Las Vegas businessman Jay Bloom and his son Sean, 20, were supposed to be on the tragic Titan voyage that imploded.
In a horrifying parallel, they believe their seats were taken by prominent Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son, Suleman, 19.
Bloom said OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush contacted him a year ago to tell him about the opportunity to visit the wreckage of the Titanic. Bloom said he wanted to go with his son, who was a fan of the iconic sunken ship.
“My son and his friend raised a lot of concerns about what kind of marine life we’re going to run into, there’s really no escape plan if something goes wrong,” Bloom told NBC News.
The father was also concerned about the Titan’s hatch, which could be opened only from the outside, and the hull’s carbon fiber material, which reacts differently to pressure than steel.
Rush assured him the journey was “safer than flying a helicopter, safer than crossing the street,” Bloom recalled.
Two planned voyages were canceled in May because of the weather and rescheduled to June 18, and Bloom ultimately decided they couldn’t make it.
“I was just not comfortable with the kind of resources that he had to pull this off, that it could be done safely,” Bloom said. “Looking back, I’m very relieved and glad that my son and I did not go, just feel terrible for the people who did.”
Sean said he’s grateful his father listened to his concerns.
“The more I stared to think about it, I was like, ‘I don’t think this is a good idea,’” he said. “It’s really tragic. It’s crazy that the two people that took our seats were in a very similar situation, father-son. I can’t believe it happened.”
The Blooms said Rush had visited them to talk about the mission, traveling in a small plane he had built himself.
“I love the confidence in his inventions, but he built a plane by hand and flew it,” Sean Bloom said. “No way am I getting on a submarine to the bottom of the ocean, which is way more dangerous than flying an experimental plane.”
Jay Bloom, who shared text messages on Facebook that he exchanged with Rush, remembered the CEO as a “good man with a good heart” who “believed in what he was doing and just wanted to share his passion.”
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