By Chantal Da Silva - NBC News
Suleman Dawood, the 19-year-old who died in the Titan submersible with his father and three others, had taken a Rubik's Cube on the trip in hopes of breaking a world record, his mother said.
Suleman had entered the Guinness World Records before the mission to see the wreckage of the Titanic and was "very excited" to try to solve the puzzle 3,700 meters under the ocean, his mother, Christine Dawood, told BBC News.
[Canada offers details on the search operation of the submersible Titan in the Atlantic]
His father, Shahzada Dawood, had even brought a camera to document the record-breaking moment, he said.
The comments came as the U.S. Coast Guard launched an investigation into the submersible's implosion, following an event that rocked the world for days and triggered a vast search in the North Atlantic.
Christine said her son loved solving the popular square puzzle and often carried a Rubik's Cube on him, astonishing those around him with his ability to solve it in just 12 seconds.
As Relatives Mourn Deaths, Canada, U.S. Investigate Titan Submersible Implosion
June 23, 202302:11
"He said, 'I'm going to solve the Rubik's Cube 3,700 meters under the sea on the Titanic,'" Christine said. Guinness World Records did not immediately respond to a request for comment from NBC News, Noticias Telemundo's sister network.
Christine said she had initially planned to go with her husband to see the wreckage of the Titanic, but that trip was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.
[The family of Paul-Henri Nargeolet, the Titanic expert who died in the submersible: "We will miss him every day"]
"So I stepped back and left room for them to prepare him [Suleman], because he really wanted to go," she said.
In an earlier interview with NBC News, Suleman's aunt, Azmeh Dawood, stated that the 19-year-old had told a relative that he was "terrified" and didn't feel "very prepared" for the Titanic trip.
However, he said he climbed aboard OceanGate's 22-foot submersible because the trip coincided with Father's Day weekend and he was eager to please his father, who was passionate about the history of the Titanic.
Suleman and Shahzada Dawood. Courtesy Dawood family
Both Suleman and his father died along with three other men after the submersible they were traveling in suffered what the U.S. Coast Guard called a "catastrophic implosion" shortly after embarking on the mission to see the Titanic, 900 nautical miles (1,666 kilometers) east of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, on June 18. which marked Father's Day.
Suleman's love of Rubik's cubes was also mentioned in an obituary released by the 19-year-old's family and father.
Colleagues at Engro Corporation, where his father was vice president and where Suleman had done a summer internship in 2022, remembered the teenager "as a tall young man walking around with his beloved Rubik's Cube and a smile on his face."
[This is the luxurious $250,000 trip to see the wreckage of the 'Titanic' in a missing submersible with five people on board]
Also killed in the implosion were Hamish Harding, a British tycoon living in the United Arab Emirates; French sailor and Titanic expert Paul Henry P.H. Nargeolet, nicknamed Mr. Titanic, and Stockton Rush, CEO of OceanGate Expeditions, the submersible's operating company.
The U.S. Coast Guard said Sunday it had launched a marine board of inquiry into the implosion of the Titan submersible. The goal will be to determine what caused the implosion and death of the five men on board, chief investigator Capt. Jason Neubauer told a news conference. The board can also make recommendations to pursue civil or criminal penalties to the appropriate authorities, he said.
The investigation was in its evidence-gathering phase, which includes salvage of wreckage and collaboration with Canadian authorities in the port of St. John's, Newfoundland. Upon completion of the investigation, the marine board will issue a report to the Coast Guard with its findings and recommendations.