Ohio Billionaire Aims to Prove Safe Titanic Expedition with New Submersible
- IndiaGlitz, [Tuesday,May 28 2024]
Ohio real estate investor Larry Connor wants to prove that Titanic-level deep-sea missions are safe even a year after the Titan submersible tragedy. The New York Post reports that Connor and Triton Submarines co-founder Patrick Lahey will dive 12,400 feet to the Titanic shipwreck site in a cutting-edge submersible.
Connor told The Wall Street Journal, 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.
The $20 million Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, developed by Connor, can reach 4,000 meters. Patrick has been planning and designing this for over a decade. We lacked supplies and technology. You couldn't build this sub five years ago Connor said.
LAhey said Connor called him quickly after the Titan sub collapse to urge him to design a safe and trustworthy submersible. 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, he remarked.
Lahey has often criticized OceanGate, the Titan's manufacturer, for weak safety requirements. His post-implosion assessment of OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush was quite predatory. Titan passengers signed a waiver calling the ship experimental and citing many risks.
The Titan submersible catastrophe killed British adventurer Hamish Harding, French submarine expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet, Pakistani-British billionaire Shahzada Dawood, his son Suleman, and OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush. Expeditions by OceanGate have ended.
Five-day search yielded putative human remains and damaged debris from the Titan submarine. The Titanic's debris field was found 1,600 feet from its bow, ending a difficult rescue. The Titanic is 400 miles off Newfoundland, two miles below the surface.