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Dad, Son Who Bailed on Titanic Sub ‘Haunted’ by the Near Miss

Jay Bloom said he and his son have been chilled by the similarities between them and the late father-son duo who took their place.

A father and son who bailed on a chance to join the doomed Titan submersible crew are now chilled by the similarities between them and the duo who took their spot. The father, investor Jay Bloom, said he and his 20-year-old son were offered discounted tickets for the Titanic-bound voyage before they backed out, allowing Pakistani billionaire Shahzada Dawood and his teenage son, Sulaiman, to grab their seats. “When I look at that picture of the father and son, it’s eerily similar to the pictures I have with my son,” Bloom told the New York Post, calling the similarity “Very haunting.” Bloom said that he and his son had initially been excited about the once-in-a-lifetime chance to see the Titanic, but became wary when they learned more about the sub’s design and the devil-may-care approach of its pilot. Stockton Rush, the OceanGate CEO who operated the sub on its ill-fated voyage, had previously raised alarms in the industry for his self-proclaimed disregard for safety. “You can take risks, but they should be calculated risks,” Bloom said according to the Post. “Stockton — the more I learned—was just reckless.”