Titanic sub widow's disgust as surface crew sang and played poker to distract from disaster

A woman whose son and husband died during the infamous OceanGate Titan disaster claimed the crew of the ship she was on board of sang and played games as she desperately waited on news for her loved ones. Christine Dawood opened up about her grief following the tragedy on June 18, 2023, that killed her multimillionaire husband Shahzada Dawood, 48, and his son Suleman, 19. They, along with three others, died when the tourist submersible imploded during its descent to view the wreckage of the Titanic . The widow, who lives with her daughter, 20, in Surrey, explained how the excited family were taken some 400 miles out to sea off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada , on a ship called Polar Prince on their way to the fateful dive. She then watched the pair climb into a dinghy and speed off to Titan, which was floating around 100 metres away. The sub was due to return around 3pm that day. However, at around 11am she was told that all communication had been lost with Titan. Christine, who was already feeling seasick, began worrying but she said the crew remained unfazed and added that it "wasn't unusual" to lose contact, reassuring her that everyone would return safely. But by 6.30pm there was still no sign of the Titan and it was officially declared missing. A frantic search and rescue operation was then put in place. OceanGate mission director Bingham insisted there had simply been a technical hitch. But Christine told The Guardian : "The energy on the ship was complete denial. The crew were [acting] like nothing was happening." Life aboard the surface ship took on an eerie normality, with schedules were drawn up to fill the hours, including with jamming sessions, film screenings and even nightly poker games. The appalled mum went on: “Ultimately, I think they wanted to distract people, keep everyone occupied. They wanted everyone onside, not to feed anything to the press. "Am I really going to sit there and sing Kumbaya? I did try to give a movie a go, but when I got there it felt like an act of betrayal. Watching Wayne’s World while they are trapped in the dark did not sit well with me.” Everyone on board the sub, which also included Hamish Harding, 58, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61 and French diver and Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, were killed instantaneously after intense deep-sea pressures and a series of critical issues led to a catastrophic implosion 12,400ft underwater. Christine elsewhere said she took solace know that her son and husband will have known nothing about what befell them. "Knowing they didn't suffer has been so important. They're gone, but the way they went does somehow make it easier." The wreckage of the sub was eventually was found just 330 yards from the Titanic’s bow, confirming that the Titan had imploded and there were no survivors. The grieving mum added that she occasionally sits in her son's bedroom. "I go into Suleman’s room. Sometimes I find the cat sleeping on his pillow and I sit on the bed and let the grief come," she said.