss them.’

As well as her husband and son, three others died on board Titan: OceanGate’s CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and Paul-Henry Nargeolet, 77, a former French navy diver and experienced Titanic diver. 

Mrs Dawood said those above water tried to remain hopeful, telling themselves: ‘There were so many actions the people on this sub can do in order to surface… they would drop the weights, then the ascent would be slower, we were constantly looking at the surface. There was that hope.’

She and her daughter held out hope to begin with after being they did not initially return.

She said: ‘We all thought they are just going to come up so that shock was delayed by about 10 hours or so.

‘By the time they were supposed to be up again, there was a time…. when they were supposed to be up on the surface again and when that time passed the real shock, not shock but the worry and the not so good feelings started.’

Despite the bleak outlook as the hunt dragged on, she said her teenage daughter never lost hope of her father and older brother’s rescue.

Alina’s mother said of her daughter: ‘She is such an incredible young woman, she is so self-aware.

‘She believes in science, and she really believe, just like if you board a plane, that the science, the mechanics, the engineering will work.’

Mrs Dawood said at 96 hours she tried ‘really hard’ not to show her daughter that she had lost hope.

After news emerged on Thursday that debris from the sub had been found, the family returned to St John’s in Newfoundland, Canada on Saturday.

Yesterday, they held a funeral prayer for Shahzada and Suleman, which Christine said had ‘helped’.

Paying tribute to her son, she admitted he had been a ‘mother’s boy’ but that he also ‘loved his father’.

When asked what the family’s last words to each other were, she told the BBC: ‘We just hugged and joked actually, because Shahzada was so excited to go down, he was like a little child.

‘He had this ability of childhood excitement, they were both so excited.’

Mrs Dawood and her husband met at university, she said, when she didn’t speak any English.

She recalled how the history buff knew more about her native Germany’s history than she did, and that he was obsessed with documentaries.

‘He would make us all watch David Attenborough, and the children loved it.

‘His enthusiasm brought the best out of me, and so I really learned to love history as well. He was really able to, through his knowledge, inspire and motivate others.’

There were several ‘potential failure points’ in the doomed Titan submersible – and a warning system probably alerted the five crew who perished shortly before the vessel imploded, Titanic director James Cameron has said.

A series of concerns were raised in recent years about the vessel’s carbon fiber hull – the cylinder which carried the five crew who perished – and its porthole, which was allegedly not certified to the immense depths Titan ventured to.

The company’s CEO, Stockton Rush, even said the carbon fiber design broke a ‘rule’ and was accused of ignoring concerns from his own staff. 

Cameron, a renowned explorer who has traveled to the deepest known point in the ocean, said Titan had ‘three potential failure points’ and indicated that its ‘Achilles heel’ was the carbon fiber cylinder.

He added the hull was broken into ‘very small pieces’ after Titan imploded when the hull fractured because of the pressure. A warning system probably sounded an alert and the crew tried to ascend in the moment before the implosion, he added.

Concerns about the hull and porthole were also raised by OceanGate’s former head of marine operations, David Lochridge, in court documents in 2018. The filings state the viewport was ‘only built to a certified pressure of 1,300 meters, although OceanGate intended to take passengers down to depths of 4,000 meters’.

Cameron delivered a damning assessment of the Titan craft during a series of interviews following the grim news it had been destroyed during its mission.

He criticized the design for straying away from proven techniques in favor of experimental methods. 

‘There are three potential failure points and the investigation hopefully can localize it down to exactly what happened,’ he told Good Morning America.

‘The viewport in the front was an acrylic viewport. I’m told it was rated to less depth than they were diving to, which is one point. They also had two glass spheres on the sub, small glass spheres for floatation, which is a bad idea.’

Cameron didn’t clarify his statement about the ‘glass spheres’ but he said it was the carbon fiber hull that was the ‘weakest link’. 

‘If I had to put money down on what the finding will be, the Achilles heel of the sub was the composite cylinder that was the main hull that the people were inside,’ 

‘There were two titanium end caps on each end. They are relatively intact on the sea floor. But that carbon fiber composite cylinder is now just in very small pieces. It’s all rammed into one of the hemispheres. It’s pretty clear that’s what failed.’

Rush, who died in the Titan incident, said in a video posted online in 2021 that he had ‘broken some rules’ to create the vessel and added: ‘The carbon fiber and titanium, there’s a rule you don’t do that – well I did.’

He also said in 2020 that the hull had ‘showed signs of cyclical fatigue’. 

Carbon fiber is prone to delamination, the process whereby a material fractures into layers while put under pressure.

Cameron said: ‘The way it fails is it delaminates. You have to have a hull, a pressure hull, made out of a contiguous material like steel, or like titanium, which is the proven standard.’

‘This OceanGate sub had sensors on the inside of the hull to give them a warning when it was starting to crack. And I think if that’s your idea of safety, then you’re doing it wrong. And they probably had warning that their hull was starting to delaminate, and it started to crack…

‘It’s our belief we understand from inside the community that they had dropped their ascent weights and they were coming up, trying to manage an emergency.’

OceanGate has not shared a comment about reports into safety concerns about Titan since the incident.

The company had boasted in promotional material about Titan’s ‘Real Time Hull Health Monitoring’, which constantly checked the integrity of the vessel throughout the dive. The system used acoustic sensors and strain gauges to ‘analyze the effects of changing pressure on the vessel as the submersible dives deeper, and accurately assess the integrity of the structure’.

But legal filings reveal Lochridge, the former director of marine operations, ‘expressed concern that this was problematic because this type of acoustic analysis would only show when a component is about to fail—often milliseconds before an implosion—and would not detect any existing flaws prior to putting pressure onto the hull.’

Cameron successfully reached the deepest known point on Earth, the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean, in 2012 using the Deepsea Challenger submersible.

It was only the fourth time the seven-mile descent to the Pacific sea bed has been made successfully – and the first time a man has made it the bottom and back since 1960.

The dive followed seven years of planning and design for the construction of the specialized sub which could withstand the immense pressure at the ocean floor. 

A decorated former Navy doctor has revealed what would have happened during the Titanic Five’s tragic final moments before their vessel suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion.’

Dr. Dale Molé, the former director of undersea medicine and radiation health for the US Navy, told DailyMail.com the deaths would have been quick and painless, dying almost instantly by the extraordinary forces exerted by the ocean at depth.

Molé said: ‘It would have been so sudden, that they wouldn’t even have known that there was a problem, or what happened to them.

‘It’s like being here one minute, and then the switch is turned off. You’re alive one millisecond, and the next millisecond you’re dead.’

US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger confirmed in a Thursday press conference that the search for Titan yielded debris that is ‘consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber.’

The crew were more than 2 miles below the ocean surface, which would have generated more than 5,500 pounds per square inch (PSI) of pressure.

On board the vessel was OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61; French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, 77; British billionaire Hamish Harding, 58; Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, 41;  and his son Suleman, who was just 19. 

The tiny vessel carrying the crew was protected by a pressure chamber, a sealed pod that holds internal pressure significantly higher than ambient pressure, a pressurized gas system to control the internal pressure, and a supply of breathing gas for the occupants.

Molé said: ‘The pressure hull is the chamber where the occupants reside. It sounds as though they had reached the bottom when the pressure vessel imploded, and usually, when it gives way, it gives way all at once. 

