Las Vegas Billionaire Gave Up Titan Seats Due To Safety Concerns
Sometimes it pays to follow your gut. Or in this case, your kid’s gut.
Las Vegas Billionaire Jay Bloom was almost on the Titan expedition that imploded this week. He and son, Sean were in discussions for months to take two seats on the doomed vessel. Those discussions were with Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate, the company that operated the Titan. He died aboard the Titan, along with four others. And throughout the text exchange with Bloom, Rush swore on the submarine’s safety.
Two of the other four that perished on the Titan was the father/son team that took the place of Bloom and his son, Sean. Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year old son Suleman embarked on the voyage with the rest on Sunday. According to Suleman’s aunt, the youngest victim of the tragedy wasn’t excited about the trip. Azmeh Dawood said her nephew was actually terrified about going, but did so because it was scheduled to leave on Father’s Day and he was going with his father, people.com reported.
19-year old Sean Bloom was also skeptical about the trip.
After the news of the underwater disaster, Jay Bloom revealed text exchanges between Rush and him. In the texts, Bloom mentions that Sean had done some research about what could go wrong on such an endeavor, and wasn’t sure he wanted to go.
During the text conversations, Rush assured Bloom the expedition was “way safer than flying a helicopter or even scuba diving”. In the same Facebook post, Bloom says he believed Rush believed was he was saying. If he didn’t, he probably wouldn’t have gone on the trip himself.
Days before, just after the the Titan was reported missing, Bloom also posted on Facebook. The post showed appreciation for not being on the vessel and giving wishes of hope that it was found intact.
Bloom is an investor and real estate developer in Las Vegas.
– Wendy Rush, 96.3 KKLZ
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