YouTuber MrBeast has claimed he was invited on the doomed Titan submersible that imploded on its way down to see the Titanic.
MrBeast shared a text in a Twitter post on Sunday that appears to show that he was asked to be on the vessel for a mission to see the famous wreck.
‘I was invited earlier this month to ride the titanic submarine, I said no,’ he wrote. ‘Kind of scary that I could have been on it.’
The Titan sub vanished shortly after it launched on Sunday, sparking a days long search for the vessel and five people on board.
On Thursday, after their 96-hour supply of oxygen was believed to had run out, pieces of the sub were found on the ocean floor, leading officials to believe it had ‘catastrophically imploded.’
OceanGate founder and CEO Stockton Rush was killed aboard the American company’s submersible, along with prominent British Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman Dawood, British adventurer Hamish Harding, and French Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet.
The Titanic Five – who paid $250,000 each for the fatal ride – were killed instantly when the submersible suffered a ‘catastrophic implosion’ just 1,600ft from the bow of the wrecked ocean liner, the US Coast Guard announced on Thursday.
MrBeast, whose real name is Jimmy Donaldson, claimed on Sunday it was scary to think he could have been one of those passengers.
The 25-year-old is the world’s richest YouTuber, with an estimated net worth of more than $500million.
He is is also the channel’s ‘biggest philanthropist’. His viral videos are based on extravagant stunts in which he offers lavish gifts to unwitting members of the public.
Donaldson himself has credited his success to innovative thinking and calculated risk-taking.
He also has an eye for new opportunities and brand deals, expanding his YouTube empire into the food and drink sector.
It started small, giving away cash prizes to members of his community, but quickly gathered momentum and by 2018 he was donating $100,000 worth of products to a homeless shelter.
He has since repeated the dose to an Uber driver, a waitress, and people in parking lots.
In one video, he dropped $20,000 out of a drone and gave a pizza man the house he was delivering to as a tip.
Gareth Boyd, head of growth at Finty.com, says Donaldson outgrew other YouTubers because his stunts, which are not confined to charitable acts, ‘were totally and utterly different to anything else anyone was doing’.
‘Going to a football training ground and seeing who can hold onto an airplane the longest – what other TV show does that?’ he added.
One recent project includes MrBeast Burger, a delivery service that sold more than a million burgers before Donaldson had even uploaded a video.
He has also launched smartphone apps, started video game tournaments and landed a deal with Walmart to sell his chocolate bar Feastables.