Latest news with #Shahzada
Daily Mirror
25-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mirror
New theory explores how one simple part may have doomed Titan submarine
Experts have revealed why using the wrong substance to help create the submarine could have contributed to the implosion of the Titanic Oceangate vessel last year A new theory exploring why the Titan submarine imploded during a deep sea tour has emerged and it could all be down to the glue used to stick the parts together, it has been revealed. British explorer Hamish Harding and father and son Shahzada and Suleman Dawood were killed on board the Oceangate vessel in June last year, alongside French national Paul-Henri Nargeolet. Stockton Rush, who was the chief executive of OceanGate Expeditions – which ran the expedition, was also killed. The vessel was heading to see the Titanic wreckage around 435 miles south of St John's, Newfoundland, when it lost contact with the tour operator an hour and 45 minutes into the two-hour trip. Days later, wreckage was uncovered from the ocean floor close to the Titanic. Now, it has been revealed that the glue used to piece the disastrous vessel together was like "peanut butter" and wasn't certified to work in deep sea water. Henkel, the German adhesive and sealant company which manufactured the glue, said it had only ever advertised its goods to the aerospace sector. The company said that although glue can be used correctly "in other applications", it was "not specified for usage under water". A spokesperson said: "It is the end user's responsibility to test their design to ensure proper performance." It has been reported that the company were unaware that their glue was used on the deadly submarine. Now questions have formed on whether the choice of adhesive was part of the reason the vessel exploded on June 18, 2023. On June 17, the maintenance log for the vessel stated that there was an issue with "unsightly" sealant connecting the titanium to the carbon fibre. Expert Dr Christian Stone, who specialises in corrosion, said the glue would have transformed the submarine into a huge battery. He said he wouldn't have advised OceanGate to use the glue. The specialist, who is based at Loughborough University, told MailOnline: "If you put two metals together and they're connected electrically to a media which conducts electricity like seawater you make a battery. "One side of that battery will corrode and give up ions. The other side will actually be protected. At the corroding side, we call this the anode and that makes acid. The other side is the cathode in which case in our case that will be carbon fibre or titanium and that will make alkaline." He added: "I would have advised them to use a filler material that was inert and does not conduct electricity." The National Transportation Safety Board previously took a look at the wreckage which was recovered from the disaster. They found that: "Most of the adhesive originally used to bond the hull to the titanium segment had disbonded from the machined end of the hull piece, but there was an approximately 3.5-inch-long patch where some adhesive bits were still attached." Despite the glue failing to strongly hold the vessel together, investigators believe it is not the cause behind the tragedy. They suspect that the submarine had failed at the front.
10-06-2025
- Politics
He lost his son and grandson in the Titan tragedy. Then he quietly paid for a new mosque for the community that helped him mourn.
Headlines Latest News Podcasts (new window) Hussain Dawood lost his son and grandson in the Titan tragedy. Then he quietly paid for a new mosque for the N.L community that helped him mourn. Photo: CBC As international media crews clustered along the St. John's harbour front in June 2023, fixated on broadcasting the Titan catastrophe to the world, there was a quiet mourning taking place in another part of the city. Two of the passengers aboard that ill-fated submersible, which imploded off the coast of Newfoundland during a descent to visit the Titanic wreck, were a father and son, Shahzada and Suleman Dawood. Their family had flown in from London. As a search for survivors became a recovery effort, they turned to the only mosque in St. John's for a funeral service. There, they prayed through their profound loss beside people they'd never met before, and found solace. Red the full report (new window) Beginning of list of 13 items. Skip list? He lost his son and grandson in the Titan tragedy. Then he quietly paid for a new mosque for the community that helped him mourn. Swedish activist Greta Thunberg deported from Israel, denounces Gaza 'war crimes' The man behind 50 years of ferrying West Coast Trail hikers Robert Miller, billionaire accused of sex crimes, unfit to stand trial, judge rules Canada, allies sanctioning 2 Israeli ministers over Gaza comments F-35 program facing skyrocketing costs, pilot shortage and infrastructure deficit: AG report Fewer Americans are visiting Canada. Ad campaigns assure them they're welcome here This Palestinian boy lost his eye to an unexploded bomb. Thousands of tonnes of explosives may remain in Gaza She came to Canada for university, but she'd never been accepted. The scam cost her $7K Dentists praise Canadian Dental Care program, but also express concern over influx of new patients Saudi Arabia's Mohammed bin Salman invited to G7 summit in Alberta: sources They fled their home countries to report from the safety of the U.S. Now, they fear they're in danger Defence targets E.M.'s credibility, judge questions 'consent videos' shown at world juniors sex assault trial End of list of 13 items. Back to beginning of list? 8 other crew members will be held in a detention centre ahead of a court hearing. 81-year-old has late-stage Parkinson's disease. 3 hours ago Courts and Crime Several countries freeze assets, impose travel bans on Ben-Gvir and Smotrich. AG Karen Hogan's report also says contracts awarded to GCStrategies didn't deliver value for money. Quebec TV ad features a local hotel clerk warmly hugging an American tourist.
