YouTube star reveals message inviting him to join doomed Titanic sub voyage: 'I could have been on it'



YouTube star Jimmy Donaldson, better known by his online pseudonym "Mr. Beast," revealed Sunday that he was offered a spot on the doomed Titan submersible.

"I was invited earlier this month to ride the titanic submarine, I said no. Kind of scary that I could have been on it," Donaldson said on Twitter.

Attached to the tweet was a screenshot of a text message inviting him to a voyage down to the Titanic. Donaldson, however, did not provide additional details, such as who sent the message. But the person made it clear they were going on the trip.

The message read, "Also, I’m going to the Titanic in a submarine late this month. The team would be stoked to have you along. I’m sure you’re also welcome to join."

— (@)

Donaldson is the second person to come forward claiming they were invited to OceanGate's third-annual voyage to the Titanic wreckage.

Before the U.S. Coast Guard confirmed the Titan submersible had imploded, Las Vegas businessman Jay Bloom revealed that OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who died in the catastrophic accident, invited Bloom and his son on the voyage several months ago.

"So this is crazy … I got invited to go on this dive. If I accepted, I would’ve been one of the five onboard right now," Bloom wrote on Facebook last Tuesday. "Stockton Rush has been trying to get me to go for a year now. I last saw him at Luxor when we went through the Titanic Exhibition together. I spoke with him a couple of weeks ago and he told me they had an opening on this dive."

In a subsequent Facebook post, Bloom explained that Rush invited him on the trip, which was scheduled to take place in May. But it was pushed back until June 18 because of weather. Rush even offered Bloom and his son seats at a discounted rate.

Shockingly, Bloom expressed concerns about Titan's safety — which Rush outright denied.

"While there's obviously risk it's way safer than flying in a helicopter or even scuba diving," Rush told Bloom months ago. "There hasn't been even an injury in 35 years in a non-military subs."

Eventually, Bloom told Rush that scheduling conflicts prevented him from going on the voyage. Bloom's seats went to Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman Dawood.

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Titan sub rescue mission likely 'cost millions,' but who will pay for it? Can families of doomed passengers sue OceanGate?



A multinational search and rescue mission had been launched to save the OceanGate submersible that went missing in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday. However, the recovery operation was halted after the U.S. Coast Guard announced that the tail cone and debris from the Titan sub were found on the ocean floor approximately 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic – which lies around 12,500 feet below sea level.

The vessel is said to have suffered a "catastrophic implosion," which caused the deaths of all five people on board. The submersible imploded roughly 900 miles off the coast of Cape Cod.

An international search and rescue mission with advanced equipment

The international rescue operation involved the United States, Canada, France, and England.

According to USA Today, the U.S. military sent three C-130 aircraft and three C-17 transport planes for the search effort, while the Canadian military dispatched a P8 aircraft with sound-sensing equipment.

The U.S. Navy deployed several remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, to scan the sea floor near the Titanic wreck to locate the missing submersible.

The news outlet added, "Aiding the search was a French team specializing in ROVs and an expert submariner from the British Royal Navy. Also helping are experts including some from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution."

There were several vessels sent to the North Atlantic to assist in the search for the doomed submersible.

Included was a Canadian Coast Guard fishery science vessel with an "advanced deep sonar," a 307-foot Canadian vessel for operating ROVs, a Canadian ship with a mobile decompression chamber for any survivors of the Titan, and a French multipurpose research vessel with an ROV that can dive nearly 20,000 feet deep, according to CNN.

The U.S. Coast Guard announced on Wednesday, "The Navy is sending subject matter experts and a Flyaway Deep Ocean Salvage System (FADOSS), a motion-compensated lift system designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects such as aircraft or small vessels, from Navy Supervisor of Salvage."

A private Bahamian research ship also assisted in the search for the 21-foot submersible.

The operation was not able to recover the Titan sub because it imploded on Sunday.

A new report said the U.S. Navy "detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost" on Sunday. An insider claimed that the military didn't inform the public because officials were not 100% certain that the sound was the Titan imploding.

How much did the attempted rescue cost?

The extensive rescue operation ran up a massive bill.

The rescue mission would "probably cost millions," according to Chris Boyer, the executive director of the National Association for Search and Rescue, an organization "interested in the training of search and rescue, disaster relief, emergency medicine, and awareness education."

The New York Times reported, "The expense for such an endeavor is likely to be equally great, and it is unclear whether taxpayers in the countries involved, ultimately, will be required to pay it."

Ret. Adm. Paul Zukunft, who previously led the Coast Guard, told the Washington Post that OceanGate Expeditions would not need to pay the U.S. government for the rescue attempt.

Zukunft said, "It's no different than if a private citizen goes out and his boat sinks. We go out and recover him. We don't stick them with the bill after the fact."

Hawaii, Idaho, Maine, New Hampshire, Oregon, and Vermont have laws allowing state officials to seek reimbursement from individuals who needed to be rescued if they acted negligently, according to the New York Times.

Can the families of the doomed Titan passengers sue OceanGate?

The passengers paid $250,000 each for the submersible journey to the Titanic wreck. It is not known whethere the passengers took out travel insurance for the risky underwater expedition.

The passengers were reportedly required to execute a "release of liability agreement" with OceanGate Expeditions.

The agreement states that the passengers would "assume full responsibility for the risk of bodily injury, disability, death and property damage due to the negligence of [OceanGate] while involved in the operation."

The New York Post noted, "The three-page document spells out the risks that passengers take when riding in the 23,000-pound Titan, including eye-popping wording such as how the craft 'has not been approved or certified by any regulatory body and may be constructed of materials that have not been widely used on human occupied submersible.'"

