In June last year, five people died while trying to visit the wreck of the Titanic at a depth of about 4,000 metres. The submarine exploded and its passengers had no chance of surviving the accident.

A few days after the implosion, the phone of American submarine designer Patrick Haley, co-founder of Triton Submarines, rang. On the other end of the line was Ohio’s Larry Connor, who made his billions as a real estate mogul.

“He said, ‘What we have to do is build a submarine that can repeatedly and safely dive to the depths of the Titanic,'” Haley told the American newspaper. The Wall Street Journal. “We have to show the world that you can do it and that Titan was a strange invention.”

Submarine for two

Now Connor and Hailey want to make the trip to the famous shipwreck together in a two-person submarine, the Triton 4000/2 Absyssal Explorer. The submarine is expected to cost about $20 million (more than €18 million). The number 4000 in the submarine’s name represents how deep the boat can dive.

According to Connor, the two don’t make overnight decisions about their design. “Patrick had been thinking about this for more than 10 years, but we didn’t have the materials and technology. It would not have been possible to build this submarine five years ago.”

Life changes

He is not afraid that the same fate awaits him as his predecessors. “I want to show people around the world that although the ocean is very powerful, it can be beautiful, fun and truly life-changing if you treat it the right way,” Connor told the newspaper.

It is not yet known when the two will visit the Titanic.