‘It sounds like it was the carbon fiber cylinder that gave way and resulted in the implosion.’

How the pressure chamber was breached remains unclear. But such an implosion could be due to a leak, power failure, or small fire from an electrical short circuit. 

What would have resulted would have been a violent and instantaneous implosion as the high pressure water outside flooded in, wrenching away the rear cover, landing frame, and ripping apart the sub’s hull, crushing those inside. 

Molé said: ‘They would have been ripped to shreds. 

‘An implosion is when the wave of pressure is inward, whereas an explosion is when the pressure wave or the shock wave goes out from whatever the source of that is.’

He explained it like blowing up a balloon too much – the balloon will eventually pop when there is too much pressure.

In an implosion, the opposite occurs, when there is more outward pressure than the container can understand, then the insides collapse. 

Molé said: ‘When somebody stands on an empty soda can, it would support your weight, but then if you press on the sides, the can would collapse immediately.’ 

He added: ‘It’s simply where the debris and fragments and everything else goes inward because of a strong external force. In this case, it was the ocean.

‘At least at the depth of the Titanic, which is 12,500 feet, the external pressure would be 6,000 lbs per square inch. It’s that pressure that, if there were a weakness in the hull, would cause the hull to collapse and suddenly creates a shockwave. An implosion can certainly be every bit of destructive as an explosion.’

According to Scientific American, if the submersible was near the Titanic, it would have experienced higher pressure than a great white shark bite.

Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist at the University of Portsmouth, UK, agreed if such an implosion did occur, the pressure would have killed the  occupants almost instantly.

‘If there was any kind of hull breach, the occupants would succumb to the ocean in a near instant.’

After Thursday’s announcement of the deaths of the Titanic Five, tributes were posted and released. 

Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77 – known universally as PH – was part of the first human expedition to visit the Titanic’s wreck in 1987, and had visited the site at least 35 times. His family said their hearts were broken over his death. 

‘He is a man who will be remembered as one of the greatest deep-sea explorers in modern history. When you think of the Titanic and all we know about the ship today, you will think of Paul-Henri Nargeolet and his legendary work.

‘But what we will remember him most for is his big heart, his incredible sense of humor and how much he loved his family. We will miss him today and every day for the rest of our lives.’

Harding’s company Action Aviation also released a statement on the news of his passing. 

‘Hamish Harding was a loving husband to his wife and a dedicated father to his two sons, whom he loved deeply. To his team in Action Aviation, he was a guide, an inspiration, a support, and a Living Legend,’ a statement read. 

The Dawood family said it was grateful to those who participated in the international rescue effort. Their works was the a ‘source of strength,’ Hussain and Kulsum Dawood Family said in a statement. 

‘We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues, and well-wishers from all over the world who have stood by us during our hour of need,’ the statement noted. ‘The immense love and support we receive continues to help us to endure this unimaginable loss.’

The OceanGate sub started its descent around 8 am Sunday toward the Titanic wreck site in the deep Atlantic Ocean. About one hour and 45 minutes later, the vessel lost contact with the surface. 

A new report noted the US Navy might have picked up the sound of the implosion on Sunday morning, but the massive rescue effort still continued. 

‘The US Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost,’ a senior U.S. Navy official said. 

Earlier on Thursday, Coast Guard Rear Adm. John Mauger said it was too soon to say whether the implosion happened at the time of last communication.

The implosion was not detected by sonar buoys used by search crews, he said, which suggests it happened before they arrived – and was indeed heard by the U.S. Navy.

‘We had listening devices in the water throughout and did not hear any signs of catastrophic failure from those,’ said Mauger.

‘The implosion would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up.’

It is not known why the U.S. Navy did not make the information about the likely implosion known. It is also not known if they informed the families or rescue crews of their analysis.

One reason may be that they wanted to launch a search and rescue mission in the hope that their information was wrong, and did not want to give any reason for deterring the search.

A glimmer of hope came earlier in the week when the Coast Guard confirmed consistent ‘banging’ noises had been detected by P-3 aircraft, but the search teams were unable to find the source of the sound, or confirm that they were the SOS signals the world had hoped for. 

Instead on Thursday, a French Viking 6000 kocated debris from the imploded vessel near the site of the Titanic. 

In addition to the vessel’s landing frame and rear cover that were the first pieces of debris detected, the ROV submarine also found fragments of the pressure hull – the main body of the submersible. 

Titanic director and submersible expert James Cameron said he predicted Titan’s implosion days before the debris from the missing submersible was found, calling the search a ‘prolonged nightmarish charade’.

Mr Cameron, who has visited the world’s most famous seawreck 30 times, said the tragedy this week has parallels with the the Titanic disaster, where the captain repeatedly ignored warnings about an incoming iceberg but carried on at top speed.

The Titanic Five were killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the wrecked ocean liner, the US Coast Guard announced yesterday. A remote operated submarine from a Canadian ship found debris on the ocean floor. 

But search and rescue officials say the men likely died on Sunday – before military planes using sonar buoys detected what they thought could have been SOS ‘banging’ sounds in the water. The US Navy said they heard a sound consistent with an implosion when communications were lost around two hours after they dived. The Navy passed on that information to the Coast Guard, an insider said.

Mr Cameron told BBC News that the Coast Guard search ‘felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff’.

‘I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position. That’s exactly where they found it,’ he said.

According to court documents, safety concerns had previously been raised about the Titan submersible by a former employee of OceanGate. David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, claimed wrongful dismissal after flagging worries about the company’s alleged ‘refusal to conduct critical, non-destructive testing of the experimental design’.

Mr Cameron said last night: ‘A number of the top players in the deep-submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that needed to be certified and so on.

‘I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and many people died as a result It’s a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded — to take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going around all around the world. I think it’s just astonishing, it’s really quite surreal’.

Mr Cameron said: ‘I felt in my bones what had happened. I immediately got on the phone to some of my contacts in the deep submersible community. Within about an hour I had the following facts. They were on descent. They were at 3500 metres, heading for the bottom at 3800 metres.

‘For the sub’s electronics to fail and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously – sub’s gone

‘We now have another wreck that is based on unfortunately the same principles of not heeding warnings.’

The victims are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19. 

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

James Cameron’s pointed message comes after it was revealed that emerged that OceanGate boss Rush had been warned years before that his ‘experimental approach’ could lead to a catastrophe – and in another interview he spoke about ‘breaking rules’ to make the submarine.

It would have been an instant death for the men, some of whom had paid $250,000 each to see the famous shipwreck. 

In a gut-wrenching blow for their families, experts say there is little prospect of recovering any of their remains. 

‘This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there. The debris is consistent of a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.. we’ll continue to work and search the area down there – but I don’t have an answer for prospects at this time,’ Paul Hankin, a deep sea expert involved in the search, said. 

In a heartbreaking tribute, Richard Garriott, president of the Explorers Club, of which Harding and Nargeolet were both members, said that the men had been drawn to explore ‘in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind.’

‘Our hearts are broken. I am so sorry to have to share this tragic news,’ Garriott announced. He said the club was ‘grateful for all our members and the scientific and exploration community around the world who have mobilized personnel and resources to support the search and rescue’.

