Lancaster Hole cave fatality - Casterton Fell, Cumbria, England

[DandyDon]

A fell (from Old Norse fell, fjall, "mountain"[1]) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain range or moor-covered hills. See Fell - Wikipedia

A force spokesman added: "The man in his 60s, who is believed to be from the Lancashire area, was visiting Casterton Fell on a cave diving trip. See BBC story at Man found dead in flooded cave

The Ease Gill Cave System is the longest,[1] and most complex cave system in Britain as of 2011,[2][3][4][5] with around 41 miles (66 km) of passages, including connections only passable by cave diving. It spans the valley between Leck Fell and Casterton Fell. The water resurges into Leck Beck. From Ease Gill Caverns - Wikipedia

Detailed report from Cave Rescue Organisation

Lancaster Hole, Casterton Fell, Cumbria - Cave Incident.
The Cave Rescue Organisation (CRO) were called by Cumbria Police at 1656 hrs on Saturday 4th January 2020 to reports of an overdue cave diver at Lancaster Hole on Casterton Fell, Cumbria.
40 CRO team members and members of the Northern section of the Cave Diving Group (CDG) responded. As well as searching from the point where the cave diver entered Lancaster Hole downstream passage (1), other entrances and possible exits were also searched by team members and a cave diver, in case the diver had emerged from the system elsewhere.
The initial search from the access point was led by another member of the Cave Diving Group, who planned to search the first section of the downstream passage. Other CDG members were preparing to conduct an extended search if this initial search did not locate the casualty.
Unfortunately, whilst conducting his underwater search the rescue diver discovered the missing diver, approximately 60 metres into the sump (2). The casualty was immediately brought back to the sump pool chamber and removed from the water, where it was apparent that he was deceased.
All team members were then instrumental in conducting a lengthy and difficult extraction back to the surface of the fell. The casualty was then conveyed to Bull Pot Farm and handed over to the care of Cumbria Police.
Details of the casualty will be made available by Cumbria Police in due course, but we would like to stress that although the casualty was known to team members, he was not a member of any rescue team or the Cave Diving rescue group. Investigations into the cause of the incident are currently underway on behalf of the Coroner by Cumbria Police.

Notes

1 Lancaster Hole downstream passage is a long, submerged stretch of cave which in wet weather floods many normally drier sections of cave above. It is being actively explored by cave divers who are extending the explored section, currently some 900 metres beyond the sump pool where access to the flooded section is normally made.
2 A sump, or siphon, is a passage in a cave that is submerged under water. A sump may be static, with no inward or outward flow, or active, with continuous through-flow. Static sumps may also be connected underwater to active stream passage.

 

[aviator8]

Tragedy As Cave Diver Dies In One Of UK's Largest Underground Systems | Scuba Diver Mag

 

[60plus]

These caves are only a few miles from where I live and the divers death has been on local news. I have been in several easier bits in dry weather but no way would I dive in them at this time of year.

 

[DandyDon]

The inquest named the diver as Simon Halliday, 49 year old father of two. It also says that his rebreather suffered a malfunction plus the water flow was greater than usual.

Solo cave diver ran out of air down passage, inquest hears

AN ADVENTURER drowned on a solo cave dive only a short distance from the surface after his breathing apparatus failed him, an inquest heard.

Simon Halliday died at Lancaster Hole, near Kirkby Lonsdale, on January 4, 2020.

Wife Toni told the inquest that the father-of-two had a ‘real zest for life’ and ‘made the most of every minute of every day’.

“Simon was a very loving husband and father,” she said.

“He has left a huge hole in our hearts.”

On the day he died, the 49-year-old travelled down to the dive site with a support team comprising two friends.

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Mr Halliday told his team he would be a maximum of three hours.

However, said David McDonough, when the four-hour mark had come and their friend had still not surfaced, he and Kevin Gannon requested help.

Diver Anthony Seddon, who was called out to assist, entered the underwater passage and discovered Mr Halliday, deceased, 14 minutes and 60m in.

