A British Pakistani teenager who died with his billionaire father in a submersible missing since it dived down into the wreckage of the Titanic last weekend was a student from the University of Strathclyde in Scotland, which stated support for his classmates on Friday.
Suleman Dawood, 19, was on board the vessel with Shahzada Dawood as a Father's Day bonding trip when their small submarine is believed to have imploded, killing all five on board, including British billionaire-explorer Hamish Hamilton.
Members of the Dawood family, one of Pakistan's wealthiest, have also been paying tributes to the father and son.
“We are shocked and profoundly saddened by the death of Suleman Dawood and his father in this tragic incident,” said Professor Sir Jim McDonald, Principal and Vice Chancellor of Strathclyde University.
“Our student wellbeing team remains on hand to offer appropriate support to Suleman's classmates and the wider Strathclyde community at this difficult time,” he said.
Suleman Dawood was enrolled at the Strathclyde Business School and had recently completed his first year at the university in Glasgow.
“The British Asian Trust is deeply saddened by the tragic news that our supporter Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman have passed away. They were on board the missing submarine that set off to see the wreck of the Titanic,” the British Asian Trust, a charity founded by King Charles when he was the Prince of Wales, said in a statement.
“Shahzada was a wonderful and generous man who supported our work in South Asia for many years, while his son was just emerging into adulthood with a promising future ahead. Our hearts and prayers are with family and friends at this unimaginable time of grief and loss. Our deepest condolences to them and everyone else who lost loved ones in this terrible incident,” the statement added.
Suleman's Amsterdam-based aunt, Azmeh Dawood, told Sky News that her nephew was “very, very not into doing it” but went ahead with the trip as a “Father's Day bonding experience”.
"Our thoughts are with the victims of this tragedy, one which has been followed around the world. The family remains overwhelmed with the love and support that it has received and is grateful to those who showcased the best in humanity," the Dawood family said in a statement.
The family were spending a month in Canada before the dive. Contact was lost with the OceanGate submersible on Sunday – which happened to be Father's Day, about an hour-and-a-half into its dive in the mid-Atlantic. A massive search operation was attempted to locate the vessel and those on board.
The wreck of the Titanic, the infamous ship that sank in April 1912, lies around 700 kilometres south of St. John's, Newfoundland, in Canada.
British adventurer Harding, former French Navy diver Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and Stockton Rush, the chief executive of OceanGate, which runs the Titanic voyages were the others aboard the vessel.
OceanGate charges USD 250,000 per person for the deep-sea excursion on the ‘Titan' to the Titanic shipwreck, which sits 12,500 feet beneath the surface of the Atlantic.
A large Royal Air Force (RAF) plane also left Scotland for Canada to join the global search operation.
A second British plane was scheduled to leave later, transporting specialist loaders and crew after the UK Ministry of Defence received a request for assistance and had been moving assets to help with the operation.