Garriott described Harding as a ‘dear friend’ to himself and the club. ‘He holds several world records and has continued to push dragons off maps both in person and through supporting expeditions and worthy causes,’ he wrote. 

‘We’re heartbroken for the families, friends and colleagues of those who were lost. Their memories will be a blessing and will continue to inspire us in the name of science and exploration,’ Garriott said.

In addition to the vessel’s landing frame and rear cover that were the first pieces of debris detected, the ROV submarine also found fragments of the pressure hull – the main body of the submersible. 

‘The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Upon this determination we immediately notified the families. 

‘On behalf of the Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families. 

‘I hope this discovery provides some solace during this difficult time,’ Rear Admiral Mauger said.

In its own statement, OceanGate said this afternoon: ‘We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

‘These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. 

‘Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.’

The company added: ‘This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. 

‘The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission. 

‘We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.

‘This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. 

‘We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.’ 

Earlier, David Mearns, who was friends with two of the men on board, said the ‘only saving grace’ for the men was how quickly their deaths would have occurred. 

The world had been praying for a ‘miracle’ after rescuers estimated the vital oxygen supply would end at 7.08am EST (12.08pm UK time, 9.09pm Sydney) on Thursday.

Officials said the field had been found by Odysseus 6k, a remote operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel, the Horizon Arctic, that can dive 20,000ft underwater. 

A glimmer of hope came yesterday when the Coast Guard confirmed consistent ‘banging’ noises had been detected by P-3 aircraft, but the search teams were unable to find the source of the sound, or confirm that they were the SOS signals the world had hoped for. 

The families of the five men on board the sub are yet to publicly react to news of the debris discovery.

Experts have for days warned of the possibility that the Titan had sprung a leak and imploded under the pressure, which is 400 times that experienced at sea level. 

‘They would be dead before they knew anything had even happened,’ L. David Marquet, a retired Navy nuclear submarine commander, said earlier this week. 

Earlier on Thursday, before the debris was found, Rear Admiral John Mauger, who coordinated the effort from Boston, said during an appearance on NBC’s Today show: ‘People’s will to live has to be accounted for.’ 

The submersible’s oxygen theoretically should have run out at 8am EST (1pm BST) Thursday, according to the 96 hours limit listed on OceanGate’s specs of the ship. 

The Titan submerged at 8am (1pm BST) and lost communications at 9.45am (2.45pm) but was not reported as missing to the US Coast Guard until 5.40pm (10.40pm). The sub was due to return to the Polar Prince ay 3pm EST (8pm BST) Sunday. 

Since Sunday night, there has been a frantic, international effort to find it and save the men on board.  

Kathleen Cosnett, a cousin of UK businessman Hamish Harding, 58, who was on the sub, said the eight-hour delay before contacting the authorities was ‘far too long’.

She told the Telegraph: ‘It’s very frightening. It took so long for them to get going to rescue them, it’s far too long. I would have thought three hours would be the bare minimum.’  

Titan lost communication on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic off the coast of Canada. The last ‘ping’ of its homing device was heard on Sunday afternoon – directly above the world’s most famous wreck.

A Canadian Navy ship carrying medics specializing in treating health issues relating to deep-sea diving arrived on the scene this morning on the HMCS Glace Bay. They also brought a hyperbaric chamber – which can be used for decompressing divers after they return to the surface. 

Above the wreck was flotilla of at least ten ships, two robot subs and several aircraft scanning the Atlantic for any sign of Titan as sonar continued to hear a banging noise from the depths.  A Royal Navy submariner, as well as equipment from a British company, was also sent to assist in the search.

Oceanographer and water search expert Dr David Gallo said earlier on Thursday: ‘It’s going to be almost impossible. We need a miracle — but miracles do happen’. 

But former Royal Navy Officer, Chris Parry, said as midday approached: ‘I’m afraid time’s up – I don’t think there’s any prospect of getting those people out alive now’. 

Rescuers were insistent that they would continue to look for the men even after the 96 hour oxygen window expired. 

As recently as Wednesday afternoon, Coast Guard response coordinator Captain Jamie Frederick for First Coast Guard District said: ‘This is a search and rescue mission, 100 per cent.’

The British 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 revealed.

Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, 19, 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, according to the US Coast Guard.

The other victims were OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding. They had been missing since the Titan sub vanished on Sunday, prompting a nail-biting search for the crew.

Tragically, Azmeh Dawood told NBC News that her nephew informed a relative he ‘wasn’t very up for it’ but felt compelled to please his father, who was very 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,’ the devastated aunt and sister told the US outlet from her home in Amsterdam.

The older sister of Mr Dawood, who was the vice chairman of Engro Corporation, reportedly said through tears: ‘I feel disbelief. It’s an unreal situation.’

Azmeh, who like the other anxious relatives was 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’.

Azmeh herself admitted she would not have gotten on the Titan submersible ‘if you gave me a million dollars’. 

Mr Dawood’s sister said she had fallen out of touch with him in recent years.

Azmeh was diagnosed with primary progressive multiple sclerosis in 2014 and ‘reduced to being in a wheelchair’.

She had moved from England to Amsterdam to have easier access to medical cannabis – something her family members, including her brother, disapproved of.

But after hearing the tragic news, she was reminded of her love for her brother.  ‘He was my baby brother, I held him up when he was born,’ she said.

Azmeh said she always felt close to Suleman who she described as ‘thoroughly good-hearted’. 

Suleman’s grandparents, Hussain and Kulsum Dawood, paid tribute to their beloved grandson and son, describing their passing as an ‘unimaginable loss’.

News of the tragic deaths emerged today, with the US Coast Guard revealing that debris the search mission had discovered was ‘consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber’. 

‘Upon this determination we immediately notified the families,’ US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mauger told a press conference attended by reporters from across the globe.

‘On behalf of the Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families.’

It would have been an instant death for the men, some of whom had paid £195,000 ($250,000) each to see the famous shipwreck.

In a gut-wrenching blow for their families, experts say there is little prospect of recovering any of their remains.

As search and rescue teams continued to cling onto hope of finding the sub on Wednesday, the Dawoods’ family gathered above the water where the vessel was last seen. 

A family source told MailOnline that Mr Dawood’s wife Christine and daughter Alina were at the search site and would wait there ‘as long as they can’.

The source added: ‘It’s not clear what it was that made Mr Dawood want to go and visit the Titanic with his son, but he is driven by a passion of exploration, and I understand this was something that had been planned for some time.’

Mr Dawood and his son were heirs to the great Dawood business dynasty and among the richest people in Pakistan. 

They were British citizens and lived in Surbiton, Surrey. Suleman and his older sister were both raised in London.

Suleman was studying at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow. He was a Business School student and had just completed his first year.

Before his death was announced, Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice Chancellor, said in a statement: ‘I write to you with a heavy heart to share the news that one of our students, Suleman Dawood, is a passenger on board the submersible that is missing in the North Atlantic.

‘We are deeply concerned about Suleman, his father and the others involved in this incident. I know you will join me in sending our thoughts and prayers to their families and loved ones.’

A family statement earlier in the week described Suleman as ‘a big fan of science fiction literature and learning new things’.

Suleman’s mother Christine, a psychologist and life coach, and his sister Alina had been spending a month in Canada before the father and son undertook the dive. 

In January 2019, Christine revealed how she and her husband had been involved in a terrifying plane ‘plunge’, during which they felt they were going to die.

