A billionaire real estate investor from Dayton, Ohio plans to take a two-person submersible designed by Triton Submarines to the wreck of the Titanic.
He aims to demonstrate that safe exploration of the site is possible, in response to the recent tragedy where an OceanGate vessel imploded killing all five crew.
“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,” real estate investor Larry Connor said.
The investor contacted Triton co-founder Patrick Lahey after the accident to construct a capable submarine that can repeatedly dive to Titanic depths safely.
“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.
“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 said.
Costing $20 million, the Triton 4000/2 is a state-of-the-art vessel that proponents argue current materials and technologies have now enabled safe exploration, in contrast to criticisms of the doomed OceanGate submersible’s design and lack of key certifications.
