OceanGate Co-Founder To Dive Into "Portal To Hell" Year After Titan Tragedy

The co-founder of OceanGate, which conducted a fatal excursion to the Titanic last year, is set to embark on a new journey. Guillermo Sohnlein plans to study a "virtually unexplored" sinkhole in the Bahamas, which is dubbed as "portal to hell" by the locals. According to New York Post, Mr Sohnlein plans to descend in a submersible into the Dean's Blue Hole, one of the world's deepest ocean sinkholes. He will be joined by scientist Kenny Broad and chief medical officer and former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, the outlet further said.

"Dean's Blue Hole remains virtually unexplored, offering an opportunity to discover the hidden secrets of cave-dwelling species, geological climate history and unique ecosystems," according to a page on the company's website.

Dean's Blue Hole is a 664-foot underwater cavern surrounded by a beach on a remote Bahaman island, according to Blue Marble. It formed some 15,000 years ago and, due to its extreme depth, very little is known about it.

The sinkhole is shaped like a vase with a narrow opening near the surface that leads to much wider water body below.

Scientists believe the chamber below is connected to the Atlantic Ocean, something that the company says will offer a "certain amount of unpredictability".

One of the biggest challenges will be to manage the pressure on the ocean floor, which will be considerably high as compared to the surface.

"We fully expect to find human remains and prepare to handle those situations with proper respect for the families," the Post quoted the company as saying. However, the date when the expedition will start has not been announced.

Mr Sohnlein founded OceanGate in 2009 with Stockton Rush - who was one of the five killed when the Titan submersible imploded last June - but left and started another deep-sea exploration company, Blue Marble Exploration.