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Shahzada Dawood, 48, and Suleman Dawood, 19, were among the five passengers killed during an expedition to the wreck of the Titanic in 2023. The privately-owned Titan submarine, operated by the American tourism and expeditions company OceanGate, imploded because of poor engineering. Three years on, Christine Dawood speaks to Tom Swarbrick about life since the disaster. Listen to the full show on the all-new LBC App: https://app.af.lbc.co.uk/btnc/thenewlbcapp #tomswarbrick #oceangate #titanic #titan #news #tragedy #LBC LBC is the home of live debate around news and current affairs in the UK. Join in the conversation and listen at https://www.lbc.co.uk/ Sign up to LBC’s weekly newsletter here: https://l-bc.co/signup
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0:00
Why don't we start with where you start the book from
0:05
The start of your telling of what happened. Where do you start the book from
0:12
And why did you write it in a way that goes into just so much detail, it's hour by hour
0:21
So I start from the day of the dive day. I decided not to start from when we entered the ship
0:31
but from the dive day, because that's when my life changed, right
0:37
So why I went into so much details, I guess, one way, obviously, it was also a stylistic choice
0:47
but the other was also because there were so many emotions, and they were different almost every hour
0:57
and so much happened within those hours that I felt if I just would make an overarching day one story
1:14
I think it wouldn't do it justice for the hot and cold feelings I went through
1:19
part of me is astonished that you remember so clearly no i didn't um a lot of had i had recorded
1:30
right and uh whatsapp chats are yeah going into like saving whatsapp chat is a blessing as well
1:39
and um you know history on your phone so no i didn't remember everything so tell us about
1:45
if you don't mind um the cold moments the moments when your your blood is running cold because
1:53
there's a piece of information that's being delivered to you where you know something is wrong yeah i mean the the first moment was obviously when when somebody flippantly said um we lost com
2:04
that was like the first kind of moment where i'm like i didn't quite know what to do with it
2:11
but it was a very uncomfortable moment. And how long into the dive are we at this point
2:17
About one and a half hours. So that was, I wouldn't call it a cold moment
2:24
but it was definitely, it stopped me in my tracks. I mean, in hindsight, I obviously know that this was the moment
2:33
where they passed but at that moment I didn't know that. There were a few more moments like things when we got to know that certain things are going to take longer that the search certain tools or certain machines
2:51
or certain ships were held up or just would take longer, those were those moments where you just constantly wished
3:02
that things would be just moving faster. This is part of the search, the search and rescue effort
3:08
Because during that search and rescue effort, that there's a moment at which a knocking is heard or a banging is heard
3:16
How was that communicated to you, by whom, and what did you think
3:22
I don't remember who said it first to me, but it was definitely then communicated that it is a man-made sound
3:30
so it couldn't come from a chain rattling or something. so it was definitely
3:36
we were all convinced that this is by some humans or some living creature and
3:47
it gave me hope it gave me so much hope which is quite interesting because
3:57
I also know that in the media it was like seen as a
4:01
as a negative thing that oh my god they're running out of oxygen and they're they're
4:06
crying for help um but i just thought it as a very positive thing that
4:10
okay we we know now that they're still alive and yeah i drew a lot of strength from that
4:18
there's a bit where you talk about um the sound the location where the sound seems to have come
4:24
from and your boat passing over that location and you talk a bit about thinking of them down there
4:34
whether they can hear the sound of the engines of your boat i mean that is
4:38
you want the world to speed up at the pace at which you want to move to get everything down
4:45
there part the waves if you can to go and find them yes um yeah just jump into the ocean and
4:52
swim down right um yeah i would have wanted it's just a have you ever snorkeled or do you do dive
5:02
i don't dive so even if you're snorkeling um and go dive down a bit so the the surface looks like
5:13
different right and and everything that is on surface just also looks different and and i was
5:20
just imagining them being able to see us. And obviously that is not reality
5:27
I mean it very dark down there By that time if they could have seen us we would have detected them anyway But just that thing that we would just drive over them or float over them
5:40
was just, I don't know, a really goosebump-inducing moment. So the search is continuing
5:48
It happens for some days. Does that hope start to extinguish the longer it goes on
5:55
And at what point is it extinguished totally? Well, I didn't allow myself to lose hope
6:02
because I didn't want to believe the alternative. But by the last day, when the 96 hours passed
6:17
I mean, then one starts to prepare. Who do you blame? I don't blame no
6:29
because at the time so many people were talking about the safety of the craft
6:35
the run up of problems that had been happening in advance of the dive
6:39
I would have thought well one might think it was natural to
6:45
blame the people who were running the expedition and what is this going to help me
6:52
is it going to help me? It's not going to bring them back, is it
6:56
No. And he died with them. So it's not worth it? No, it's not worth it
7:04
Not worth the energy? No. It's not going to change my reality
7:09
It's not going to bring them back. And it's not helpful for me either to become bitter
7:15
I don't want to become bitter. I don't want to become... I don't want to live in anger
7:20
I don't... Why did they want to do it? to go on that ship
7:27
Because they could. Because they could, yeah. Because it was possible, as in like
7:31
it was possible that technology was now so advanced or so we thought that, well, technology is so advanced
7:40
that you can dive down. I mean, there's evidence that there were over 40 dives already down, right
7:49
So, I don't know if you look back, by the time they first dove down to the Titanic
7:59
which was like somewhere in the 90s, and how far in technology has now come
8:04
I think it's fascinating what we can do now. Did you worry at the time that it was obviously very risky whether it might be reckless Did you have those conversations before we did we did have do you mean like with them before we dove or yeah yeah we did
8:29
we did but hmm there has never been a fatal accident for civilians of
8:40
mercibles so we didn't deem it reckless. Unusual but exciting. And you hold no ill feeling
8:58
towards the people who ran the expedition. I mean I thought I'd just try to put myself
9:03
in your shoes. I would struggle with that. I have a lot to be grateful for
9:10
I have a lot of love around me. I have a lot of support around me
9:17
And I have a lot of... You said, you know, where your parents live
9:25
there's forests around and everything. So if I go to nature, there's a lot to be grateful for
9:33
So why would I want to put myself in a position where I lose that
9:38
it must be hard though that um to truly be where you are because i'd have again thought so much of
9:47
yourself would be left on that ship it's left in the ocean not on the ship so for me every time i
9:56
see the ocean i'm connected to them so it's it's actually quite comforting because so every time i
10:05
see the ocean then I can dip my toe in and then I'm connected to them and I feel
10:10
them I mean so I don't necessarily need a grave for me they are now part of the ocean
10:19
like quite literally now and that really comforts me What do you want people to take from the book
10:31
That you can get through something like that on the other side
10:37
that the grief isn't overwhelming oh it still is it's very overwhelming but
10:44
you can have a life after well congratulations on the book thank you
10:53
incredible thing to have written given what happened to you and your family
10:58
and thank you so much for coming in to talk about it we really appreciate it
11:03
thank you
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