The mother of the teenager who died on the Titanic submersible said she was meant to be onboard instead of her son.
Christine Dawood said her husband, Shahzade, and son, Suleman, were “excited” to go on the mission to see the Titanic.
She said it was her husband’s “life-long dream” and so the couple had planned to go down to do the tour together.
“It was supposed to be Shahzade and I are going down, and then I stepped back and gave the space to Suleman because he really wanted to go,” she said.
The father and son were among the five people aboard the OceanGate Titan submersible who died during a “catastrophic implosion” as it descended to the wreck of the ocean liner in the Atlantic Ocean last week.
Ms Dawood and her 17-year-old daughter, Alina, were on the Polar Prince, the sub’s support vessel, when the Titan lost communications and was never heard from again, she told the BBC.
The Coast Guard announced debris from the sub was located approximately 12,500 feet (3,810 metres) underwater and 1,600 feet away from the Titanic wreckage.
