A well-known billionaire is reportedly planning a $10 million secret dive to the wreckage of the Titanic using a submersible.
This news comes two years after the OceanGate Titan sub imploded, claiming five lives, as it journeyed down to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.
But while the tragedy shocked the world, it seems it hasn’t put off some of the world’s wealthiest people from trying to catch a glimpse of the iconic ship for themselves.
According to reports, one billionaire is putting millions of dollars into his dream of seeing the Titanic.
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Speaking to the New York Post, Patrick Lahey, who is the CEO of Triton Submarines, a firm that is in the process of developing a brand new submersible for such excursions, said: “Besides it being a wreck of historical significance, the fact that it lies at such great depth makes it fascinating to visit.
“Titanic is a wreck that’s covered in marine life and soft coral. People want to go there for the same reason that they want to climb Mount Everest.”
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The $20 million sub is expected to be ready to launch as early as next year and will include an acrylic hull - as opposed to the Titan sub which had a carbon-fiber hull.
It has also been said that this new submersible will undergo rigorous testing to ensure it’s safe for dives to 13,100 feet.
A source informed the New York Post that a billionaire will be ‘going down to the Titanic’ as soon as in the next couple of weeks.
They added: “What I can tell you is that it’s a billionaire. You would recognize his name.”
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Rumors have also been swirling on social media, with a post on X, formerly Twitter, saying: “A well-known billionaire is reportedly diving to the Titanic wreck in a "couple weeks" using a submersible, two years after the OceanGate disaster.”
One user asked Grok which billionaire would be venturing down to the wreckage and the AI chatbot replied with: “The billionaire reportedly planning the Titanic dive is Larry Connor, an Ohio real estate investor. He's teaming up with Triton Submarines for the trip, expected soon, to demonstrate improved submersible safety post-OceanGate.”
OceanGate had previously sold its Titanic tours to tourists for a quarter of million dollars per seat.
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But the firm took on cost-cutting measures over safety, ultimately leading to the deaths of five people on June 18, 2023.
The people who lost their lives included OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, British billionaire Hamish Harding, French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, and Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his son Suleman.