An Ohio billionaire is planning a deep sea voyage to explore the remains of the Titanic, despite the implosion that cost the lives of five men last summer.
A spokesman for Larry Connor confirmed that the billionaire is partnering with Patrick Lahey, co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines, to build a vessel and return to the Titanic in the summer of 2026.
Connor, a real estate investor from Ohio, reportedly wants to build a submarine that can withstand the depths in order to visit the historic Titanic.
He reportedly told Lahey that he wanted to “demonstrate to the world that you guys can do that.”
“I want to show people 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 said.
A spokesperson for Connor told Fox News that he aims to “demonstrate the feasibility of constructing and operating a never-before-built, one-of-a-kind submarine capable of deep-sea exploration.”
OceanGate, the company that operated the submarine believed to have imploded in the North Atlantic Ocean, said that the CEO Stockton Rush opted for “inspiration” crew members over “a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys” when envisioning the voyage.
“When I started business… other sub operators [were] out there but they typically [had] gentlemen who are ex-military submariners… a whole bunch of 50-year-old white guys,” Rush told technology company Teledyne Marine in 2020.
“I wanted our team to be younger, to be inspirational… [A] 25-year-old who’s a sub pilot or a platform operator or one of our techs can be inspirational,” Rush stated, adding that he wanted his team to “have a variety of different backgrounds.”
Rush was on board the Titan submersible vessel that went missing while on an expedition to view the Titanic.
Other passengers on the vessel included British adventurer Hamish Harding, Titanic expert Paul-Henry Nargeolet, and Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman, who are members of a Pakistani business family.
