COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – An Ohio billionaire is reportedly planning to take a deep-sea submersible to the Titanic to prove a point.
Larry Connor, a Dayton entrepreneur and the founder of real estate investment firm The Connor Group, plans to plunge more than 12,400 feet to the site of the Titanic in a two-person submersible with Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey, according to the New York Post.
The announcement comes after an OceanGate vessel imploded last year, killing all five passengers on board, including OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. After the implosion, the company suspended operations.
Now, Connor plans to embark on a deep-sea trip to prove the personal-sub industry is safe. The duo will dive to the site in a $20 million vessel called the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, which Triton Submarine’s website calls “the world’s deepest diving acrylic sub.”
“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.
A few days after the OceanGate tragedy, Connor called Lahey and urged him to build a better submersible that can dive to Titanic-level depths repeatedly and safely, the New York Post reports. The submersible the pair plans to use can dive as deep as 4,000 meters, and the Titanic sits at 3,800 meters.
“Patrick has been thinking about and designing this for over a decade, but we didn’t have the materials and technology,” Connor said. “You couldn’t have built this sub five years ago.”
On June 18, the OceanGate submersible called the “Titan” vanished during an attempted dive to view the remains of the Titanic. Four days later, the U.S. Coast Guard announced debris was found suggesting the missing submersible imploded.
Years before the disaster, a former OceanGate pilot claimed in court papers he was fired after raising concerns about the sub’s ability to handle the voyage. After the implosion, some former passengers shared their experiences that consisted of safety issues and communication failures.
Connor is known for his explorations to the Mariana Trench and the International Space Station. He has a net worth of $2 billion, and his real-estate company owns and invests in luxury properties in multiple cities, including Dayton, Cincinnati, and Columbus.
He did not specify when his voyage to the Titanic would take place.