OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush offered a Las Vegas man and his son discounted prices to ride on the Titanic tourist submersible and claimed it was safer than scuba diving, text messages reveal.
Bloom and his son turned down the offer due to safety concerns.
The vessel suffered a "catastrophic implosion" based on debris located 1,600 feet from the wreckage of the Titanic, the Coast Guard said Thursday. Rush and the other four passengers aboard the experimental deep-sea vessel "have sadly been lost," according to the submersible company.Rush even flew to Las Vegas on a homebuilt, two-seater plane to try and convince them, Bloom said.
"He flew to Vegas on an experimental home-built plane to pitch me on going on an experimental home-built sub," Bloom told ABC News."He drank his own Kool-Aid and he sort of had this predisposition that it was safe, and anybody who disagreed with him, he felt it was just a differing opinion," Bloom said. "He just kind of was going to go with what he believed."
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