The Las Vegas financier 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’, MailOnline can reveal today.
Jay Bloom has 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, a Democrat supporter who has been photographed with Joe Biden, has 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 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’.
Mailonline
