By now the world knows of the disaster with the sub on it’s way to the Titanic wreck…..but did you know that the 19 year old went along so he could go viral upon his return?
Christine and Alina Dawood, the wife and daughter of Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood, who died on the Titan submersible along with his 19-year-old son, Suleman, weren’t far from their loved ones when they perished last week in the vessel’s “catastrophic implosion.” The grieving mom tells the BBC that she and her daughter boarded the Polar Prince support ship with the two doomed men, and that the family hugged and joked before the Titan made its descent to the bottom of the ocean. “I was really happy for them because both of them, they really wanted to do that for a very long time,” she says.
Dawood notes that her son even brought a Rubik’s Cube with him into the submersible, in the hopes of making his way into the Guinness World Records. “He said, ‘I’m going to solve the Rubik’s Cube 3,700 meters below [the] sea at the Titanic,'” she recalls him saying, noting that her husband had brought along a camera so he could record the event. Dawood says she’d originally been the one who was supposed to go see the Titanic wreck with her husband, but that trip was nixed because of the pandemic. When it came time to reschedule, she decided to give up her seat to Suleman, “because he really wanted to go.”
All the news about what has happened but there has been few asking the question…..who should pay for this foolhardy endeavor?
When millionaire Steve Fossett’s plane went missing over the Nevada range in 2007, the swashbuckling adventurer had already been the subject of two prior emergency rescue operations thousands of miles apart.
And that prompted a prickly question: After a sweeping search for the wealthy risktaker ended, who should foot the bill?
In recent days, the massive hunt for a submersible vehicle lost during a north Atlantic descent to explore the wreckage of the Titanic has refocused attention on that conundrum. And with rescuers and the public fixated first on saving and then on mourning those aboard, it has again made for uneasy conversation.
“Five people have just lost their lives and to start talking about insurance, all the rescue efforts and the cost can seem pretty heartless — but the thing is, at the end of the day, there are costs,” said Arun Upneja, dean of Boston University’s School of Hospitality Administration and a researcher on tourism.
“There are many people who are going to say, ‘Why should the society spend money on the rescue effort if (these people) are wealthy enough to be able to … engage in these risky activities?’”
Personally I think they family/estate should pay for the massive search efforts….the people make the decision to attempt something dangerous then the family should be prepared to foot the rescue/recovery operation.
I have no time for the attitude….do it because it is there.
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