Tycoon gave up his seats on doomed Titanic sub for Pakistani businessman and his teenage son

A Las Vegas financier turned down cheap seats in the Titan for him and his son on its doomed trip after raising safety concerns – but was fobbed off by the company boss who believed that descending to the bottom of the Atlantic ‘was safer than crossing the street’, MailOnline can reveal today.

Jay Bloom has shared texts between him and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush showing he was offered a ‘last minute price’ of $150,000-a-head – $100,000 below the usual $250,000 price.

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 gone on his place and perished along with 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’.

Stockton Rush shows the controller used to steer the Titan – which has been compared to something from a XBox or PS5

Jay Bloom’s Facebook post showing his grief that Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19, had gone on his place and perished

Mr Bloom’s texts with Stockton Rush show he was offered $100,000 off the usual price and Mr Rush spent some time trying to play down safety concerns

In February this year Stockton Rush asked Mr Bloom and his son Sean to go on the dive to Titanic in May. Both May dives were postponed due to weather and the dive got delayed until June 18, the date of the ill-fated trip. 

Mr Bloom said: ‘I told him that due to scheduling we couldn’t go until next year. Our seats went to Shahzada Dawood and his 19 year old son, Suleman Dawood, two of the other three who lost their lives on this excursion, the fifth being Hamish Harding.

‘RIP Stockton and crew. As for Sean and I.. we are going to take a minute to stop and smell the roses. Tomorrow is never promised. Make the most of today’.

Texts between Mr Rush had repeatedly tried to reassure Mr Bloom about the safety of the Titan and heading to the Titanic’s wreck.

He said his son was very worried about the risks after speaking with a friend. Mr Rush said: ‘I’m happy to have a video call with him. Curious what the uninformed would say the danger is and whether it’s real or imagined’.

The discussed how the hull would deal with pressure, or even if it came into contact with a whale or squid.

Mr Rush said: ‘While there’s obviously risk it’s way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving, There hasn’t even been an injury in 35 years in non-military subs’.

A satellite image shows ships taking part in the search and rescue operations associated with the missing Titan submersible near the wreck of the Titanic

OceanGate Expeditions were allegedly repeatedly warned about safety concerns

Five people were onboard, including British billionaire adventurer Hamish Harding and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19

French Navy veteran PH Nargeolet (left) is in the sub along with Stockton Rush (right), CEO of the OceanGate Expedition

Titanic director and submersible expert James Cameron said he predicted Titan’s implosion days before the debris from the missing submersible was found, calling the search a ‘prolonged nightmarish charade’.

Mr Cameron, who has visited the world’s most famous seawreck 30 times, said the tragedy this week has parallels with the the Titanic disaster, where the captain repeatedly ignored warnings about an incoming iceberg but carried on at top speed.

The Titanic Five were killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the wrecked ocean liner, the US Coast Guard announced yesterday. A remote operated submarine from a Canadian ship found debris on the ocean floor. 

But search and rescue officials say the men likely died on Sunday – before military planes using sonar buoys detected what they thought could have been SOS ‘banging’ sounds in the water. The US Navy said they heard a sound consistent with an implosion when communications were lost around two hours after they dived. The Navy passed on that information to the Coast Guard, an insider said.

Mr Cameron told BBC News that the Coast Guard search ‘felt like a prolonged and nightmarish charade where people are running around talking about banging noises and talking about oxygen and all this other stuff’.

‘I knew that sub was sitting exactly underneath its last known depth and position. That’s exactly where they found it,’ he said.

According to court documents, safety concerns had previously been raised about the Titan submersible by a former employee of OceanGate. David Lochridge, OceanGate’s former director of marine operations, claimed wrongful dismissal after flagging worries about the company’s alleged ‘refusal to conduct critical, non-destructive testing of the experimental design’.

Mr Cameron said last night: ‘A number of the top players in the deep-submergence engineering community even wrote letters to the company saying that what they were doing was too experimental to carry passengers and that needed to be certified and so on.

‘I’m struck by the similarity of the Titanic disaster itself, where the captain was repeatedly warned about ice ahead of his ship and yet he steamed at full speed into an ice field on a moonless night, and many people died as a result It’s a very similar tragedy where warnings went unheeded — to take place at the same exact site with all the diving that’s going around all around the world. I think it’s just astonishing, it’s really quite surreal’.

Titanic director and submersible expert James Cameron said he predicted Titan’s implosion before the debris from the missing submersible was found, calling the search a ‘prolonged nightmarish charade’.

Mr Cameron said: ‘I felt in my bones what had happened. I immediately got on the phone to some of my contacts in the deep submersible community. Within about an hour I had the following facts. They were on descent. They were at 3500 metres, heading for the bottom at 3800 metres.

‘For the sub’s electronics to fail and its communication system to fail, and its tracking transponder to fail simultaneously – sub’s gone

‘We now have another wreck that is based on unfortunately the same principles of not heeding warnings.’

The victims are OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, French Navy veteran Paul-Henri (PH) Nargeolet, British billionaire Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who was just 19. 

‘The implosion would have generated a significant, broadband sound that the sonar buoys would have picked up,’ explained Rear Admiral John Mauger of the US Coast Guard at a press conference. 

James Cameron’s pointed message comes after it was revealed that emerged that OceanGate boss Rush had been warned years before that his ‘experimental approach’ could lead to a catastrophe – and in another interview he spoke about ‘breaking rules’ to make the submarine.

It would have been an instant death for the men, some of whom had paid $250,000 each to see the famous shipwreck. 

In a gut-wrenching blow for their families, experts say there is little prospect of recovering any of their remains. 

‘This is an incredibly unforgiving environment down there. The debris is consistent of a catastrophic implosion of the vessel.. we’ll continue to work and search the area down there – but I don’t have an answer for prospects at this time,’ Paul Hankin, a deep sea expert involved in the search, said.