One dead, one critical after 20 hours in cave - Spain

[DandyDon]

Underwater hell: Man trapped for 20h in cave - The Local

A man remains in critical condition after he found himself trapped in an underwater cave for 20 hours with only a small air pocket to keep him alive.

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One man has died and another remains in critical condition after the pair found themselves trapped in an underwater cave in Spain's Catalonia region.
Three divers, aged in the 50s and 60s, had been diving just north of the Catalan port of L'Estartit on Saturday when they found themselves trapped in the cave , Spain's El Periódico newspaper reported.
One of the men managed to escape and informed emergency services who rushed to the scene.
Divers with Spain's Civil Guard police force found one of the men had already died.
The other diver, however, had managed to find an air bubble, and was "hanging onto life by a thread", police said.
A difficult rescue followed, with heavy seas meaning police divers were forced to submerge 12 times in a bid to extricate the man from the cave.
The man was finally rescued at 5pm on Sunday after being trapped for 20 hours.
The search for the deceased man has been postponed until Monday because of difficult conditions.
It is not yet known how the two men became trapped.

 

[TN-Steve]

I don't think that I can imagine many things more terrifying.

 

[TONY CHANEY]

Damn!

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Twenty hours is a long time to have your lips pressed to a cave ceiling breathing crap gas in absolute dark, waiting for hypoxia or hypercapnia to drop you back under the water for good. But I bet it didn't feel as long as the few minutes of consciousness the other guy had, knowing the whole time he was trapped in a flooded, rock-walled tomb with not a single thing to breathe.

 

[boulderjohn]

One man remains in critical condition after he found himself trapped in an underwater cave for 20 hours with only a small air pocket to keep him alive. One man has died and another remains in critical condition after the pair found themselves trapped in an underwater cave in Spain's Catalonia region.

So these divers "found themselves" trapped in an underwater cave. The wording is so interesting. No one is at fault when you just "find yourself" in a bad situation. It somehow just happened.

Actually, as a former teacher of journalism, I suspect the wording was carefully chosen to avoid any wording suggesting something that is not clearly known for sure.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

So these divers "found themselves" trapped in an underwater cave. The wording is so interesting. No one is at fault when you just "find yourself" in a bad situation. It somehow just happened.

Actually, as a former teacher of journalism, I suspect the wording was carefully chosen to avoid any wording suggesting something that is not clearly known for sure.

Hey, mistakes were made

 

[DandyDon]

The original accident reporting was probably done in Spanish, and confusion may have developed in translation.

Twenty hours is a long time to have your lips pressed to a cave ceiling breathing crap gas in absolute dark, waiting for hypoxia or hypercapnia to drop you back under the water for good. But I bet it didn't feel as long as the few minutes of consciousness the other guy had, knowing the whole time he was trapped in a flooded, rock-walled tomb with not a single thing to breathe.

It's damned fortunate that one of them escaped on his own to find the rescuers for the other survivor. I'm sure the whole story is an interesting one, but wonder if we'll ever get it?

 

[iamrushman]

wow......incredible..

 

[Redshift]

In the area there are several touristic caves, in the Medes Islands, and I was fearing it had been there, but it wasn't.
I don't know this cave, but it appears to be in the mainland.

Here are the news in Spanish.

[h=1]Muere un submarinista al quedar atrapado en una cueva en L'Estartit[/h] [h=2]Los equipos de rescate logran sacar a un segundo hombre, que se encuentra en estado muy crítico[/h]

ACN / Torroella de Montgrí

Domingo, 20 de julio del 2014 - 18.36 h
Un submarinista ha muerto y otro está en estado crítico después de haber quedado atrapados en una cueva en aguas de L'Estartit (Baix Empordà). Un tercero ha podido salir de la cueva y avisar a los equipos de emergencia. Efectivos de la unidad subacuática de la Guardia Civil han logrado este domingo, después de horas de trabajo, rescatar al herido, que se encuentra "con un hilo de vida", según ha informado el jefe del GEAS, Fernando Aguirre.
Los tres submarinistas, de entre 52 y 61 años, se habían sumergido hacia las 10 de la mañana del sábado en la zona de la cueva dels Arquets, una milla al norte del puerto de L'Estartit. Por causas que todavía se desconocen, dos de ellos han quedado atrapados.
El tercer submarinista, que sí ha podido salir a la superficie, ha alertado a los equipos de emergencia, que a primera hora de la tarde del sábado iniciaron los trabajos de rescate. Al cabo de unas horas, lograron localizar a los dos submarinistas atrapados. Uno de ellos ya había muerto mientras que el segundo estaba grave. Durante todo este domingo han estado intentando sacarle a la superfície, una tarea que ha sido muy complicada dado que el hombre tenía muy poco oxígeno y estaba muy débil, y además las condiciones del mar no eran buenas. Finalmente, lo han logrado hacia las 17.00 horas del domingo.
Han sido necesarias un total de 12 inmersiones para sacarlo del agua. El submarinista, que ha pasado más de 20 horas dentro de la cueva, ha podido salvarse gracias a una burbuja de aire. El rescate del submarinista muerto, que sigue en la cueva, se ha suspendido hasta el lunes por culpa del mal tiempo.


Muere un submarinista al quedar atrapado en una cueva en L'Estartit

[h=1]Recuperado el cuerpo del submarinista muerto en L'Estartit[/h] [h=2]El cadáver se encontraba en la misma cueva donde pudo ser rescatado con vida su compañero este domingo[/h]



ACN / Torroella de Montgrí

Lunes, 21 de julio del 2014 - 19.42 h
Los submarinistas de la Guardia Civil han recuperado este lunes al mediodía el cuerpo del submarinista muerto en la Cova dels Arquets, situada a una milla de L'Estartit. Alrededor de las 12.30 horas, el equipo de rescate ha llegado al purto de L'Estartit con el cuerpo sin vida del hombre, de 62 años,.
Los trabajos se han desarrollado más rápido de lo que estaba previsto en principio.
La Cova dels Arquets está unos ocho metros de profundidad y el cuerpo de la víctima se hallaba a unos 47 metros más adentro de donde se localizó este domingo a su compañero, de 53 años, en estado crítico después de sobrevivir más de 20 horas gracias a una bolsa de aire.
[h=3]En tres inmersiones[/h] El equipo de rescate han hecho tres inmersiones. La primera, para recuperar el cuerpo. La segunda, para recoger el material de la cueva y la última para quitar todo el material del rescate.
El cuerpo del submarinista muerto ha sido trasladado al puerto deportivo de L'Estartit, donde le esperaban sus familiares.


Recuperado el cuerpo del submarinista muerto en L'Estartit

The first news is simillar to what has been posted in English. They don't know the cause of this accident.

The second news is about the retrieval of the dead diver. That has been done (and was apparently easier than expected). The dead diver was found 47m further into the cave from where the survivor was found. They don't say total distance to the entrance.
The cave is 8m deep.

 

[alewar]

I found a better article in Catalan, still readable if you are more or less fluent in Spanish: Recuperen el cos del submarinista mort a l´Estartit - Diari de Girona

It seems they penetrated 90m inside the cave without knowing what they were doing, visibility went bad and they couldn't find the way out. The one who did find the exit notified the captain of the boat who promptly jumped in and went 40m into the cave but it was so silted out that he turned back and called the police...