An American Tycoon has revealed he turned down cut-price seats on the Titan’s doomed trip after raising safety concerns but was told by the company boss that it ‘was safer than crossing the street’
Jay Bloom, a Las Vegas financier shared texts between himself and OceanGate chief executive Stockton Rush showing he and his son were offered a ‘last minute price’ of $150,000 a head (£120,000), a discount on the usual $250,000 (£195,000) fee.
Mr Bloom described his sadness at Mr Rush’s death and his grief that Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19, had taken their spots and perished as well as French Navy veteran Paul-Henri Nargeolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding.
In February this year, Stockton Rush asked Mr. Bloom and his son Sean to go on the dive to Titanic in May. Both May dives were postponed due to weather and the dive got delayed until June 18, the date of the ill-fated trip.
In a Facebook post, he said: ‘I expressed safety concerns and Stockton told me: “While there’s obviously risk – it’s way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving”.
‘He was absolutely convinced that it was safer than crossing the street. I am sure he really believed what he was saying. But he was very wrong’.
Mr Bloom said: ‘I told him that due to scheduling we couldn’t go until next year. Our seats went to Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, two of the other three who lost their lives on this excursion, the fifth being Hamish Harding.
‘RIP Stockton and crew. As for Sean and I… we are going to take a minute to stop and smell the roses. Tomorrow is never promised. Make the most of today’.
Texts between Mr. Rush had repeatedly tried to reassure Mr. Bloom about the safety of the Titan and heading to the Titanic’s wreck.
He said his son was very worried about the risks after speaking with a friend. Mr. Rush said: ‘I’m happy to have a video call with him. Curious what the uninformed would say the danger is and whether it’s real or imagined’.
They discussed how the hull would deal with pressure, or even if it came into contact with a whale or squid.
Mr Rush said: ‘While there’s obviously risk it’s way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving, There hasn’t even been an injury in 35 years in non-military subs’.
Titanic director and submersible expert, James Cameron said he predicted Titan’s implosion days before the debris from the missing submersible was found, calling the search a ‘prolonged nightmarish charade’.
Mr Cameron, who has visited the world’s most famous seawreck 30 times, said the tragedy this week has parallels with the 1912 disaster, where the captain repeatedly ignored warnings about an incoming iceberg but carried on at top speed.
The five inside Titan were killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the wrecked ocean liner, the US Coast Guard announced yesterday. A remotely operated submarine from a Canadian ship found debris on the ocean floor.
But officials say the men were likely to have died on Sunday – before military planes using sonar buoys detected what they thought could have been SOS ‘banging’ sounds in the water. The US Navy said they heard a sound consistent with an implosion when communications were lost around two hours after they dived. The Navy passed on that information to the Coast Guard, an insider said.
