oceangate

One year after the OceanGate submersible imploded in the North Atlantic Ocean, killing all on board, its cofounder is planning another adventure. This time, it is in the Bahamas.

Guillermo Söhnlein helped to found OceanGate with Stockton Rush– who died in the submersible implosion. Söhnlein left the company in 2013, retaining a minority stake, and founded Blue Marble Exploration.

Now, Blue Marble Exploration is venturing into Dean’s Blue Hole in Long Island, a sinkhole in the Bahamas using another submersible.

“Venturing into uncharted waters, our team will have to ‘expect the unexpected,'” its website reads.

Dean’s Blue Hole is some 663 feet deep and is the third deepest blue hole in the world. Blue Marble Expedition boasts that it “is an enigma for geologists studying underwater caverns.”

Söhnlein acknowledges that it may meet a few challenges as it descends into the deep hole, including currents, thermal layers, pressure, and visibility.

It is unknown what type of submersible will be used in the expedition since the minivan-sized vessel used by Rush imploded because it was made of carbon fiber composite, which could not withstand the immense pressure and cold due to the depth of the North Atlantic Ocean, some experts argued.

Rush used a video game controller to operate the submarine, which was missing for four days before it was found.

The five adventurers met their demise when they ventured to see the wreckage of the legendary passenger liner, the Titanic, nearly 13,000 feet below sea level. Officials later confirmed the craft imploded due to a “catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” instantly killing all people aboard and raising alarms about the safety of extreme tourism.

Rush once tested his vessel in Abaco, Bahamas five years before the implosion.

All five people onboard the submersible are believed to be dead after rescuers found debris “consistent with the catastrophic loss of the pressure chamber,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, the First Coast Guard District commander, said during a press briefing on Thursday, nearly five days after a desperate search for the vessel and crew.

What was found

The search for the crew and hopes that they would’ve been alive while bolted in the submersible, are dashed. It is believed the crew died aboard the 21-foot minivan-sized vessel operated by OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday operated by OceanGate Expeditions.

Attempts are now to recover the debris as researchers investigate why the vessel loss communications and imploded.

The big story

The submersible was never tested and approved for safety but it attempted to reach the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning, losing contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging, believed to have only a 96-hour oxygen supply. That amount of oxygen was predicted to run out on Thursday morning.

The missing Titan with five people aboard has mere hours left before oxygen is depleted in a race against time in a multinational search and rescue in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Rescuers are on their fifth day searching for the crew, hoping to find them alive since oxygen levels may be down by Thursday morning, depending on if the 21-foot vessel still has power and if the missing crew’s mental state is calm.

A Canadian search team using sonar buoys, reported hearing undersea noises on Tuesday and Wednesday but still could not locate the vessel. Experts still could not confirm the cause of the sound, but hoping it was the crew from the submersible.

Even if the Titan was located, retrieving it would be a huge logistical challenge.

The submersible left Sunday to visit the Titanic wreckage, but experts still do not know if it reached the site or if it’s still on the surface of the ocean. A rescue on the ocean floor would have to contend with the intense pressures and total darkness at that depth.  It may also be difficult to find the vessel aming the Titanic wreckage. If the submersible had managed to return to the surface, spotting it would be difficult in the open sea and it is bolted shut from the outside, so those inside cannot exit without help.

The latest development

• The French research ship L’Atalante which carries a robot is one of the vessels sent to help search efforts. The ROV has a capacity to descend to 6,000 metres and it is connected to its parent ship with a cable eight kilometres (4.9 miles) long.
• The United States Coast Guard expect to increase its surface vessel to 10 from the 5 it initally had, searching for Titan.
• The Titan is believed to be about 1,450km (900 miles) east and 640km south of Newfoundland.

The big picture

• The Titan is the size of a minivan and is operated by U.S.-based OceanGate Expeditions.
• It began its descent at 8 am on Sunday but lost contact with its support ship near the end of what should have been a two-hour dive to the century-old shipwreck.
• Pakistani and British nationals Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son Suleman, British adventurer Hamish Harding, OceanGate’s chief executive and founder Stockton Rush and French explorer Paul-Henri Nargeolet, are on the Titan.