A famous underwater cave explorer died last week during an expedition inside a Texas cave where he had set a world record a decade earlier.
The body of 56-year-old Brett Hemphill was brought back to the surface from Phantom Springs Cave in Toyahvale Sunday, four days after he went missing in the dangerous cave, his company Karst Underwater Research announced.
Hemphill and company director Andy Pitkin entered the cave around 10:45pm Wednesday to explore a potential new route in the complex underwater system starting at 450 feet below the surface.
The couple separated shortly after the trip and Hemphill never reappeared.
He was last seen on video tying a guideline to a 570-foot-deep rock, KUR said.
Brett Hemphill died last week during an underwater expedition inside Phantom Springs Cave in Texas. Facebook Hemphill was with Karst Underwater Research director Andy Pitkin when he went missing. Facebook.
KUR Hemphill’s own colleagues found and recovered Hemphill’s body four days later from the cave system, although it is still unclear how the record-breaking diver lost his life.
“Once we get all the information and analyze it, we will issue a statement on the incident that will answer everyone’s questions,” Pitkin said in a statement. “Until then, please give us some time to accept his loss, because until now we are focused on recovery.”
Hemphill was last seen 570 feet below sea level in a cave when he was separated from Pitkin.ADM Exploration Foundation
Hemphill and KUR’s team set the nation’s underwater cave record in 2008 after reaching a depth of 407 feet at Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida — later finding it to be the deepest naturally formed spring in the country, according to his company biography.
Hemphill broke his own record just five years later while exploring Phantom Springs. He made it just over 465 feet below the surface and 8,000 feet behind the cave, also revealing that it is the deepest underwater cave ever measured in the US.
President KUR and his team have been working in the complex cave system since their discovery, along with Texas A&M University’s Department of Marine Biology, to research Phantom Spring’s natural species.
Hemphill has set the country’s underwater cave record on two separate occasions.Facebook
During one of the explorations, they discovered a deeper underwater cave sector.
Hemphill serves as president of Florida-based KUR, a renowned cave diving nonprofit specializing in exploring, mapping and documenting deep underwater systems in Florida, Texas and Missouri, as well as overseas in the Bahamas, Dominican Republic and Mexico.
Categories: Trending
Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
