OceanGate co-founder to dive into 'virtually unexplored' blue hole a year after Titan sub tragedy
The former CEO and a co-founder of OceanGate, whose submersible imploded on a dive to the Titanic in June 2023 killing the five people on board, is now going to The Bahamas to discover a sinkhole with his new company saying its team will have to "expect the unexpected".
Guillermo Söhnlein and a team of two others is heading to Dean's Blue Hole with his new company Blue Marble Exploration, another deep-sea company, to explore what it describes as a "virtually unexplored" sinkhole 663ft deep.
It comes a year after the Titan submersible went missing, beginning an international ocean search.
A huge scale operation was launched but as days went on, hopes of finding the vessel faded and it was eventually found to have imploded.
An investigation is still ongoing into the incident.
But Söhnlein appears to be undeterred with his new venture as he gets ready to explore Dean's Blue Hole with scientist Kenny Broad and chief medical officer and former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski.
Dean's Blue Hole in The Bahamas (Christian Afonso, CC BY-SA 2.0)
The company said on its website: "To date, Dean's Blue Hole has been virtually unexplored. Venturing into uncharted waters, our team will have to 'expect the unexpected'."
Dean's Blue Hole is the third deepest blue hole in the world, according to the tourist office of The Bahamas.
According to Blue Marble Exploration, very little is yet known about the hole which formed more than 15,000 years ago.
It has a unique 'vase' configuration with a narrow opening near the surface relative to a much wider cavern chamber below - because of that, the team will be working in complete darkness.
The company said: "Locals believe that Dean's is a portal to hell and the Devil himself lurks in the black depths. Each year, several people drown in Dean's due to a variety of misfortunes.
"We fully expect to find human remains and prepare to handle those situations with proper respect for the families."
Dean's Blue Hole is also where the Vertical Blue Free Diving Competition is held where people travel from all around the world to see the free diver that can dive the deepest into the blue hole.
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