Authorities are attempting to locate the remains of the Titan submersible, which imploded in the depths of the Atlantic Ocean this week, killing all five people on board.
The vessel—which several experts have said had a shoddy design that put passengers at severe risk of death—went missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, on June 18 as it took paying customers to see the wreck of the Titanic.
Now YouTube sensation MrBeast has revealed, in a social media post on Sunday, that earlier this month he had declined an invitation to join a dive on the ill-fated Titan.
He did not specify whether the dive he was invited on was this month’s doomed expedition. OceanGate, the company behind the dive, has been operating commercial dives to the remains of the Titanicsince 2021.
“I said no,” MrBeast wrote on Sunday of the invitation he’d received. “Kind of scary that I could have been on it.”
I was invited earlier this month to ride the titanic submarine, I said no. Kind of scary that I could have been on it pic.twitter.com/bQUnaRiczA
— MrBeast (@MrBeast) June 25, 2023
It is unclear who allegedly invited MrBeast (né Jimmy Donaldson) to join the Titan expedition.
Some Twitter users pointed out, however, that he had shared an image that appeared to show a sent message—not one that had been received—making many skeptical about his story.
On Apple’s iMessage service, sent messages are colored blue, like the message Donaldson shared online.
The YouTuber responded to accusations that he was “making up” his story by insisting that his friend had sent him a screenshot of the invitation following news of the Titan’ s fate, meaning his post showed the conversation from his friend’s perspective.
With 163 million subscribers, Donaldson is the most-followed creator on YouTube. As well as finding success with videos of himself counting to 100,000 and tipping a delivery driver with a house, the 25-year-old has established himself as a philanthropist and entrepreneur in the food industry.
Other rejected offers
Donaldson isn’t the only person to have spoken out about rejecting an offer of a seat aboard the Titan before it embarked on its final dive.
Chris Brown, a millionaire digital marketing executive, has spoken out about how he pulled out of the vessel’s ill-fated dive after paying the deposit because he feared OceanGate was “cutting too many corners.” Brown said alarm bells started ringing for him when he discovered that the submersible had been constructed with old scaffolding poles and would be steered with a $29.99 battery-powered gaming controller.
Meanwhile, investor Jay Bloom and his 20-year-old son told CNN on Saturday that they’d given up their seats on the Titan just weeks before it met its disastrous end. The pair said they’d decided not to join the voyage owing to concerns about how safe the vessel was.
Their seats ultimately went to U.K.-based businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman, who were among those killed on the Titan when the sub imploded.