American businessman Jay Bloom said that he refused an excursion with his son to the Titanic on the Titanic bathyscaphe with a discount of 100 thousand dollars per person, after which their places went to Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Davud and his son.
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“In February, Stockton (Rush, founder of OceanGate Expeditions) asked me and my son Sean to dive to the Titanic in May,” Bloom wrote on his Facebook page.
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According to the businessman, the dive was supposed to take place in May, but it was postponed due to weather conditions. Bloom writes that he repeatedly expressed doubts about the safety of the expedition, but Rush stated that it was safer than flying in a helicopter or diving. Bloom subsequently told Rush that he would not be able to take part in the dive due to his busy schedule. As a result, their seats went to Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleiman, Bloom said.
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He also published photographs of correspondence with Rush, who suggested that he go on an expedition in May at a “burning price” of $150,000.
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The Titanic travel craft went missing on Sunday while descending to the wreckage of the Titanic, an ocean liner that sank in the North Atlantic in 1912 at a depth of 3.8 kilometers. Communication with the bathyscaphe, on board of which there were five people, disappeared less than two hours after it sank.
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On board the unit, owned by the American company OceanGate Expeditions, were its founder Stockton Rush, French deep sea veteran Paul-Henri Nargeole, British billionaire and space tourist Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleiman. The US Coast Guard, which conducted the search and rescue operation, said that the Titan submersible was destroyed in the explosion, and five members of its crew were killed. The participants in the search operation also stated that due to the depth at which the wreckage is located and the complexity of working on it, the likelihood of finding the remains of the dead is small.
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OceanGate Expeditions advertised seven-day Titanic dive excursions starting at $250,000.
