Pakistani passenger of Titan previously survived horrific plane plunge, wife recalls

NEW YORK CITY: UK-based Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, who died when Titan submersible imploded, previously survived a horrific plane plunge with his wife, foreign media reported.

Dawood’s wife, Christine, shared the incident in a blog post, titled “Living With Anxiety,” she wrote back in 2019. She said that one flight changed her life and career path from being an engineer to becoming a psychologist and life coach. Her husband later told her “he was thinking of all the opportunities he’d missed and how much he still wanted to teach (their) children.”

Christine described the flight: “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 metres 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. Dead silence,” she added.

Christine continued: “The plane plunged again, and shook left and right. I felt like a grain in a big bag of sand, or a boxer being soundly defeated — punched from all directions. I clutched my armrests, as if that would make a difference. I needed something to hold on to, something stable in a shaky metal tube thousands of feet above the ground.”

The ordeal was so horrific even Shahzada, a renowned adventurer, was contemplating his own demise during the flight, she said. “I should have known when they cancelled our flight and put us on the next one. We should have taken the sign, gone back home and had a long and generous breakfast. But we didn’t, and this flight became one of the most memorable ones of my life,” she recalled.

“Storm clouds amassed around us immersing the cabin in a strange kind of twilight,” added Christine, noting: “It was not quite light and yet not fully dark. It engulfed us, teased us and breathed fear into some and bravery into others… I was frightened like never before in my life. I wasn’t even able to wipe away the tears running down my face or move my head to look around. “Plunge! It wasn’t over yet. Shake left, shake right! My head hit the window. Then came an announcement. It was the captain telling us that he would try to land from a different angle. The engines roared and we gained height again.” The plane eventually made it. Christine continued with her account: “The force of the thrust slowing the plane brought me back to reality. We had made it. We had survived. But I still couldn’t move. I still couldn’t comprehend. We were safely on the ground and yet my throat felt as if a noose was tightly around it. I felt a squeeze of my hand and heard somebody talking to me, but I was frozen still. It’s then that I realised that my life had changed and would never be the same again.”