‘My husband told me later that he was thinking of all the opportunities he’d missed and how much he still wanted to teach our children,’ Christine said in a heartbreaking post at the time.

Ahsen Uddin Syed, a friend of Mr Dawood’s who worked with him at his company, said earlier this week that the businessman was ‘an explorer’.

‘Traveling, science, are part of his DNA,’ Syed told The New York Times.

He added that Mr Dawood loved Star Trek and Star Wars and was a keen photographer. 

Mr Dawood was a trustee at the SETI Institute – a Silicon Valley not-for-profit working in space exploration.

He was also a supporter of two charities founded by King Charles – the British Asian Trust and the Prince’s Trust International.

The Dawood family released a statement on Twitter on Thursday night, saying ‘it is with profound grief that we announce the passing of Shahzada and Suleman Dawood’.

‘Our beloved sons were aboard OceanGate’s Titan submersible that perished underwater.

‘Please continue to keep the departed souls and our family in your prayers during this difficult period of mourning.

‘We are truly grateful to all those involved in the rescue operations. Their untiring efforts were a source of strength for us during this time.

‘We are also indebted to our friends, family, colleagues, and well-wishers from all over the world who have stood by us during our hour of need. The immense love and support we receive continues to help us to endure this unimaginable loss.

‘We extend our heartfelt condolences to the families of the other passengers on the Titan submersible. At this time, we are unable to receive calls and request that support, condolences, and prayers be messaged instead. Details of their final rites in this world will be announced soon.’

The statement was signed by Mr Dawood’s parents, Hussain and Kulsum, philanthropists who run an educational charity and the heads of the family dynasty. 

Mr Dawood’s sister, Sabrina, said as the rescue mission was underway that he and his son would be ‘as moved as we are by the support of the global community’. 

As tributes for the father and son continue to pour in, Mr Dawood’s company shared condolences with the family. 

In a statement, Engro Corporation, the Pakistani conglomerate that he was vice chairman of, said: ‘With heavy hearts and great sadness, we grieve the loss of our vice chairman, Shahzada Dawood, and his beloved son, Suleman Dawood. 

‘Our thoughts and prayers are with the Dawood family at this tragic time. 

‘We extend our heartfelt condolences to the family, colleagues, friends and all those around the world who grieve this unthinkable loss.’

After days of searching for the lost Titan sub, officials today announced that the five passengers on board had perished.

Among them was British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, whose family have paid tribute to him as a ‘dedicated father’ and ‘living legend’ who died doing what he loved.

French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, who was an experienced Titanic diver, also lost his life. 

In a heartbreaking tribute, Richard Garriott, president of the Explorers Club, of which Harding and Nargeolet were both members, said that the men had been drawn to explore ‘in the name of meaningful science for the betterment of mankind.’

‘Our hearts are broken. I am so sorry to have to share this tragic news,’ Garriott announced. He said the club was ‘grateful for all our members and the scientific and exploration community around the world who have mobilized personnel and resources to support the search and rescue’.

Garriott described Harding as a ‘dear friend’ to himself and the club. ‘He holds several world records and has continued to push dragons off maps both in person and through supporting expeditions and worthy causes,’ he wrote. 

‘We’re heartbroken for the families, friends and colleagues of those who were lost. Their memories will be a blessing and will continue to inspire us in the name of science and exploration,’ Garriott said.

In a statement confirming their deaths, OceanGate said: ‘We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

‘These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. 

‘Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.’

The company added: ‘This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. 

‘The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission. 

‘We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.

‘This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea.’

Until reports of a ‘debris field’ emerged, which was later confirmed to include pieces of the Titan, the world had been praying for a ‘miracle’ for the passengers on board the lost vessel.

Officials said the field had been found by Odysseus 6k, a remote operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel, the Horizon Arctic, that can dive 20,000ft underwater. 

On Wednesday, rescuers estimated that the vital oxygen supply would end at 7.08am EST (12.08pm UK time, 9.09pm Sydney) the next day.

A glimmer of hope came on Wednesday when the Coast Guard confirmed consistent ‘banging’ noises had been detected by P-3 aircraft, but the search teams were unable to find the source of the sound, or confirm that they were the SOS signals the world had hoped for. 

But, experts warned for days of the possibility that the Titan had sprung a leak and imploded under the pressure, which is 400 times that experienced at sea level. 

With officials now confirming that the search had discovered debris ‘consistent with a catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,’ it is believed the five passengers could have been killed instantaneously, possibly as communications dropped on Sunday.

The daughter a French explorer on board the missing Titan submersible said she was still holding out hope they would be rescued – shortly before news broke that debris from the vessel was found on the ocean floor this morning. 

The comments from Sidonie Nargeolet, the 39-year-old daughter of oceanographer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, came before a landing frame and rear cover of the missing Titan were discovered, leading officials to believe the five-man crew, Nargeolet included, is now dead.

Experts said the debris suggests the vessel suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ sometime after descending into the ocean depths on Sunday, potentially claiming all five of the lives on board.   

As workers’ search entered a critical phase Thursday morning, Sidonie told Reuters she was living with ‘a lot of stress, very mixed emotions’ about the fate of the missing mariner – whose knowledge of the lost ship earned him the nickname ‘Mr Titanic’.

The 77-year-old spent more than two decades in the French Navy before leading several expeditions to the famous wreck in the Atlantic Ocean. 

‘I really hope they will find them and safe. I think we have to trust what they are doing and be confident,’ Sidonie, 39, told Reuters in the town of La Massana, Andorra, where she lives.

Sidonie said her father’s vast experience with submarines made him ‘know how to react to problems’ and she was confident he was able to manage the situation well.

‘He is very passionate about the Titanic since they found it 30 years ago and I know now he is at the place he would like to be.’

Her father’s colleagues have described him as a leading expert on the Titanic with more than 35 dives to the wreck under his belt after a two-decade career in the French navy.

His daughter said she learned about the accident on Monday, when she received a text message from her father’s spouse saying he should have been back at 6 p.m. on Sunday.

‘I cried a lot,’ she said of her reaction to the news. She had last seen her father just before Christmas last year in Andorra.

‘He sent me a message a week before (getting in the submersible) telling me the weather was bad, so they hadn’t been able to go down, but that there was a great atmosphere,’ she said. ‘I sent him a message on Sunday for Father’s Day but he didn’t reply.’

Sidonie said her father had made his first trip to the wreck in 1987. On one trip in another vessel operated by U.S.-based OceanGate Expeditions, he told her that he was not sure he would return safely, although he eventually did.

‘He knows how to handle a crisis situation. He is prepared for it. Here, I think that with the other people he would have explained to them, therefore, to breathe gently, so that we use less oxygen. 

‘And he also knows how to reassure them, that’s very important. Maybe kick the submarine, so they can hear it,’ she said.

But she was realistic about time running out.

‘What worries me is that they are not being found because there will be a moment in which they will run out of oxygen,’ Sidonie said.

Nargeolet’s friends have said he is an ‘extraordinary leader’ in crisis situations, and if anyone can keep those onboard calm in the claustrophobic conditions onboard the Titan, it’s him. 

The mariner, born in Chamonix, France, was the first person to have brought up an object – a silver plate – from the Titanic in 1987 and in 2022 he told Le Parisien that he had read ‘200 to 300 books’ on the wreckage.

