Submarine accident: 19-year-old wanted to set world depth record Desperation or conspiracy? What is known about the events in Russia on Monday

Her son was a gifted Rubik’s Cube player and wanted to solve the rotating puzzle, also known as “Rubik’s Cube,” at a depth of four kilometers under the sea, Christine Dawood told the British broadcaster BBC. The 19-year-old even applied for an entry in the Guinness Book of Records in advance.

To capture the moment of success on video, his also deceased father Shahzada took a camera with him in the small submarine.

She originally wanted to dive into the “Titanic” with her husband – a British-Pakistani management consultant – Christine Dawood said in the interview published by the BBC on Monday evening. But the corona pandemic thwarted the project – and her son showed interest in it himself.

Before the two men finally boarded the “Titan” with three other adventurers, they hugged and joked, she said. Subsequently, the submarine descended to the legendary wreck of the luxury liner at a depth of 3,800 meters while Christine Dawood and her 17-year-old daughter Alina persevered aboard the mothership “Polar Prince”.

At some point they would have heard that contact with “Titan” had been lost. “The phrase ‘We’ve lost contact’… I never want to hear that phrase again in my life,” the widow said in a faltering voice.

The mood during the rescue mission turned after a while and the optimism turned to despair. “I think I lost hope when we passed the 96-hour mark,” Dawood recalled — the oxygen reserves aboard the Titan should have been there all along.

Her daughter clung to the thought that the drama would have a happy ending a little longer. But then came the scathing call from the Coast Guard: “They basically informed us that they had found wreckage.” The fragments of the “Titan” were located less than 500 meters from the bow of the wreckage of the “Titanic”, effectively confirming the death of the five occupants.

Christine and Alina Dawood have set themselves a personal goal to help them come to terms with the tragedy and preserve Suleman’s memory: his mother and sister want to learn how to solve the Rubik’s Cube puzzle on their own. (sda/dpa)