An Ohio billionaire is determined to prove the industry is safer now by visiting the Titanic site in a submersible, months after the Titan submersible tragedy. Dayton real estate investor Larry Conner said he and Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey plan to travel more than 12,400 feet to the wreckage in a two-person submersible.
“I want to show the world that the ocean is very powerful, but if you approach it in the right way, it can also be amazing, fun and truly life-changing,” Connor told The Wall Street Journal.
Connor said the $20 million vessel, which will be capable of repeated voyages, was designed by Lahey and named the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer.
“What we need to do is [Titanic-level depths] Repeatedly and safely
“Patrick has been thinking about this and designing it for over 10 years, but we didn't have the materials or the technology,” Connor said. “We couldn't have built this submarine five years ago.”
The two were determined to show the world that such a voyage could be undertaken without disaster. The passengers of the Titan submersible died in a “catastrophic implosion” on June 18. The five passengers who died were Oceangate Expeditions CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French diver Paul-Henri Narjolet, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Daud and her son Suleiman.
Connor said he called Lahey days after the tragedy and asked him to build a new, better submarine.[He said]What we need to do is build a submarine that can dive. [Titanic-level depths] “You have to launch safely and repeatedly to show the world that you can do it and that Titan is an incredible machine,” Lahey said.
Lahey was among several critics in the deep-sea exploration industry who questioned OceanGate's safety standards, calling Rush's approach “fairly predatory.” At this point, it's unclear when Lahey and Conner's voyage will take place.