Since that first dive in 1987, the esteemed mariner has led several expeditions to the sunken cruiser off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, and even supervised the recovery of thousands of artifacts – including the 20-ton section of the Titanic’s hull.

‘He is the world specialist on the Titanic, its conception, the shipwreck, he has dived in four corners of the world – he is a super-hero for us in France,’ said Mathieu Johann, his editor at Harper Collins.

But as searchers made the grim debris discovery later in the day, many are losing hope about the prospect of a safe return for the five-person crew – Sidonie included.

‘Sometimes I don’t check (the news) because I don’t want to hear them saying that they now have very low oxygen. I prefer to listen to positive things, to hope, that they will continue looking for them,’ she said shortly before the new development, struggling to hold back her tears.

‘If they are not found, it will be very sad for us because we will not see him again. What he liked the most was to be in a submarine, (near) the Titanic.’

She took solace in the fact that if he is in fact lost, her father went out doing what he loved most.  

‘He is where he really loved being. I would prefer him (dying) at a place where he is very happy,’ Nargeolet said.

‘So whether he’s in a submarine and whether he’s in the Titanic, I know he likes it. I hope there will be a good outcome, that they will find him. In any case … he is happy where he is… That’s reassuring.’

Experts, meanwhile, for days had warned of the possibility that the Titan had sprung a leak and imploded under pressure experienced during the deep dive, which is roughly 400 times that experienced at sea level. 

‘They would be dead before they knew anything had even happened,’ L. David Marquet, a retired Navy nuclear submarine commander, said earlier this week. 

If the debris does not belong to the Titan, the Coast Guard has vowed to continue its search. 

Earlier this morning, Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is coordinating the effort from Boston, said during an appearance on NBC’s Today show: ‘People’s will to live has to be accounted for.’ 

The submersible’s oxygen theoretically should have run out at 8am EST (1pm BST) Thursday, according to the 96 hours limit listed on OceanGate’s specs of the ship. 

The bodies of the five Titanic sub crew may never be recovered from the ‘unforgiving’ ocean where they perished, the US Coast Guard announced grimly today after confirming that shattered pieces of the vessel have been found 500meters from the bow of the famous ship the men died trying to see. 

The nail-biting search for the Titan, a 21ft submersible operated by OceanGate Expeditions, drew to a devastating close today when a remote operated submarine from a Canadian ship found broken pieces of it on the ocean floor. 

Search and rescue efforts say they likely died on Sunday – before military planes using sonar buoys detected what they thought could have been SOS ‘banging’ sounds in the water. 

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

It would have been an instant death for the men, some of whom had paid $250,000 each to see the famous shipwreck. 

In a gut-wrenching blow for the victims’ families, experts say there is little prospect of recovering any of their remains.  

‘This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there. The debris is consistent of a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.. we’ll continue to work and search the area down there – but I don’t have an answer for prospects at this time,’ Paul Hankin, a deep sea expert involved in the search, said. 

In addition to the landing frame and rear cover that were the first pieces of debris detected, the ROV submarine also found fragments of the pressure hull – the main body of the submersible. 

‘The debris is consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber. Upon this determination we immediately notified the families. On behalf of the Coast Guard and the entire unified command, I offer my deepest condolences to the families,’ Rear Admiral Mauger said.

In its own statement, OceanGate said this afternoon: ‘We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.

‘These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world’s oceans. 

‘Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew.’

The company added: ‘This is an extremely sad time for our dedicated employees who are exhausted and grieving deeply over this loss. 

‘The entire OceanGate family is deeply grateful for the countless men and women from multiple organizations of the international community who expedited wide-ranging resources and have worked so very hard on this mission. 

‘We appreciate their commitment to finding these five explorers, and their days and nights of tireless work in support of our crew and their families.

‘This is a very sad time for the entire explorer community, and for each of the family members of those lost at sea. 

‘We respectfully ask that the privacy of these families be respected during this most painful time.’ 

Earlier, David Mearns, who was friends with two of the men on board, said the ‘only saving grace’ for the men was how quickly their deaths would have occurred. 

‘The hull hasn’t yet been found but two very important parts of the whole system have been discovered and that would not be found unless its fragmented. That really indicates what is the worst case scenario which is a catastrophic failure, an implosion. 

‘The only saving grace is that it would have been immediate, literally in milliseconds and the men would have no idea what was happening… my worst fears have now been realized,’ he said. 

The world has been praying for a ‘miracle’ after rescuers estimated the vital oxygen supply would end at 7.08am EST (12.08pm UK time, 9.09pm Sydney) on Thursday.

Officials said the field had been found by Odysseus 6k, a remote operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel, the Horizon Arctic, that can dive 20,000ft underwater. 

A glimmer of hope came yesterday when the Coast Guard confirmed consistent ‘banging’ noises had been detected by P-3 aircraft, but the search teams were unable to find the source of the sound, or confirm that they were the SOS signals the world had hoped for. 

The families of the five men on board the sub are yet to publicly react to news of the debris discovery.

Experts have for days warned of the possibility that the Titan had sprung a leak and imploded under the pressure, which is 400 times that experienced at sea level. 

‘They would be dead before they knew anything had even happened,’ L. David Marquet, a retired Navy nuclear submarine commander, said earlier this week. 

If the debris does not belong to the Titan, the Coast Guard has vowed to continue its search. 

Earlier this morning, Rear Admiral John Mauger, who is coordinating the effort from Boston, said during an appearance on NBC’s Today show: ‘People’s will to live has to be accounted for.’ 

The submersible’s oxygen theoretically should have run out at 8am EST (1pm BST) Thursday, according to the 96 hours limit listed on OceanGate’s specs of the ship. 

The family of British billionaire, Hamish Harding, have spoken of their fury that it took OceanGate’s mothership, the Polar Prince, eight hours to report the sub missing on Sunday. 

The Titan submerged at 8am (1pm BST) and lost communications at 9.45am (2.45pm) but was not reported as missing to the US Coast Guard until 5.40pm (10.40pm). 

The sub was due to return to the Polar Prince ay 3pm EST (8pm BST) Sunday. 

Since Sunday night, there has been a frantic, international effort to find it and save the men on board.  

Those stuck onboard the sub included British billionaire Hamish Harding, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French navy veteran PH Nargeolet and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19 and a student at Strathclyde University in Scotland. 

 The Titan craft, run by OceanGate Explorations, submerged on Sunday at 1pm UK time (8am EST and 10pm in Sydney) around 400 miles southeast of St John’s, Newfoundland.

At 2.45pm it lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince. But it wasn’t reported missing to the US Coast Guard until 10.40pm.

Kathleen Cosnett, a cousin of UK businessman Hamish Harding, 58, who was on the sub, said the eight-hour delay before contacting the authorities was ‘far too long’.

She told the Telegraph: ‘It’s very frightening. It took so long for them to get going to rescue them, it’s far too long. I would have thought three hours would be the bare minimum.’  

Titan lost communication on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland, during a voyage to the Titanic off the coast of Canada. The last ‘ping’ of its homing device was heard on Sunday afternoon – directly above the world’s most famous wreck.

A Canadian Navy ship carrying medics specializing in treating health issues relating to deep-sea diving arrived on the scene this morning on the HMCS Glace Bay, according to officials. 

