A billionaire who is building a new submersible to dive to the Titanic wreck could be charging $750,000 a dive, The Independent can exclusively reveal.
Larry Connor wants to prove to the world that it can be done safely after the Titan submersible disaster claimed the lives of five people as they made their way to the wreck.
Connor is working with Patrick Lahey, the co-founder of Titan submersibles, who described the Titan submersible as a “contraption” said the June 2023 OceanGate expedition, which cost $250,0000 a head, was “predatory”.
The real estate billionaire is sinking $20 million into the project and the new Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer.
While it is not known when they plan to visit the wreck, a brochure for the company Triton Submarines explains that they offer “exclusive $750,000 per dive trips”.
The trips in question are to the Mariana Trench, the ocean’s deepest point, which is almost 11 kilometres (seven miles) below the surface.
This is significantly deeper than the Titanic wreck, which lies 3.8km (two and a half miles) below the North Atlantic.
Connor and Lahey, unlike OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who perished in last summer’s disaster, plan to obtain safety certifications for the new submersible.
Lahey actually knew one of the victims of the Titan disaster, Paul-Henri Nargeolet, 77, and said he tried to persuade him not go, as concerns had already been raised about the vessel’s safety.
“I tried to do everything I could to discourage him from going out there. I know many people that knew him did the same thing,” Lahey told BOAT.
Connor, who is also a certified astronaut, explained that the new submersible design has not been created until now as the technology did not exist even as recently as five years ago.
It is billed as being the deepest-diving acrylic submarine in the world, which can repeatedly reach depths of 4km.
“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.
“Patrick has been thinking about and designing this for over a decade. But we didn’t have the materials and technology,” Connor said. “You couldn’t have built this sub five years ago.”
Triton Submarines is not without accolades and their previous achievements, as listed on their commercial brochure include “the first manned dive to Titanic in 14 years” as well as the “deepest dive in the Atlantic ocean”.
The company, which has a range of other submarines, describes them as a great investment opportunity with a potential yield of £1m a month.
Titanic expert Paul-Henri Nargeolet died last June alongside OceanGate founder Stockton Rush, 61, Hamish Harding, 58, and Shahzada Dawood, 48, and Suleman Dawood, 19.
The company took eight hours to report the submersible as missing after it disappeared an hour and 45 minutes into its dive to the Titanic wreck.
What followed was an intense search and rescue mission as the authorities tried to locate the submersible before its limited oxygen supply ran out.
But shortly after this time, the remains of the vessel were discovered near the bow of the Titanic and authorities announced that it had suffered a “catastrophic implosion” that would have killed its occupants instantly.
The investigation into the disaster remains ongoing.
Triton Submarines subsequently confirmed to The Independent that they currently have no plans to offer commerical trips to the Titanic.
