A friend of the billionaire on the missing OceanGate Expeditions submarine in the North Atlantic Ocean canceled his previously booked trip on the vessel due to safety concerns.
Chris Brown (pictured above, right — not to be confused with that Chris Brown) is a 61-year-old multimillionaire in digital marketing. Brown is also a very close friend of Hamish Harding, the 58-year-old aviation broker billionaire (pictured above, left) who is one of the five men in a sub lost in the Atlantic Ocean right now. As it turns out, Brown turned down the expedition after becoming concerned about its safety several years ago.
Related: Missing Titanic Tourist Sub Billionaire’s Last Text Revealed
As we’ve been reporting, rescuers are frantically searching for Harding and four others — OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, professional diver Paul-Henri Nargeolet, businessman Shahzada Dawood, and his teenage son Suleman Dawood — as they are in the missing submersible and quickly running out of breathable oxygen.
For Brown, that was apparently always a concern. The thrill seeker spoke to The Sun on Tuesday about how he and Harding both first agreed to go on OceanGate’s Titanic expedition way back in 2016. Brown and Harding were hanging out on Sir Richard Branson‘s private island that year when they agreed to sign up for the OceanGate mission over “a few beers.” They each plunked down a few thousand pounds as a deposit and waited until the sub was ready to roll. Brown said:
“I was one of the first people to sign up for this trip with OceanGate while the submersible was being developed.”
But according to Brown, over the years, OceanGate repeatedly missed deadlines while putting together the Titan deep sea submarine. Along with the delays, the digital marketing tycoon became concerned the firm was “cutting too many corners” while building the specialized submarine.
Related: Stepson Of Titanic Tourist Sub Billionaire Boasts About Seeing Blink-182 Amid Search
Brown explained that he was first put off by the fact that a modified Logitech-brand video game controller was used to steer the ship. You know, the kind you buy because it’s cheaper than the official PlayStation one. Brown explained:
“I found out they used old scaffolding poles for the sub’s ballast, and its controls were based on computer game-style controllers. If you’re trying to build your own submarine you could probably use old scaffold poles. But this was a commercial craft.”
Yikes…
After watching how the submarine was coming together over the next few years after plunking down his 2016 deposit, Brown pulled out:
“Eventually I emailed them and said, ‘I’m no longer able to go on this thing.’ I asked for a refund after being less than convinced. … We decided the risks were too high in this instance, even though I’m not one to shy away from risk.”
“The risks were too high.” Jeez. That’s quite the quote.
Related: Sonar Detects Eerie ‘Banging Sounds’ From Ocean During Search For Missing Sub
As for his friend Hamish, Chris explained he’s worried about the aviation broker and the rest of the men locked in the submersible — but hopes his friend will help calm the others:
“I feel really upset about Hamish. He’s an extremely easy guy to get along with. One thing’s for certain, Hamish isn’t the sort of fellow to panic. He’ll be extremely calm and will be processing plans, schemes and ideas through his enormous brain. I fully expect he’ll be a calming influence on the others in the sub, and will be giving them hope.”
We can only hope that’s the case.
And we continue to send our well wishes to the five people missing in that submarine now as the Royal Canadian Air Force, the US Coast Guard, and other entities continue to look for them…
[Image via OceanGate Expeditions/YouTube/Hamish Harding/Instagram/BBC/Twitter]
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