They also brought a  hyperbaric chamber – which can be used for decompressing divers after they return to the surface. 

Above the wreck is a flotilla of at least ten ships, two robot subs and several aircraft scanning the Atlantic for any sign of Titan as sonar continues to hear a banging noise from the depths.  

Speaking today to Sky News, Rear Admiral John Mauger confirmed the initial reports suggesting the noise heard by sonar buoys was ‘background ocean noise’.

‘We’ve taken that information and shared it with top leading experts from the US Navy and the Canadian Navy, and they’re working on the analysis of that information, they’re continuing to work on the analysis of that information,’ he said. 

‘The initial reports is that there’s a lot of the sounds that were generated were from background ocean noise, but they continue to … look for all available information there.

‘What’s important to me, and what’s important as the unified command, is that we’ve continued search in the areas where noise was detected with the ROVs that we have from the time of that detection, so we’re not waiting for this analysis to take action.

‘The analysis is really helpful to our overall search-and-rescue efforts, but we’re not waiting on it, we’ve moved the remote operated vehicles that we’ve had on site to those areas where noise was detected.’

Shipping experts Marine Traffic have shared an animation of the ships rushing to the search zone. Titan’s mothership Polar Prince has been searching the area since Sunday and is zig-zagging the site in the hope that it will appear on the surface or get back in contact after communications cut out more than 72 hours ago. 

A Royal Navy submariner, as well as equipment from a British company, has been sent to assist in the search for Titan. Number 10 said Lieutenant Commander Richard Kantharia had been ’embedded… to assist the search and rescue effort’.

Rob Larter, a marine expert at the British Antarctic Survey, told a press conference on Thursday that he thought the Victor 6000 was the ‘main hope’ for an underwater rescue.

Alistair Greig, a professor of marine engineering at University College London, said the robot’s two manipulator arms could potentially allow it to untangle the Titan, or attach a device that could float it to the surface.

The Victor 6000 also has strong lights, allowing it to see through some of the murk at such depths.

But the experts warned that the rescuers would need to know fairly precisely where to look for Titan, which currently does not seem to be the case.

Finding the submersible ‘could potentially take weeks of intense survey,’ Larter warned.

And even if search teams do find the submersible, a rescue operation could take up precious time.

In a normal situation, it would take two hours for a ROV like the Victor 6000 to get down to the necessary depth – and another two hours to float back up, Greig said.

The missing submersible is also reportedly bolted from the outside, which could take up more time, he added.

Larter said it was a ‘desperate situation’.

‘It’s kind of unimaginable if people are alive, trapped in a submersible with oxygen supplies running down.

‘An objective assessment of where things are at the moment: it doesn’t look good,’ Larter said, adding that it was important to stay optimistic.

The Coastguard has admitted it does not know if it is the five men hammering on the side of their sub or simply the sound of the sea including perhaps debris falling from the Titanic itself at 12,500ft below the surface. 

But even if it is discovered it will take many hours to save Titan – meaning that the oxygen could run out before they get to the surface. Rescue efforts to find them have continued overnight – and are becoming ever more desperate.

Oceanographer and water search expert Dr David Gallo said today: ‘It’s going to be almost impossible. We need a miracle — but miracles do happen’. 

But former Royal Navy Officer, Chris Parry, said as Midday approached: ‘I’m afraid time’s up – I don’t think there’s any prospect of getting those people out alive now’.

It is a bleak picture for those trapped inside the stranded vessel, but officials have continued to insist that the hunt is ‘100 per cent’ still a search and rescue mission. 

Rescuers searching for the missing Titanic explorers had been racing against the clock as they struggled to find the source of underwater ‘banging noises’ detected earlier this week. 

Canadian aircraft picked up the sounds by sonar – some of which were said to be heard at regular 30-minute intervals – as recently as yesterday afternoon, close to where the Titan submersible disappeared.

But the Coast Guard admitted last night that extensive searches around the area 435 miles off Newfoundland had so far ‘yielded negative results’.

Rescuers were insistent that they would continue to look for the men even after the 96 hour oxygen window expired. 

Response co-ordinator Captain Jamie Frederick for First Coast Guard District said: ‘This is a search and rescue mission, 100 per cent.’

Rising carbon dioxide levels onboard the Titanic submersible may act as a sedative which sends the five trapped explorers to ‘sleep’, experts warned today.

Rescue teams are scouring the Atlantic Ocean to find the deep-sea Titan vessel in a race against time, with oxygen levels rapidly running out.

Electrical power may have already been lost inside the 22ft vessel, experts fear. This means vital ‘scrubbers’ designed to filter out toxic levels of CO2 in confined spaces might have already switched off. 

As oxygen levels fall, the proportion of carbon dioxide being exhaled will rise.

Dr Ken Ledez, a specialist in hyperbaric medicine at Memorial University in St John’s, Newfoundland, said: ‘It becomes sedative, it becomes like an anaesthetic gas, and you will go to sleep.’ 

CO2 poisoning can be deadly. It can cause asphyxiation or hypercapnia, when too much of the gas floods the bloodstream.

However, another risk presented to the Titan sub could help them survive in time to be rescued, experts claimed. 

Hypothermia — a potential threat because of the low temperatures in the depths of the ocean — could see the crew lose consciousness and ‘live through’ the agonising wait. 

Underwater vessels use a process called CO2 scrubbing. 

This is done chemically using soda lime which traps and removes carbon dioxide from the air, ensuring a safe breathing atmosphere is maintained.

CO2 is colourless and odourless. Levels found in the environment do not pose any immediate danger to humans.

But, in confined spaces, they can.

Symptoms of CO2 poisoning include headaches and drowsiness.

Exposure to higher levels can trigger hypercapnia, when CO2 builds up in the bloodstream.

This can lead to disorientation, confusion, rapid breathing and seizures.

Eventually levels become life-threatening with victims passing out before dying from a lack of oxygen. 

Breathing oxygen depleted air caused by extreme CO2 concentrations can lead to death by suffocation, the US Department of Agriculture warns. 

People can survive around 15 minutes without oxygen, it is believed.

A former Royal Navy submarine captain said the ‘greatest problem of all’ was that he could not spot any sign of a scrubber while reviewing videos previously taken onboard the Titan. 

Earlier this week, the former director of undersea medicine and radiation health for the US Navy said many people assume the lack of oxygen is the biggest concern when humans are confined in an airtight space.

But Dr Dale Molé said the biggest risk is actually from carbon dioxide. 

‘If they lost battery power, then that [scrubbing] system would no longer work,’ he said.

Dr Molé added: ‘When people inside breathe in oxygen, they’ll breathe out oxygen, and it’ll go from like 21 percent to 17 percent [oxygen]. But they’ll exhale carbon dioxide, and that carbon dioxide has to be removed because otherwise it becomes toxic.’ 

Similarly, ex-Royal Navy Clearance Diver and Falklands Veteran Ray Sinclair also warned the five passengers could have already succumbed to these toxic carbon dioxide levels.

Mr Sinclair took part in a deep-sea dive in the North Sea in 1984 in a small submarine that detaches from the main ship, like the missing vessel Titan.

He told the Daily Express US: ‘These submarines have batteries which have a finite life, and they have CO2 scrubbers. 