The agreement states, "As lawful consideration for being permitted to participate in the operation, and on behalf of myself, my heirs, assigns, personal representative, estate, and for all members of my family, including minor children, I hereby release, waive, and forever discharge OceanGate Expeditions, Ltd."

The five people who died on the Titan were OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani billionaire businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman.

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Titan submersible implosion: Experts describe extreme conditions of the deep ocean www.youtube.com

Bombshell report: US Navy heard implosion of Titan submersible hours after it launched on Sunday



Top secret U.S. Navy technology reportedly detected the sound of the Titan implosion just hours after the submersible began its voyage on Sunday.

In a bombshell report on Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the Navy began using its technology immediately after it was learned that the sub had lost communications with its surface vessel, the Polar Prince. Shortly thereafter, the system — which is used to protect the U.S. from enemy submarines — heard what officials believed was the Titan imploding.

The sound was detected near the area where Titan debris was discovered on Thursday, about 1,600 feet from the bow of the Titanic.

A top Navy official, however, told the Wall Street Journal there is not "definitive" proof the implosion heard was the Titan.

The official said:

The U.S. Navy conducted an analysis of acoustic data and detected an anomaly consistent with an implosion or explosion in the general vicinity of where the Titan submersible was operating when communications were lost. While not definitive, this information was immediately shared with the Incident Commander to assist with the ongoing search and rescue mission.

Sources told the Wall Street Journal the military did not tell the public about the implosion detection because officials weren't 100% certain it was the Titan.

"It looks that the Titan imploded on Sunday on its way down to the Titanic shortly after contact was lost at a depth of around 9,000 feet," said a person with "direct knowledge" of the incident.

If the submersible imploded at that depth, the five people on board died within milliseconds — before they even knew there was a problem.

A U.S. defense official told the Wall Street Journal that investigators will try to determine whether the sound heard on the top-secret technology was, indeed, the Titan imploding.

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas), meanwhile, slammed the military's handling of the incident. Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL, called it an "epic failure of leadership." He suggested the outcome may have been different if leadership had acted sooner, though it's not clear how, if the sub imploded within hours of entering the ocean on Sunday.

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'A new low': Liberal publication fixates on doomed OceanGate submariner's history of donating to GOP candidates as air runs out



The U.S. Coast Guard indicated that as of 7:08 a.m. ET on Thursday, the crew of the Titanic-bound OceanGate submersible had run out of breathable air.

Hours earlier, while oxygen and hope were running dangerously low, the New Republic, a progressive-liberal publication, decided to focus not on the fate of the potentially doomed adventurers, but rather publish an article concerning the Republican affiliation of a suffocating man, crew member and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush.

The article was met with fierce denunciations online, with some critics suggesting it was a "disgusting" effort to justify partisans' schadenfreude. The backlash was of such a magnitude that the New Republic yanked its corresponding Twitter post from the platform.

In the article, entitled, "OceanGate CEO Missing in Titanic Sub Had History of Donating to GOP Candidates," staff writer Daniel Strauss noted, "Public campaign finance records indicate that Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate currently stuck on the missing Titan submersible that was running a tourist expedition of the Titanic wreck, has been a consistent Republican donor over the years."

Strauss indicated that "Rush was not a Republican megadonor, but his donations over the years leaned heavily toward Republican candidates," intimating that he was not even redeemable by virtue of possibly being a "RINO."

The article highlighted how the OceanGate CEO had donated $1,500 to former Republican Rep. John Culberson, noting, "Culberson had a 100 percent scorecard rating from the conservative Family Research Council, a 92 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union, and a 4 percent lifetime score from the League of Conservation Voters."

Strauss appeared to situate his special focus amid a broader trend of "increasing scrutiny on OceanGate and its top executives."

Investigative reporter Matt Taibbi responded to the article on Twitter, writing, "Welp, I guess we should hope they all die slowly and gasping in terror, then. Congrats @newrepublic you found a new low on Twitter!"

National Journalism Center program director T. Becket Adams wrote, "Not sure which is more interesting: that this was published by a team, and not one person thought to say, 'this is extremely gross,' or the headline's use of the past tense 'had,' as if the New Republic knows something the rest of us don't."

Adams added, "The entire article – from top to bottom – is like a work of art. A how-to for how NOT to do journalism. It's beautiful, really, in a hilariously moronic sort of way."

Nicholas Fondacaro, associate editor at NewsBusters, tweeted, "The New Republic thinks the CEO of Oceangate deserves to suffocate on the bottom of the ocean because he supported Republicans."

Radio host Tony Katz of 93.1FM WIBC suggested, "When you lose your humanity, this is what you write about."

Fox News' Janice Dean wrote, "Wow. What if the missing CEO had donated to the other party? How disgusting and pathetic."

Fox News Digital indicated that commentator Noam Blum responded, "What the f*** is wrong with you?"

After removing the article from Twitter amid the backlash, the New Republic proceeded to run another piece, this time bemoaning the massive interest in the fate of the OceanGate Titan crew. Staff writer Alex Shephard suggested that the media has otherwise ignored the frequent maritime deaths of illegal immigrants in the Mediterranean, writing, "With luck, its passengers will be found alive. But it also showcases a press that will rapidly turn its attention to some issues while leaving other glaring omissions in its coverage."

The New Republic was not alone in mulling over the prospect of Republicans suffering in the briny depths.

Elie Mystal, a leftist MSNBC contributor and correspondent for the Nation, entertained the notion of conservative Supreme Court Justice Samuel Justice similarly sinking to the ocean floor, tweeting, "Next time some rich white person wants to take Sam Alito on an expensive trip, please take him to see the Titanic."

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