Legendary diver dies in deepest underwater cave in US he set record in just a decade ago
Brett Hemphill's body has been found four days after the renowned diver went missing in the deepest underwater cave in the US.
Hemphill was a recording-breaking diver and was exploring the Phantom Springs Cave in Toyahvale, Texas.
He entered the cave with his Karst Underwater Research (KUR) co-founder Andy Pitkin on Wednesday (October 4), but Hemphill failed to return.
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It is believed they were exploring a potential new path in the complex underwater system starting at 450 feet below surface level.
Hemphill and Pitkin separated soon after going underwater, and tragically Hemphill never resurfaced.
In light of this, his KUR colleagues went in to look for the 56-year-old and managed to bring his body back to the surface four days later.
A statement issued by KUR explained when Hemphill was last seen.
"On October 4th, Brett Hemphill failed to return from an exploratory cave dive," it read, as per the company's Facebook page.
"The dive with Andy Pitkin began at 10:45 AM on Wednesday morning to explore a lead starting in 450 feet of water at about 7300 feet of penetration."
"He can be seen on video tying off the guideline on a rock at 570 feet and the team subsequently became separated. Brett never returned from the dive.
"Currently the team's full focus is to recover Brett safely from a depth of over 450 feet and over a mile into this underwater cave. That effort will involve a number of recovery divers travelling thousands of miles to assist.
"All cave recovery divers are self supported - there are no organizations that fund those efforts. Cave diver recoveries are logistically difficult and this one is especially so."
Then, in an update shared on October 10, the KUR team confirmed they'd recovered Hemphill's body.
"Brett has been returned to the surface and enough donations were received to cover the expense of Brett's recovery," they said.
"Any remaining balance from this fundraiser will be used to assist in bringing Brett home to his family and helping with associated costs."
A GoFundMe has also been created to help cover Hemphill's funeral expenses and, at the time of writing, $3,600 has already been raised.
Hemphill set a number of records over his life, one being in 2008 when he and the rest of his KUR team set the deep-underwater cave record after reaching a depth of 407 feet in Florida’s Weeki Wachee Springs.
Five years later he broke his own record while exploring Phantom Springs after he made it just over 465 feet below the surface and 8,000 feet back in the cave.
Niamh Shackleton