Cave fatality - Solagna, Italy

[DandyDon]

Tragedia durante l'immersione Muore sub 29enne

Google translation of article dated January 5, 2017

SOLAGNA. A sub 29 year-old, Polish, was killed in the cave of Fontanazzi, in Solagna. The body was recovered by divers mountain rescue, assisted by divers of the fire brigade in Mestre. The cave divers core of the fire brigade in Vicenza has carried out the first surveys to reconstruct the incident.

The man had plunged along with three friends, also Poles, who were in the area for several days. In the late morning the dive. But the 30 year old got stuck in a few meters of water, upside down, at the beginning of the cave.

A Solan the police of the local station was also attended, along with the coroner Ulss.

 

[Steve_C]

Did a search on the sight. Apparently known for the 3 restrictions at the start. Video suggests they are tight.

"This small video is all about the 3 famous restrictions of Fontanazzi cave situated in north of Italy (Solagna).
The depth of the 3 restrictions is from 0 to 14 mt and the restrictions are just after the OW side of the cave.
The cave is nowadays not fully explored and the depth reached until now is more than 120mt."

 

[wgw04024]

Tight...

 

[Dan]

RIP

Got stuck upside down in a restriction, then OOA? Oh boy. Sad to die like that. The other 3 friends couldn't help him out? I assume he was the lead diver, otherwise, how did the other 3 got out, if the entrance was plugged by this unfortunate diver?

 

[catone]

How on earth can one get stuck and not be able to get free with full tanks and buddies around to assist?! Depending on the depth, RMV and the size of his tanks, he probably had at least 1-2 hours to get unstuck. The video above show some tight restrictions but no likelihood of silting, would be easy for the buddy behind to reach him and see what the problem was. I guess he panicked and hyperventilated to where he probably passed out and drowned. Sad.

 

[Jack Hammer]

Article doesn't say what kind of gear, size of cylinders, or even if they were cave trained. Kind of difficult to understand how the incident may have happened with the limited info available. Hopefully more details will come out after those involved deal with the loss.

 

[Ryszard R]

It was full cave course he was a student it was no restriction but blind spot so he can't go forward probably he wanted to pick up o2 stage which slipped down

 

[bamafan]

Apparently this was an IANTD class. It is a little hard to follow the translation but basically they are talking about all the accidents lately involving IANTD instructors. The cavern diver who died in Eagle's Nest recently had been trained there by an IANTD instructor. He was diving beyond his qualification.

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1340259489357620&id=1335853506464885

 

[KevinNM]

Per CDF, it was a class basically being taught by an intern, the final class needed to get an instructor card. The student died after he got stuck with several hours worth of air, and drowned. Exactly how an instructor and intern couldn't get a diver free in a few hours is unclear. Very sad. I hear that the bright side of this is the intern got awarded an instructor card because this is the kind of class that his agency thinks is OK. Just like they seem to think that instructor in Mexico that pulled all the jumps and left his former student marooned in a cave to drown was no big deal.

 

[Ryszard R]

It was very bad choice of place for cave course because of restrictions. Several instructors said they didn't provide course in these conditions