Daily Mirror
23-05-2025
- Daily Mirror
Titan sub wife says 'ego and arrogance' killed her husband and son
Christine Dawood calls for full regulation of submersibles ahead of US Coast Guard report into the Titan disaster which killed her loved ones The wife of the billionaire businessman and his son who died on the doomed Titan submersible has told of her determination to ensure that future deep sea diving vessels are regulated - so no one has to suffer as she has. "I just don't ever want this to happen again to anybody,' Christine Dawood says. 'I would never want anyone to go through that pain. 'I want there to be strict regulations that forbid companies or individuals to do such a thing without having to prove certain parameters. A car manufacturer will not be allowed to license a car out to the public without going through X, Y, Z tests, and I want that to happen for this sector as well, so that you can't release a vessel that is not fit for human travel.' In June 2023, British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada, 48, and university student Suleman, 19, were among five passengers who perished when the Titan imploded 90 minutes into its voyage to see the Titanic. The others were Titan 's owner, OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, 61, British businessman Hamish Harding, 58, and former French navy diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77. Following its investigation, the US Coast Guard will make its official report into the disaster, which happened when the carbon fibre vessel had nearly reached 4000m below sea level, later this year. But a new BBC documentary had unprecedented access to the USCG investigation and the film contains damning testimonies which point towards criminal negligence. But Stockton is shown laughing off safety advice and warnings from staff and other experts despite repeated problems with the Titan submersible. Noises recorded during test dives, described at different times as 'cracking' or 'popping' indicated that the hull was breaking up - a process known as delamination. Speaking to The Mirror, German-born Christine, from Surrey, said her family fell for the hype when it came to booking the trip - which cost an eye-watering $250k each - because Shahzada and Suleman were fascinated by The Titanic, and Stockton was brimming with confidence about taking them to see it. 'I guess the American way of talking and presenting themselves is very different to ours, so I just thought they are a lot more egocentric. I mean, there is a lot of, 'We are awesome,' and the American dream, and, 'We can do it.' 'I wanted to hear the confidence of the person who built it, who ran the company, but also he surrounded himself with literal experts. I mean, one died with them. If you have an expert like this with you, I mean, you don't doubt.' She said that Shahzada and Suleman were not daredevil thrill-seekers but simply filled with curiosity. 'We just thought it would be a really lovely experience, a little bit out of one's comfort zone, but still,' she explained. 'My husband always loved the story of the Titanic and they did this exhibition all over the world for the 100-year anniversary. We saw it in Singapore as a family, and afterwards Suleman made a papier-mâché Titanic because he was just fascinated.' But having heard what was said at the public hearings in South Carolina last September, she now struggles to comprehend how OceanGate was able to operate unchallenged. 'The arrogance of the people in charge when they think that they're above everything. That really gets to me. Why is ego and arrogance more important than safety? The irony is not lost on me that the Titanic sunk for exactly the same reasons,' she says in the film. 'We all know who the culprit is - it's not changing anything. The culprit died with them so, who am I to blame?' She was too grief-stricken to attend the public hearings in person but listened from her home in the UK and said what she heard felt 'like a real crime horror film'. Christine, 49, has agonised over wishing she had stopped them from taking the voyage, but was relieved when the Coast Guard assured her afterwards that it could not have been predicted by those on board or their families. 'I don't think you can ever get closure, but it helped with moving forward that they kept on saying I could have not known it,' she says. "There was an element of doubt in myself, did I miss something. What could I have done differently? This is the life of my son and my husband they are talking about - so it is deeply personal.' Despite this, two years on she has worked hard to ensure that feelings of anger and bitterness do not take over. "There's a feeling underneath, which is the grief, which is the loss, which is the loneliness. Christine says that whatever the USCG investigation concludes in terms of blame and responsibility no longer matters to her - so long as the rules governing the trips are changed to prevent future disasters. 'For me personally, it actually doesn't really make a difference because first of all, what's the point of blaming? It's not good for my mental health and it's not going to bring them back. There's a feeling underneath the anger, which is the grief, which is the loss, which is the loneliness. I just decided that I need to concentrate on those true feelings. Knowing that it's negligence, does it give me a relief that it wasn't my fault? I don't know.' Christine, who also has a daughter, says that confirming how quickly the implosion happened did bring some shreds of comfort. 'When we heard that it was instantaneous, we were like, 'thank God they didn't suffer',' she says quietly. 'They didn't suffer in the moment and they didn't know it was coming because it was so fast, so they would not have had any fear. But the bigger relief almost was that for those four days, they weren't stuck down there where you can't get out, so deep under water.' Christine is now honouring her son by walking 800km from Surrey to Glasgow, where Suleman was at university, because he'd told her it was something he'd wanted to do with her. She started the five-week walk on Monday and hopes to finish on June 23. Calling the walk The Pathway of Light, she said: 'Walking was our thing, he loved walking and so did his dad. Whenever we wanted to talk about something, just to have some mother-son time, Suleman would join me on the early morning walk with the dog. Now I am joined by friends and family and we walk, and we talk and we remember them.' Planning the challenge has also helped Christine to deal with the grief and anxiety she has been left with following the tragedy. 'Walking in the fresh air has really helped. I always ask, is it helpful for me if I'm now going to get angry? Is it healthy? Does it bring them back?' she says. 'And if the answer is no, then I try to stay away from that feeling.'
