A passenger that lost his life aboard the missing Titan submersible along with his son and three others previously survived a life-altering ordeal, according to his wife.
As previously reported, the five crew on board are presumed dead in the catastrophe after boarding the underwater vessel which intended to venture on a 12,500 feet deep dive into the North Atlantic Ocean to see the infamous Titanic wreckage on Sunday (June 18).
A major search operation headed by the US Coast Guard as well as OceanGate - which owned and operated the sub - began after the Titan lost contact with its mothership, the Polar Prince, and failed to provide a signal an hour and 45 minutes after entering the water.
The search to recover the vessel become critical on Thursday (June 22) after initial estimates stated that the submersible had a 96-hour oxygen supply, which had already elapsed.
The five passengers onboard were OceanGate Expeditions founder and CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, renowned French diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman.
As tributes are being paid for the victims, further details are also being shared. According to People, Shahzada Dawood's wife revealed that years before boarding the doomed submersible, the businessman survived a life-changing flight in which a plane "plunged" several times.
In a 2019 post on the website, Next Step Now, Christine Dawood wrote: "I've read many times that people start to pray in such situations or that their life flashes by like a movie.
"My husband told me later that he was thinking of all the opportunities he’d missed and how much he still wanted to teach our children," she continued.
While it is unclear when their flight happened, she penned that it was initially canceled, explaining: "The start was uneventful and so was most of the cruising but just as the seatbelt signs came on to alert us to our imminent landing approach, the plane took a deep plunge.
"I later read that a plane doesn't drop more than three to five meters during turbulence, but my stomach in that moment would beg to differ. The whole cabin let out one simultaneous cry, which turned to a whimper and then silence," she revealed.
The mother - who also lost her 19-year-old son on the Titan - said that when the plane began to plunge and "shook left to right," she held her husband’s hand, and "there was a moment of stillness when we were out of the clouds but the relief I longed for didn't come".
"As the plane turned, my side lifted forcing me to look down to my left. My husband faced me, our eyes locked and our hands interlinked. No words were needed. He was as scared as I was and yet we were together. 'Until death do...' No, don't go there!", she wrote.
Finally, the pilot was able to land the plane safely. "I felt a squeeze of my hand and heard somebody talking to me, but I was frozen still. It's then that I realized that my life had changed and would never be the same again," she concluded.
On Thursday, First Coast Guard District commander Rear Adm. John Mauger announced at a press conference that the debris found earlier in the day was "consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber" of the OceanGate Titan submersible.
"This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there on the sea floor," Mauger said. "The debris is consistent with a catastrophic implosion of the vessel."
Shortly after, OceanGate shared a full statement - obtained by NBC News - which confirmed that the crew are now presumed to be dead.
"We now believe that our CEO Stockton Rush, Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, Hamish Harding, and Paul-Henri Nargeolet, have sadly been lost.
"These men were true explorers who shared a distinct spirit of adventure, and a deep passion for exploring and protecting the world's oceans," OceanGate continued. "Our hearts are with these five souls and every member of their families during this tragic time. We grieve the loss of life and joy they brought to everyone they knew."
Our thoughts are with the family and friends impacted by this tragedy.
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