The body of renowned Chinese cave diver Han Ting has been recovered from the depths of the Tianchuang flooded caves in the Guangxi Zhuang region in the south of the country, 18 days after he lost contact with his dive support team.
As reported on our sister site Divernet, fellow members of the Lanqi (Blue Flag) Diving Club that 47-year-old Han had founded launched a search and rescue mission, but stated after several days that no significant progress had been made because of the depth of the system, and then on 11 October, an ROV discovered the missing diver's body trapped between cave walls at 110m.
According to the emergency management bureau in Du'an, a smart underwater robot was used to retrieve Han's body yesterday (25 October) and bring it back to shore.
Located near Jiudun village in the upper reaches of the Chengjiang River Basin, the Tianchuang system, known as China’s ‘underwater Everest', consists of four flooded caves that have continued to be extended through diving exploration.
In April, Han had broken his own previous 234m record for deepest Asian cave dive with a 277m descent carried out over 12 hours, both dives at Tianchuang. He had also conducted a number of cave-rescue operations, including that of two trainees in the same system earlier this year. He had been planning to reach a world-record depth of 300m on 12 October while live-streaming his dive.
