Larry Connor's $20M Submersible Mission to Titanic

A year after OceanGate imploded, Ohio millionaire Larry Connor intends to take a $20 million submersible to the Titanic site to demonstrate that industrial safety

Almost a year following the global catastrophe involving the OceanGate Titan submersible, a driven entrepreneur hopes to do the same journey.

In an attempt to demonstrate that the sector is safer in the wake of the tragic OceanGate vessel's implosion last year, real estate investor Larry Connor intends to descend with a deep-sea submersible to Titanic levels. In a two-person submersible, Larry and co-founder Patrick Lahey of Triton Submarines will descend more than 12,400 feet (2.3 miles) to the wreckage site.

“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.

According to Connor, Lahey has created a $20 million ship called the Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer that is capable of making the journey repeatedly. “Patrick has been thinking about and designing this for over a decade. But we didn't have the materials and technology” Connor remarked. “You couldn't have built this sub five years ago.”

The two stated their goal is to demonstrate that the journey can be completed without incident in spite of the Titan submersible's June implosion, which killed all five passengers, including Stockton Rush, the CEO of OceanGate. On June 18, the Titan had an unexpected “catastrophic implosion” while en route to the Titanic site. The Titan imploded beneath the weight of the Atlantic Ocean, instantaneously killing Rush, wealthy explorer Hamish Harding, French Titanic specialist Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Sulaiman.

A few days following the disaster, according to the New York Post, Connor called Lahey and pushed him to construct a better sub. Connor did not, however, specify the date of the expedition.