Missing Titanic Submersible: Billionaire Chris Brown Says He Pulled Out of Voyage Over Safety Concerns

• Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown is counting his lucky stars as he would easily have been among the thrill-seekers currently trapped under the Atlantic ocean
• He disclosed that he was among the first people to sign up for the OceanGate Titanic voyage and even paid 10% deposit but pulled out along the way
• Brown says he opted out of the trip after noticing that the company was not only "cutting too many corners" but also using low quality technology

Billionaire Chris Brown has disclosed that he was meant to be among the thrill-seekers aboard the OceanGate Titan vessel that went missing under the water.

He disclosed that he intended to join billionaire friend Hamish Harding but decided against the voyage after realising that OceanGate Expeditions was 'cutting too many corners.'

Risks were too high

Daily Mail records that the 61-year-old had even paid a 10% deposit before changing his mind and requesting a refund.

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According to him, he was concerned about the quality of technology and materials used in the vessel, among them old scaffolding poles.

Brown added that despite being one of the first people to sign for the journey of a lifetime, the fact that the vessel's controls were 'based on computer game-style controllers' made him worried.

Apart from that, the multi-millionaire digital marketing tycoon was put off by the extended technical issues and delays during the submarine's development process.

Brown sad about missing friend Harding

He expressed his sadness at the fact that his friend Harding is among those who are still lost at sea with hopes of them being found alive dwindling.

The submersible lost communication with its mother ship during a dive to explore the remains of the Titanic which lie around 12,500ft below the Atlantic ocean.

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As of the time of filing this report, rescue operations were still underway to locate and, hopefully, rescue the explorers on doomed vessel.

According to Brown, him and Harding signed up for the $250,000 (KSh 32 million) voyage after sharing a 'few beers' while on holiday on Sir Richard Branson's Necker Island.

OceanGate ran out of oxygen

Meanwhile, the fate of five passengers aboard the submersible remains unknown as the vessel has now run out of oxygen.

Reports indicate that the capsule, which was being driven using a video game controller, had a 96-hour oxygen supply.

Those trapped include Titanic explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani Shahzada Dawood, his son Sulaiman (19), British Hamish Harding, and the submersible's CEO Stockton Rush.

2 FUTA students drown during entrepreneurship training in fish pond

The entire community of Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) was thrown into a state of mourning after two 300-level students of the prestigious university drowned in a fish pond during their entrepreneurial training.

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The two students were identified as Olabiyi Emmanuel of the department of Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (AEE) and Olokun Babtunde Alex in Project Management Technology (PMT).

According to the statement issued by the school’s student union president and PRO, the incident happened at the Fishery and Aquaculture pond located behind Great Hall in Obakekere.

Source: TUKO.co.ke