Article Summary:

cnet news reports that Richard Branson, owner of Virgin, has announced plans to visit the deepest places in the oceans. In a press conference in Newport Beach, CA. Branson announced his Virgin Oceanic and Five Dives initiatives, which could send a Virgin-branded DeepFlight Challenger, a submersible built by Hawkes Ocean Technologies, to the deepest spots in each of the planet’s five oceans. The dives are: The Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench, the Atlantic Ocean’s Puerto Rico Trench, the Indian Ocean’s Diamantina Trench, the Southern Ocean’s South Sandwich Trench and the Arctic Ocean’s Molloy Deep.

Explorer Chris Welch will be behind the controls of the DeepFlight Challenger for the dive to the Mariana Trench, while Branson himself will pilot the submersible to the Puerto Rico Trench.