Titanic submarine CEO offered discounted tickets to millionaire, saying doomed voyage ‘was safer than crossing the street’

• A Las Vegas financier said he turned down two tickets for the Titan submersible’s fatal voyage.

• Jay Bloom shared a text message exchange with Stockton Rush highlighting the security concerns.

• Rush dismissed those concerns and offered him tickets at a discount of $150,000, text messages show.

Stockton Rush, the owner of the Titan submersible that imploded and killed all five people on board, offered discounted $150,000 tickets to a millionaire who turned them down after raising safety concerns.

Jay Bloom, a Las Vegas financier, posted on Facebook text messages between himself and Rush, the CEO of deep-sea tourism company OceanGate, who was killed when the ship implosion occurred Sunday.

The remains of the ship were found Thursday after a massive search and rescue operation in a perilous region of the North Atlantic, about 700 miles from Newfoundland.

Rush sold tickets to see the wreck of the Titanic aboard the submarine Titan for up to $250,000.

Bloom said on Facebook that Rush had asked him and his son Sean to dive at the Titanic wreck site after two planned expeditions were cancelled due to bad weather. MailOnline was first to report the text message exchange.

Before Sunday’s expedition, Bloom said he expressed concerns to Rush about the safety of the trip. In one message, Rush tried to convince him it was “safer than crossing the street.”

Rush said: “While there are obviously risks, it is much safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving. There has not been a single injury in 35 years on a civilian submarine.”

Bloom, managing partner of investment firm Trimaran Capital Partners, wrote in the post: “I’m sure he truly believed what he was saying. But he was completely wrong. He believed passionately in what he was doing.”

He said the last time he saw Rush in person was at a Titanic exhibit in Las Vegas on March 1, where Rush again tried to convince him of the safety of the trip.

“Over lunch in the Luxor food court, we talked about the plunge, including safety. He was absolutely convinced it was safer than crossing the street,” Bloom wrote.

“I told him that due to scheduling reasons we would not be able to go until next year,” he added. “Our places were reserved for Shahzada Dawood and her 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood, two of the three other people who lost their lives on that trip (the fifth being Hamish Harding).

“One last time… RIP Stockton and his team.”

Here are some of the texts Bloom shared between himself and Rush:

In her message, Bloom said: “We’re going to take a minute to stop and smell the roses. Tomorrow is never promised. Make the most of today.”

The Titan disappeared Sunday, sparking a massive search and rescue mission that ended Thursday when underwater drones found fragments of the Titan, indicating it had imploded.

After the submarine’s disappearance, reports indicated that experts had raised concerns with Rush about the submarine’s experimental design, and customers described to the media that they had canceled planned trips due to safety fears.

Rush had defended the Titan’s design and said regulations aimed at ensuring ship safety were hampering innovation.

“At some point, safety is just a waste,” he told CBS last year. “I mean, if you just want to be safe, don’t get out of bed, don’t get in your car, don’t do anything. At some point, you’re going to take risks, and it’s really a risk-reward issue.”

Correction: June 23, 2023 — An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated Jay Bloom’s hometown. Bloom is from Las Vegas, not Los Angeles.

Read the original article on Insider