WASHINGTON — Nearly one year after five people were killed when their submersible imploded on a journey to see the wreckage of the Titanic, an Ohio billionaire has announced plans for a voyage to the historic shipwreck.
Real estate magnate Larry Connor, 74, contacted the co-founder of Tritan Submarines, Patrick Lahey, shortly after the OceanGate tragedy and implored him to build a submersible able to reach the seafloor repeatedly and safely, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Lahey was among the industry figures who criticized OceanGate before and after the June 2023 disaster that killed everyone in the vessel, including CEO and pilot Stockton Rush. In the aftermath, Lahey said Rush was on a "predatory" mission to gain support from influential people and described the Titan submersible that imploded as "a monstrosity."
Connor told The New York Times this week that he and Lahey are not just taking a trip to the Titan, but instead going on a "research mission."
“The other purpose is to demonstrate to people around the globe that you can build a revolutionary, first-of-its-kind sub and dive it safely and successfully to great depths,” he said to the New York Times.
According to the outlet, the pair is aiming for the voyage to happen sometime in summer 2026 on a two-person submersible that Triton is still designing. Connor and Lahey previously completed three dives in five days in the Mariana Trench in 2021. In 2022, Connor was part of SpaceX's first private charter flight to the International Space Station.