It seems that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was specifically sales targeting men and their sons for his doomed trip to the Titanic, though not all of them were convinced by his sales pitch. In fact one father & son duo have now spoken out about the ‘red flags’ that prompted them to turn down the invitation.
Multi-millionaire financier Jay Bloom and his son Sean say Rush tried to convince them to join the voyage, which came with a $250,000 price tag per person.
In the end, Sean’s gut feeling told him that something wasn’t quite right, and he convinced his dad to pass on it. Speaking to CNN, Sean said:
“Before the news initially broke and we were thinking about going on the submarine ourselves, one of the safety concerns I had before getting on was literally about the structural integrity of the submarine.
Before we got on, I saw a video of Stockton explaining how the submarine worked with the remote and everything and I saw a lot of red flags with it, and it was only meant for five people.
I just didn’t think it could survive going that low into the ocean, so ultimately I ended up warning my dad about it and he ended up agreeing with me.”
Sean said he tried to ask Stockton questions, but the CEO ‘kind of brushed it off a little bit’. Dad Jay added:
“I think his [Stockton’s] heart was in the right place and he really was passionate about his project and believed everything he was saying.
But one of the things that concerned me was he told me he was flying in to see me and said he was landing at North Las Vegas Airport, which is an odd selection.
Most people that come in privately come in to either at McCarran [International] – which is now Harry Reid International – or they come in to Henderson Executive.
I asked him why and he said he was coming in on a two-seater experimental plane that he built.”
Red flag city. Jay added:
“He has a different risk appetite than I do – I’m a pilot, I have my helicopter pilot’s license, I wouldn’t get into an experimental aircraft.”
Just imagine – if Jay and Sean had been on board that sub, there would have been another father & son pair who wouldn’t have been. Apparently Rush even offered them $100,000 off their tickets at one point, which is another red flag really. Why was he so desperate? And to fly to their house in his ‘experimental aircraft’ to try and convince them? Not surprising that Jay & Sean sensed something was off.
In the end, their instincts saved their lives. I wonder how many more people will now turn up and claim they were invited on the sub too? Mr. Beast has already been at it.
