January 1, Ohio Billionaire’s Daring Titanic Venture Defies Deep-Sea Submersible Tragedy

Ohio billionaire Larry Connor plans to tour the Titanic wreckage in a deep-sea submersible. This comes just a year after a similar vessel imploded at the site. Connor, a real estate investor, will make the voyage more than 12,000 feet deep alongside Patrick Lahey, co-founder of Triton Submarines.

Lahey discussed Connor’s motivation, saying, “We had a client, a wonderful man. He called me up and 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.’”

Connor wants 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.” He continued, “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.”

The two plan to journey in a $20 million submersible, the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, capable of diving to 4,000 meters. The Titanic lies 3,800 meters below the ocean’s surface.

Tragedy struck last June when an OceanGate submersible imploded while descending to view the Titanic. All five people onboard, including the CEO, were killed due to extreme pressures at that depth.

David Lochridge, a former Royal Navy submersible pilot and engineer, had raised concerns about the submersible design. He found numerous issues with the vessel but was reportedly dismissed and later fired.

Lochridge confided his fears to Rob McCallum, co-founder of Eyos Expeditions, saying, “There’s no way on earth you could have paid me to dive the thing. … I don’t want to be seen as a tattle tale, but I’m so worried he kills himself and others in the quest to boost his ego.”

OceanGate’s director of finance and administration resigned due to a lack of trust in the CEO. She noted that several of the company’s engineers were in their late teens and early twenties.

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