Ohio billionaire Larry Connor wants to take a deep-sea submersible to the depths of the Titanic to show that the industry is safer after last year’s OceanGate implosion.
According to the New York Post, the real estate investor plans to plunge over 12,400 feet (2.3 miles) in a two-person submersible with Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey.
“I want to show people worldwide that while the ocean is extremely powerful, it can be wonderful and enjoyable and really kind of life-changing if you go about it the right way.”
Why Is Larry Connor So Confident?
The submersible is the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, which Connor reveals can repeatedly make the voyage.
“Patrick has been thinking about and designing this for over a decade. But we didn’t have the materials and technology… You couldn’t have built this sub five years ago.”
The duo want to prove that we can make the trek without incident–despite the Titan submersible’s implosion last June, killing everyone on board.
Some days after the incident, Larry Connor called Lahey and convinced him to make a better sub.
Lahey said:
“[He said], you know, what we need to do is build a sub that can dive to [Titanic-level depths] repeatedly and safely and demonstrate to the world that you guys can do that, and that Titan was a contraption.'”
Connor didn’t reveal when the voyage will happen.
Lahey criticized OceanGate of following questionable safety standards.