A heartbroken family friend of the 19-year-old and his dad who were killed in the Titanic submersible implosion hit back at claims that the teen was ‘terrified’ of the expedition and only joined the trip to please his father.
Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman were two of the five people who were instantly killed when the vessel suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ 1,600ft from the bow of the Titanic.
Suleman’s aunt previously told NBC News that the British university student told a relative that he ‘was not very up for it’ but felt compelled to please his dad for Father’s Day.
However, a close friend of the family, Osman Waheen, has claimed ‘there is no world in which’ he could imagine the teen would express reservations.
He insisted that he simply did not ‘see that happening.’
Speaking to TalkTV, he said: “You know Shahzada and I both have two children, a boy and a girl, so my son is 20 – just a little bit older than Suleman and from that age Suleman was as adventurous as his dad was. He was always climbing trees, running around barefoot in the garden.
“If I were to describe the relationship between father and son – in fact all four of them – there’s two things that really stood out.”
Waheen continued: “One is the love they have for each other and the other is the shared reverence with which they treated each other.
“Shahzada and Christine would make fun of each other, the kids would make fun of the parents.”
He said that they had a strong bond and they could say anything to each other.
“So there is no world I could imagine in which Suleman would express this kind of reservation and Shahzada and Christine would not listen – I just really don’t see that happening.”
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