‘If these die, the people could suffocate before the oxygen even runs out as the toxic gas fills their lungs.

‘If the CO2 scrubbers died, it would be a matter of hours before they did too. The build-up of the gas would make them feel very sleepy very quickly and they would pass out from that. 

‘The CO2 would have nowhere to go. I’m worried this may have already happened.

‘It’s an absolute nightmare scenario, the worse any diver could ever imagine but realistically, I think it could still be a few days before they are found.’

But even without these factors, the five tourists would also have to contend with the prospect of hypothermia setting in rapidly. 

The deep ocean receives little to no light, and temperatures at 12,500 feet — how far the Titanic is buried — are about 2°C (36°F).

If the vessel is stuck on the seabed, the water temperature could also be around 0°C (32°F).

In humans, hypothermia can set in water as cold as 4°C (40°F), with bodily systems beginning to shut down with people becoming tired and confusion. 

Without electrical power, the vessel will not generate power or heat. 

But hypothermia ‘could be their friend’, Dr LeDez also cautioned.

‘There is a possibility if they cool down enough and lose consciousness they could live through it – rescuers know this,’ he said.

The body will automatically try to adapt to survive, he added. 

Research has also suggested entering a hypothermic state, lowering body temperature and metabolic rate, can work as an effective energy-saving strategy. 

Another study by scientists at the University of Bristol also concluded that lowered head temperatures help to protect and maintain normal central nervous system function.

This works by preserving the supply of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production – the primary source of cellular energy – in the brain. 

‘Hypothermia may thus prove a promising avenue in the treatment of stroke and trauma and, in particular, of perinatal brain injury,’ the researchers said. 

However Dr LeDez cautioned: ‘If they’re unconscious, they’re not going to be able to do much to help themselves.’ 

Shivering can also use up more oxygen, Dr Molé said. 

Stuck in an increasingly stressful situation, the submarine’s passengers are also likely to panic. 

Passengers may start breathing rapidly and deeply, which in itself can speed up the use of oxygen.

But Dr Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist and lecturer in marine biology at the University of Portsmouth, also warned the oxygen stored in the vessel could also increase the risk of an implosion. 

She said: ‘Another equally unpleasant possibility is fire. 

‘The air in deep-sea submersibles can be enriched in oxygen, which could increase the risk and intensity of fire. 

‘Often petroleum-based makeup and skin creams are prohibited in deep-sea dives owing to the fire risk. 

‘Even without oxygen enrichment, any fire would incapacitate the occupants quickly in such a confined space.’

Titan disappeared while diving towards the shipwreck of the Titanic, 12,500ft below the surface of the water. 

The vessel submerged at 8am EST on Sunday around 400 miles southeast of St John’s, Newfoundland. 

It lost contact with its mothership at 9.45am — an hour and 45 minutes into the dive.

It has five people on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, as well as one of Pakistan‘s richest men, Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman, aged just 19-years-old.

The others on board are OceanGate’s chief executive and founder Stockton Rush and French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet.  

The deepest human free dives, a deep swim without any equipment like scuba gear, only go to only 400ft and are still dangerous. 

Specialised equipment, like special gas mixtures to combat the intense pressure of the depths of the ocean, have only enabled human divers to reach depths of about 1,700ft. 

Even whales that have evolved to feed in the deep ocean only go to a maximum of 10,000ft.

The deep ocean is so inhospitable in part because of the pressure.

At the depth of the Titanic wreck, the pressure will be approximately 380 times what people experience on the surface. 

Canadian aircraft picked up the sounds by sonar – some of which were said to be heard at regular 30-minute intervals – as recently as yesterday afternoon, close to where the Titan submersible disappeared.

But the Coast Guard admitted last night that extensive searches around the area 435 miles off Newfoundland had so far ‘yielded negative results’.

And as it specifically predicted that the oxygen supply would run out at 12.08pm UK time today, specialist equipment was being rushed to the scene to aid the operation overnight.

Deep-sea explorer Dr David Gallo has said it will take hours to rescue the submersible once found.

Speaking to Good Morning Britain, he said: ‘In this case, the noises are repetitive, every half hour I believe.

‘Three different aircraft heard them in their sensors at the same time and it went on for two days-plus.

‘It’s still going on apparently. There’s not a lot in the natural world we can think of that would do that every 30-minute cycle.

‘We have to, at this point, assume that that’s the submarine and move quickly to that spot, locate it and get robots down there to verify that is where the submarine is.

‘They’ve got to go fully ready as if that was the sub because it takes a while to locate it and get it up to the surface, it takes hours.’

Five missing tourists lost near the wreck of the Titanic may have experienced lung-crushing pressure, ‘nitrogen narcosis’ and hypothermia if the 22ft sub’s hull cracked, experts have said. 

Rescue teams are racing against the clock three days after the deep-sea vessel Titan disappeared.

While there have been some signs they still may be alive, what caused the submarine to go missing and its eventual fate, is still unknown.

One scenario is a hull breach while the vessel was in the deep ocean, and if this has to occurred experts say the occupants odds of survival are almost zero. 

Dr Nicolai Roterman, a deep-sea ecologist at the University of Portsmouth, said if such an accident did occur the pressure would have killed the sub occupants almost instantly. 

‘If there was any kind of hull breach, the occupants would succumb to the ocean in a near instant, given the more than 5,500 pounds per square inch pressure exerted by the ocean at the depth of 3,800m (12,467ft).’

Professor Alistair Greig, an expert in marine engineering at University College London added simply that if the hull had been compromised in anyway the ‘prognosis is not good’. 

Titan disappeared while diving towards the shipwreck of the Titanic, 12,500ft below the surface of the water.

The deepest human free dives, a deep swim without any equipment like scuba gear, only go to only 400ft and are still dangerous. 

Specialised equipment, like special gas mixtures to combat the intense pressure of the depths of the ocean, have only enabled human divers to reach depths of about 1,700ft. 

Even whales that have evolved to feed in the deep ocean only go to a maximum of 10,000ft.

The deep ocean is so inhospitable in part because of the pressure.

Standing on the Earth’s surface, your body is under constant but unnoticed pressure from the air that surrounds it.

Scientists call this one atmosphere, which translates to about 14.7lbs of pressure per square inch.

Once people go underwater they have to contend with the pressure of water, which is much denser than air, surrounding them.

This pressure increases the deeper you go due the weight of the water above, at the rate of one atmosphere per 33 feet. 

At the depth of the Titanic wreck, the pressure will be approximately 380 times what people experience on the surface. 

As the pressure from the water increases, it causes any space filled with air to collapse under the weight. 

For submarines with hull damage, this can then result in a breach, causing potential trauma to any occupants inside. 

And for biological systems, like lungs, the intense pressure can be catastrophic. 

Such pressure can be felt at a very basic level by swimming down in the deep end of a swimming pool as the water pressure begins to affect the internal air in your ears.

But at extreme depths this pressure becomes deadly.

An unprotected human exposed to the depths the Titan was aiming to reach would have their lungs collapse and their eardrums rupture from the weight of the water.

Fluid would then rush in through the mouth to fill the space left behind, and this would causing the unfortunate person to drown.

People can survive about 15minutes without oxygen, though they lose consciousness long before then, with brain damage is likely after just a few minutes without air.

If such a breach has happened on the Titan, the bodies of the occupants are unlikely to themselves be crushed.

