Ohio billionaire has aimed at exploring the deepwater Titanic site to prove that the “industry is safer” after the OceanGate scandal.
Real estate investor Larry Connor confirmed that Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey will go 12,400 feet deep to see a shipwreck deep in the sea.
“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,” Connor told the Wall Street Journal.
Lahey has developed a $20 million vessel with the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, which can be taken for a journey repeatedly.
“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,” Connor said.
After the OceanGate scandal, Connor urged Lahey to build a better submarine.
“[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,’” Lahey added.
On June 18, 2023, OceanGate’s Titan submersible imploded during an expedition to view the Titanic wreckage, killing all five passengers on board.
Read more
‘Similar tragedies’: Titanic movie director James Cameron reacts to submarine catastrophe
Documents reveal multiple concerns raised over safety of Titan sub
