Billionaire Going on a 2-Person Dive to the Titanic to Prove the Industry Is 'Safe'

The impact of the completely preventable tragedy will continue to rock the small but very profitable niche of the industry. Triton and one Ohio billionaire are hoping it won't be for much longer, though, so they're working on sending a 2-person $20 million submarine to that same spot.

The goal is even more ambitious than that. Using the latest, most advanced, and probably most expensive submarine from Triton, the billionaire and Triton's founder will head down to the wreck of the Titanic first, with that dive serving as the first of many.

In the process, the pair will show that the industry of luxury subs is a "safe" one despite the much publicized implosion of Titan and all the apparent corner-cutting it revealed.

An ambitious goal

That billionaire is Larry Connor, an adventurer like few others in the world. A successful investor and real estate manager, Connor is also a certified aircraft pilot and racecar driver, and every other thing in between. He's been to Le Mans, he spent more than 17 days in space on the ISS (International Space Station), and he has done more deep dives than he has fingers on his hands to count them.

Connor holds several world records, including that of flying to space and then diving to the bottom of the ocean within 12 months, but he's not doing this for the accolades. When word got out that Titan, OceanGate's experimental, unclassed submersible had imploded after what was described as a catastrophic failure as it reached the wreck of the Titanic, Connor was the first one to not doubt the industry of luxury subs.

In fact, days after the tragedy, he called Patrick Lahey, the co-founder and CEO of Triton Submarines, with a hard-to-turn-down proposal: let's prove everyone wrong!

"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'," Lahey says in a new interview.

Connor himself is very direct about the goal of this new mission. "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," he says for the same media outlet, when contacted by phone.

Titan imploding was a preventable and predictable tragedy. Lahey himself was vocally critical of the sub and the company that made it, OceanGate, saying its founder was "predatory" in the way he did business and chose to cut corners to make a profit. Titan, unlike Triton submarines or similar subs from U-Boat Worx, was unclassed and experimental in both nature and nomenclature. That made it unsafe and ultimately destroyed it.

The Abyssal Explorer, a $20 million submarine with no other competitor

The difference between an unclassed and a classed sub is that the latter has been certified as safe for dives through rigorous and repeated testing, under the careful watch of international bodies. Titan was experimental in everything from the approach to diving, its shape, tech, and the materials used for the construction.

It was also a submersible and not a submarine, which meant that it dove "blind" and received coordinates from the mothership on the surface.

Opting to operate it as an experimental vessel meant OceanGate could do away with wait times for certification and take tourists onboard as long as they signed a waiver that clearly stated they could be killed in the experiment – which it did and which sadly turned out to be the case.

At the opposite end is a submarine like the Abyssal Explorer from Triton, which will be making repeated dives to the Titanic wreck sometime in the future. Its full name is Triton 4000/2 Abyssal Explorer, where the "4000" stands for the depth it can reach (the Titanic sits at 3,800 meters/12,500 feet on the ocean floor) and the number of people it can carry.

On that first mission, those two people will be Connor and Lahey.

Triton describes the $20 million as the "world's deepest diving acrylic sub" as it's equipped with the patented "optically perfect" hull with the acrylic bubble that makes Triton subs the perfect choice for filmmakers. As a side note, Oscar-winning director and explorer James Cameron is a shareholder in Triton and had used their subs before becoming a partner – including in the production of the Titanic film.

The Abyssal Explorer comes equipped with Direct Dive technology, which allows it to dive "heavy," meaning it will start its descent as soon as it's launched, reducing the time it spends on the surface. Reaching maximum depth takes just two hours, which might seem a lot to anyone else not involved in this industry, but it is actually record time for a sub.

The latest sub from Titan also features Silent Glide, which allows for "gentle, sweeping turns" that are ideal for filmmaking and enable the sub to follow invertebrates without disturbing them. Abyssal Explorer can also glide towards a target while descending, hover in place, and track an object without using thrusters. This allows it to explore the underwater world with minimally perceived disturbance.

Unlike Titan, the Abyssal Explorer will entail an extended timeframe, allowing for testing and certification. Though Lahey and Connor are just now breaking the news to the world about their plans, they've been working on the project for at least the past three years. The 2021 video below shows what looks like an early version of the sub in action.

As of this writing, there's no available timeline for the completion of the Abyssal Explorer or its first Titanic dive.