The water pressure required to theoretically crush human bone is about 22miles, roughly three times deeper than the deepest recorded parts of the ocean.

However, such devastating injuries can occur in diving suits containing air, which then deform under the pressure, crushing their unfortunate occupants. 

But even with an air supply, another deep-sea hazard will hasten the end of anyone caught in such unfortunate circumstances.

At high pressures found in the deep sea, the body’s internal chemistry begins to change.

This results in nitrogen, which forms part of the air that we breathe, becoming more soluble, causing a dissolved form of the gas to enter the blood. 

As human tissue needs oxygen, not nitrogen, to survive, this imbalance causes a condition called nitrogen narcosis — with the body effectively suffocating from the inside out. 

Even without these factors, an unprotected person would also have to contend with the prospect of hypothermia setting in rapidly. 

The deep ocean receives little to no light, and temperatures at 12,500 feet are about 2°C (36°F).

In humans, hypothermia can set in water as cold as 4°C (40°F), with bodily systems beginning to shut down with people becoming tired and confusion.  

Various air breathing creatures, like whales, seals and sea turtles have evolved special adaptations to compensate for going so deep.

Some species pre-emptively collapse their lungs and slow down their bodily functions before plunging into the depths, surviving on the oxygen remaining in their blood.

Others have expandable and strong internal structures to help prevent the pressure from collapsing tissues. 

Titan lost communication with tour operators OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday while about 435 miles south of St John’s, Newfoundland during a voyage to the Titanic shipwreck off the coast of Canada. 

Titan has five people on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding, as well as one of Pakistan‘s richest men, Shahzada Dawood, and his son Suleman.

The others on board are Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, 19, OceanGate’s chief executive and founder Stockton Rush and French submersible pilot Paul-Henry Nargeolet.  

If the hull was not breached and the vessel is instead stranded with no power its five passengers will be in total darkness in temperatures of around 3°C (37°F) as the craft rolls along the seabed. 

Yesterday, the US Coast Guard estimated the 22ft long vessel had just 40 hours of oxygen left.

This gives rescuers until tomorrow morning to find the vessel. 

Even if the vessel surfaced and is adrift in the ocean currents, it is designed to only be opened from the outside, meaning the time limit remains. 

OceanGate is also facing questions about why it took so long to alert authorities to the missing craft, only raising the alarm to the Coast Guard eight hours after losing contact. 

The wife of the CEO of OceanGate, who was piloting the missing Titanic tourist submersible, is descended from a wealthy New York couple who drowned on the Titanic when the famed ship hit an iceberg in 1912.

Wendy Rush is the wife of Stockton Rush, one of the five people trapped in a Titan sub that went missing Sunday after a trip to visit the Titanic wreckage.

Crews are now racing to try and find the missing sub in a massive international rescue effort.

Wendy’s great-great-grandparents, Isidor and Ida Straus, died in the 1912 disaster.

Isidor is a co-founder of Macy’s department store. He and his wife were featured in James Cameron’s 1997 film about the disaster as the two fictionalized versions were shown embraced on a better as water rushed into the ship and around them.

The pair had in real life been offered seats on a lifeboat – her as a woman, and him as a well-known former congressman and co-owner of Macy’s department store. But Isidor refused, saying he would not go until all the women and children had gone, and Ida then refused to go without her husband of 40 years.

She gave her mink coat to her maid, Ellen Bird, to keep her warm as she sailed away on the lifeboat.

Wendy Rush, born Wendy Hollings Weil, married engineer and entrepreneur Stockton Rush in 1986.

She is descended from Isidor and Ida Straus’s daughter Minnie, who married Dr. Richard Weil in 1905. 

Their son, Richard Weil Jr., later served as president of Macy’s New York, and his son, Dr. Richard Weil III, is Wendy Rush’s father, The New York Times reported. 

Wendy Rush has visited the Titanic wreckage three times with her husband’s company in the last two years, and works as OceanGate’s communications director.

Stockton Rush, 61, founded OceanGate in 2009.

The Seattle-born, Princeton-educated aeronautical engineer worked on fighter jets and initially hoped to go to Mars before switching his attention to the sea.

He tried to buy explorer Steve Fossett’s submersible after his death in 2007, but was unable to do so and began creating his own.

Rush admitted that parts of his sub were improvised – it is controlled by a video game controller, and the light inside was bought from an online camping website – but said it had been built with help from Boeing, NASA and the University of Washington.

Yet it emerged Tuesday that OceanGate’s safety record had been questioned by an industry body.

A 2018 letter to Rush, obtained by the New York Times, warned that ‘the current ‘experimental’ approach’ of the company could result in problems ‘from minor to catastrophic.’

It was sent by the Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society, a 60-year-old trade group that aims to promote ocean technology and educate the public about it.

But it is unclear if any employee or Rush himself responded to the letter, and there was no further detail on why the approach was considered dangerous.

Officials searching for the missing sub have warned that they may not be able to rescue the missing tourist sub even if they find it.

The sub’s oxygen supply was at just 24 hours from Wednesday, giving rescue crews until Thursday morning to find it before it runs out.

Rescue crews from the US, France and Canada are still trying to find the vessel, which is understood to have last ‘pinged’ while directly above the Titanic wreck.

In addition to Rush, the passengers are British billionaire Hamish Harding; French Titanic expert PH Nargeolet; and Pakistani fathe and son Shahzada Dawood, 48, and Sulaiman Dawood, 19.

First District Response Coordinator Capt. Jamie Frederick said the Coast Guard has already searched 7,600 square miles of ocean – a search area the size of Connecticut.

At 12,500ft underwater, there are few vessels able to dive deep enough to find it.

It comes after DailyMail.com revealed that OceanGate refused to put their submersible through an independent inspection process and fired a director in 2018 after he asked for more rigorous safety tests on the craft, named Titan.

Bosses fired David Lochridge, who was Director of Marine operations for the Titan project, after disagreeing with his demand for more rigorous safety checks on the submersible, including ‘testing to prove its integrity’.

The company also opted against having the craft ‘classed’, an industry-wide practice whereby independent inspectors ensure vessels meet accepted technical standards.

OceanGate, which charges up to $250,000 for a seat on the submersible, suggested that seeking classification could take years and would be ‘anathema to rapid innovation’.

In 2019, the firm added that seeking classification for Titan would not ‘ensure that operators adhere to proper operating procedures and decision-making processes – two areas that are much more important for mitigating risks at sea’.

Classification involves recruiting an independent organization to ensure vessels like ships and submersibles meet industry-wide technical standards. It is a crucial way of ensuring a vessel is fit to operate. 

The Manned Underwater Vehicles committee of the Marine Technology Society said in a statement about the tragedy that the ‘modern commercial submarine industry’ is ‘regulated in accordance with international safety standards through classification societies.’

They added: ‘These organizations have rules and safety standards for the design and construction of systems ranging from submersible vehicles to super tankers and oil platforms.

‘The main classification organizations for submersibles include the American Bureau of Shipping (ABS), Det Nortke Veritas (DNV) and Lloyds Registry (LR) among others.

‘The submarine industry has a safety record of fifty years without incident. 

‘This is due to the engineering discipline and professional approach exercised by members of the industry, and the collective observation of (and adherence to) a variety of safety standards.’