OceanGate co-founder reveals plans to go to ‘portal of hell’ one year after 5 people died on trip to Titanic

OceanGate's co-founder and former CEO Guillermo Söhnlein has announced the latest expedition from his new company, Blue Marble Exploration. Photo / OceanGate

It’s been just over a year since OceanGate’s Titan sub imploded and killed five people during an expedition to the wreckage of the Titanic.

Now, Oceangate’s co-founder and former CEO have announced plans for a voyage with his new company to a sinkhole in the Bahamas it referred to as a “portal to hell”.

Guillermo Sohnlein, who founded Oceangate in 2009 with Stockon Rush - one of the five killed during last year’s tragic Titanic excursion - now leads Blue Marble Exploration.

The new company, which aims to explore extreme climates, recently announced its Sapphire Abyss expedition to the “virtually unexplored” 202m-deep Dean’s Blue Hole.

Aerial top view of Dean's Blue Hole. Photo / 123rf

In contrast to the fatal Titan sub expedition, this venture is supposedly for science.

According to the company’s website, the initiative would result in “unprecedented findings” from what it claims would be the first comprehensive survey of the area.

It also offered “an opportunity to discover the hidden secrets of cave-dwelling species, geological climate history and unique ecosystems,” the website stated.

It added: “By exploring this mysterious blue hole, we aim to unlock new knowledge about marine ecosystems, Earth’s ancient climate, and potentially reveal undiscovered species”.

Sohnlein plans to travel there himself, along with scientist Kenny Broad and former NASA astronaut Scott Parazynski, the Daily Maili reported. The exact date of the voyage is unconfirmed.

Dean’s Blue Hole is the world’s deepest known saltwater blue hole. No one knows exactly how many people have lost their lives there, but it’s estimated to be between 130 to 200 people in recent years.

In a post on its website that has since been deleted, Blue Marble Exploration said: “Locals believe that Dean’s is a portal to hell and the Devil himself lurks in the black depths”

In July 2016, former Hawke’s Bay free diver William Trubridge successfully broke his own free dive world record and sunk to 102m down Dean’s Blue Hole in one breath.