I was on Team 3 of 3 teams last night. I will not mention names at this time.
Holmes County Sheriff setup incident command with EMS and volunteers, and a few hours of safety discussion, dive planning, and gear preparation occurred before any attempt was made. The volunteers were divided by skill set and mission into 3 teams, 2 search teams and 1 support team. Team 1 was a team of 3 divers. Team 2 was a team of 4 divers. Team 3 was a team of 2 divers.
I will allow the members of teams 1 and 2 to post their own comments about their dives so as not to mis-inform. Both of those teams made long and deep penetrations and did not sight the victim. Great effort was made by those teams pushng both depth and restrictions in attempts to locate the victim.
Team one surfaced reporting no sighting. Team 2 geared up and began their further push. Team 3 departed approx 15 mins after Team 2 to perform the tasks below:
As part of Team 3 we placed stage bottles at the buoy and inside the cavern entrace past the turn for ourselves and other teams. We placed a rescue litter/recovery basket at the cavern entrance and secured it with weights. Then we searched from the gate and backward, thoroughly checking all of the shallower (108ft and up) portions beginning at the gate in the Piano Room and back. We checked all obvious and tight restriction passages in Sidemount throughout the Piano Room. We visually checked the side cave that is blocked by rebar and has an old boat rope in it. This area has reportedly had other victims in the past and a cursory search was made of this by Team 1 on their dive. There is evidence of rebar bend from past dives, but we saw no obvious disturbance of recent dives. Exiting the cave we searched all of the small offshoot passages and sand banks. We also searched the cavern/cave entrace area and the pipeline all the way to its restriction into the main basin. Our goal was to double check and rule out any of the areas from the gate and out, while setting up the litter for recovery teams.
Team 3 exited with no sight of the victim, Team 2 was approximately 20 minutes behind Team 3 carrying the bulk of stage and deco bottles.
Having made no sighting, calls went out to additional recovery divers experienced in sidemount, restrictions, and deep diving (mix). The search was postponed around midnight. Team 3 re-entered to recover 3 stages and relocate the rescue basket to a spot in the cavern out of plain sight to O/W but easily accessible to Saturday's recovery team.
The family arrived onsite during the dives, and they are very appreciative of the efforts of all the EMS personnel and volunteers. My heart goes out to them.
Recovery efforts are scheduled to resume at 10am Saturday. Additional specialty divers are enroute. to continue the search and recovery.
Any word on the recovery???
