A Las Vegas financier turned down cheap seats on Titan for her and her son after raising safety concerns – but was turned down by the company’s boss who believed it was safer to go down the Atlantic than to cross the road’, MailOnline can reveal today.
Jay Bloom shared texts between him and Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush showing he was offered a ‘last-minute price’ of $150,000-a-head – $100,000 less than the usual $250,000 price.
Mr. Bloom, a Democrat supporter who posed for pictures with Joe Biden, described his sadness at Mr. Rush’s death and his grief that Prince Dawood and his son Suleiman, who was just 19, had moved in his place and died with the French navy veteran. Paul-Henri Nargiolet and British billionaire Hamish Harding,
In a Facebook post he said: ‘I raised safety concerns and Stockton told me: “There are obviously risks though – it’s safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving”.
‘He was absolutely sure it was safer than crossing the road. I’m sure he really believed what he was saying. But he was very wrong’.
Jay Bloom, pictured with Joe Biden, revealed he was initially offered a seat on Titan but there were safety concerns.
Jay Bloom’s Facebook post showed his grief that Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleiman, who was only 19, had moved to his place and died.
Mr Bloom’s texts with Stockton Rush show he was offered $100,000 over the usual price and Mr Rush spent some time downplaying security concerns.
Stockton shows off the controller used to run Rush Titan – compared to something from an XBox or PS5
In February this year, Stockton Rush asked Mr Bloom and his son Sean to join the sinking of the Titanic in May. Both May dives were postponed due to weather and the dive was delayed until June 18, the date of the ill-fated trip.
Mr Bloom said: ‘I told him we couldn’t go until next year because of the schedule. Our seats went to Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleiman Dawood, two of the three others who lost their lives on the trip, the fifth being Hamish Harding.
‘RIP Stockton and crew. Shawn and I.. we’re going to take a minute to stop and smell the roses. Tomorrow is not promised. Make the most of today’.
The text between Mr. Rush repeatedly tried to reassure Mr. Bloom about the safety of the Titan and the approach to the wreck of the Titanic.
She said her son was very concerned about the risk after talking to a friend. Mr Rush said: ‘I was happy to have a video call with him. Curiosity what the unknown will say is the danger and whether it is real or imagined’.
How Hull copes with stress is also discussed when exposed to whales or squids.
Mr Rush said: ‘Although there are obviously risks involved in flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving, even non-military members have not had one injury in 35 years’.
A satellite image shows ships participating in search and rescue operations related to the missing Titan submersible near the wreck of the Titanic.
The Oceangate operations were allegedly repeatedly warned about security
Five people were on board, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleiman, who is just 19 years old.
Oceangate campaign CEO Stockton Rush (right) with French Navy veteran PH Nargiolet (left) on the sub
Titanic director and submersibles expert James Cameron said he predicted the Titanic’s explosion days before wreckage from the missing submersible was found, calling the search a ‘prolonged nightmarish charade’.
Mr Cameron, who has visited the world’s most famous sea wreck 30 times, said this week’s tragedy had parallels with the Titanic disaster, where the skipper repeatedly ignored warnings about an oncoming iceberg but continued at top speed.
The Titanic Five were killed instantly when they suffered a ‘catastrophic explosion’ just 1,600 feet from the bow of the doomed ocean liner, the US Coast Guard announced yesterday. A remotely operated submarine from a Canadian ship found the wreck on the sea floor.
But search and rescue officials said the men were likely dead on Sunday – before they thought military aircraft using sonar buoys could sound SOS ‘banging’ in the water. The U.S. Navy reported that they heard a sound consistent with an explosion when they lost contact about two hours after the dive. The Navy gave that information to the Coast Guard, an insider said.
Mr Cameron told BBC News that the Coast Guard search ‘felt like a protracted and nightmarish charade with people running around talking about banging noises and oxygen and all these other things’.
‘I knew the sub was sitting just below its last known depth and position. That’s exactly where they found it,’ he said.
According to court documents, safety concerns about the Titan submarine were previously raised by a former Oceangate employee. David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, claimed wrongful dismissal after raising concerns about the company’s alleged ‘refusal to conduct critical, non-destructive testing of experimental designs’.
Mr Cameron said last night: ‘Some of the leading players in the deep-submersion engineering community even wrote to the company saying what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and it needed to be certified and so on.
‘I myself am struck by the analogy of the Titanic disaster, where the captain was repeatedly warned about the ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and many died as a result. A very similar tragedy where caution is neglected — happening in the same exact location as all the diving going on around the world. I think it’s just amazing, it’s really quite surreal’.
Titanic director and submarine expert James Cameron says he predicted the Titanic’s explosion before the wreckage of the missing submarine was found, calling the search a ‘charade of prolonged nightmares’.
Mr Cameron said: ‘I felt in my bones what had happened. I immediately got on the phone to some of my contacts in the deep immersion community. In about an hour I received the following information. They were descended. They were at 3500m, going down 3800m.
‘For the sub’s electronics to fail and its communications system to fail and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously – the sub is gone.
‘We now have another wreck which unfortunately is based on the same principle of not heeding warnings.’
The dead were Oceangate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (Ph) Nargiolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleiman, who was only 19.
US Coast Guard Rear Admiral John Mager explained at a press conference, ‘The explosion would have produced a significant, broadband noise that would have been picked up by the sonar buoys.
The message directed by James Cameron comes after it was revealed that Oceangate boss Rush was warned years ago that his ‘experimental approach’ could lead to a disaster – and in another interview he spoke of ‘breaking the rules’ to build submarines.
It could have been an instant death for the men, some of whom paid $250,000 to see the famous shipwreck.
In a gut-wrenching blow to their families, experts say they are unlikely to recover any remains.
‘It’s an incredibly unforgiving environment out there. The debris is consistent with a catastrophic explosion of the ship.. We will continue to work and explore the area down there – but I don’t have an answer to the possibilities at the moment,’ Paul Hankin, a deep sea expert involved in the search, said.
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