
Like the rest of the world, Jay and Sean Bloom spent the last week watching the unfolding Titanic submersible tragedy.
They saw photos of those missing on the news and held hope for their survival.
But unlike the rest of the world, the father and son were supposed to be on the submersible travelling to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to view the Titanic wreck.
However, a last-minute decision saw them give up their seats.
"The past week has been quite surreal for us," Jay, a Las Vegas investor, told The Sunday Project.
"It's very strange when my son and I were supposed to have been on that trip and elected not to go."
Jay was initially excited to take his 20-year-old son, Sean, an "enormous" Titanic fan, on the expedition to the 1912 wreck, located off the coast of Canada.
But safety concerns saw them pull out and "substituted by another father and son".
"The son [was] about the same age as my son, and it’s been a rollercoaster," said Jay.
"I would see pictures of these people, and see pictures of the father and the son, and all I could think of was but for the grace of God, there go me and my son.
"That would be my picture, and our picture, instead of the picture I’m looking at, so [it's been] a very harrowing, very haunting experience."
19-year-old Suleman Dawood (left) and his father Shahzada (right) were among those on board the sub. Image: AAP/Facebook.