Cockermouth Coroner’s Court heard that, when Mr Halliday was pulled out of the water, the oxygen supply pipe from his rebreather appeared to have become disconnected or been ripped out - either during the dive or while the body was being recovered.


Data from the dive computers that Mr Halliday had on him supported the idea that his rebreathing equipment had failed him and he had switched to his bail out facilities.

The exact circumstances that led to the tragedy are unclear.

It was a dive that Mr Halliday had done before, although on January 4 his team noted that there was more water flowing into the passageway than usual.

Mr Halliday did not see this as an issue, but the strength of the current appeared to increase over the time he was in the hole.

The inquest heard that this may have caused him to use more air on his return journey, when he would have been fighting the current.

This problem could have been exacerbated if Mr Halliday had been under stress and breathing more heavily because his air was running out.


The increase in buoyancy as his canisters emptied may have caused him to expend more energy fighting to stay ‘down’ in the passage and avoid drifting towards the roof.

He was also using a rebreather - from Andy Goring at Sump UK - that was in development and was not commercially available.

Rescue diver Jason Mallinson said the rebreather had a ‘straight fitting’ to the suit. He said an ‘elbow fitting’, which contains a 90-degree bend, would have stopped it unscrewing if that were indeed what happened.

The inquest heard that, after a hiatus, Mr Halliday had taken up cave diving in earnest during a holiday in Egypt around two years before his death.

He was a qualified rescue diver and belonged to various groups, including the Cave Diving Group northern section.

Mr McDonough described Mr Halliday, of Clitheroe, as a person who liked ‘to push himself’ and ‘operate at the extreme’.

He said the dive at Lancaster Hole was not one he himself would have felt confident undertaking.

“That isn’t because I think it’s a dangerous dive,” he said.

“But it is a serious dive.”

Dr Nicholas Shaw, assistant coroner for Cumbria, said it was ‘most likely’ Mr Halliday’s rebreather failed him, leaving him in a race against time. He was not far from the surface when he died.

Dr Shaw recorded a conclusion of misadventure and the medical cause of death as drowning.

 

[Kay Dee]

I'm puzzled. In the above what does ".....the rebreather had a straight fitting to the suit" mean / refer to?

For example - "Rescue diver Jason Mallinson said the rebreather had a ‘straight fitting’ to the suit. He said an ‘elbow fitting’, which contains a 90-degree bend, would have stopped it unscrewing if that were indeed what happened."

Earlier in the thread it implied it was his o2 line that was broken. So whats o2 doing going to 'the suit' (as in drysuit?) or, as I assume thats not what it means, then what is 'the suit'? Simply poor wording, or?

 

[John the Pom]

I'm puzzled. In the above what does ".....the rebreather had a straight fitting to the suit" mean / refer to?

For example - "Rescue diver Jason Mallinson said the rebreather had a ‘straight fitting’ to the suit. He said an ‘elbow fitting’, which contains a 90-degree bend, would have stopped it unscrewing if that were indeed what happened."

Earlier in the thread it implied it was his o2 line that was broken. So whats o2 doing going to 'the suit' (as in drysuit?) or, as I assume thats not what it means, then what is 'the suit'? Simply poor wording, or?

It is almost certainly poor wording from a journalist without knowledge of the subject, repeating what they have heard with a bit of misunderstanding & misinterpretation thrown in. Reading between the lines, it sounds as though the breathing loop had become damaged in some way and he switched to his bail-out. But, possibly because of a greater than anticipated current, his bail-out supply proved inadequate.

 

[wgw04024]

Ran across this...

 

[Kay Dee]

Ran across this...

Interesting tribute video, thanks for posting. Not a lot on the accident itself but seems (as stated in artcle up--thread) that when the recovery divers found him not far from entrance (60m / 200ft) they found him already switched to / last breathing from his bailout. One would think, whatever had happened to cause him to bail out, he was then back in a 'safe - or safer - zone,' so I wonder what really happened? (Obviously a rhetorical question! It does say that an oxygen line / hose was disconected from the RB, but unkown if it happend pre or post bailout.) Coroner just states cause as "death by misadventure / drowning".

Also states the RB was a preproduction model. Did it eventually go into production?