The last man to see the Oceangate Titan Sub crew before it took its final voyage has revealed the last words he said to them before they descended.
This comes following the release of a new BBC documentary Implosion: The Titanic Sub Disaster which follows the US Coast Guard’s investigation into the fatal event.
Five people died as a result of the Titan submersible’s implosion, discovered after several days in which the members of the crew had gone ‘missing’.
Amongst these were the company’s CEO Stockton Rush, who is heavily criticised in the BBC documentary.
Tym Catterson, a submersible pilot and Oceangate’s contract safety diver, was the last person to see the five people who died alive, speaking in the documentary about how he helped prepare them before boarding the submersible.
Catterson would go on to aid in the US Coast Guard’s investigation due to his expertise in the controversial submersible.
This came following another member of the team having raised issues with the submersible.
Antonella Wilby, a consultant who worked with Oceangate, had pointed to the worrying fact that, during a test dive, an incredibly loud crack was heard.
She claimed these concerns were discounted by Oceangate, with a US Coast Guard expert interviewed claiming this ultimately led to the hull breach which caused their deaths.
Of the five to die the youngest was Suleman Dawood, the 19-year-old son of British-Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood, who was also on the vessel.
Catterson described how Suleman knew very little about the sub, describing it as him going on a ‘grand adventure’.
He went on to say: “Suleman was close to the last to going in and when he came up I grabbed him by the back of his flotation device and pulled him to make sure he isn’t going to go sliding off into the water.
“I helped him get in I helped him get into the sub and then I said ‘have a good dive’.”
After this Catterson pauses for several seconds, clearly emotional at the realisation that this was the last thing he said to Suleman prior to his death.
Suleman’s mother, Christine Dawood, also spoke out in the documentary, blaming the late CEO for the death of her son and husband.
Speaking in the doc she said of the investigation: “I wanted to hear the confidence of the person who built it, who ran the company, but also he surrounded himself with literal experts.
“I mean, one died with them. If you have an expert like this with you, I mean, you don't doubt.
“The arrogance of the people in charge when they think that they're above everything. That really gets to me.
“Why is ego and arrogance more important than safety? The irony is not lost on me that the Titanic sunk for exactly the same reasons.”
The BBC included a statement from Oceangate at the end of the documentary, saying: “In response to the allegations in this film, Oceangate said that they were fully co-operating with official investigations and it would be inappropriate to comment before the conclusion.
“They offered their deepest condolences to the families of those who died.”