Miraculous rescue of a missing diver in a Manacor cave
The cave diver Miquel Perelló was rescued last night in good condition spending seven hours inside an air chamber in the Cova de sa Gleda , a complex network of flooded galleries in the Calas de Mallorca area, in Manacor . The Civil Guard, Bombers de Mallorca, National Police and the Balearic Speleology Federation had mobilized to try to carry out a complex rescue operation . A team of Civil Guard divers specialized in cave rescues traveled yesterday from Madrid to lead the rescue. When Miquel Perelló disappeared, he was accompanied by Xisco Gràcia, who in 2017 survived after spending two days in one of these air bubbles. Precisely the diver who managed to get Perelló out at night was the same one who on that occasion pulled out Gràcia.
The incident was known at half past four in the afternoon . Perelló, Gràcia and a third cave diver were carrying out a tour of the interior of sa Gleda, an intricate system of galleries thirteen kilometers below sea level, well known among cave diving enthusiasts. It is considered the largest underwater cave in Europe.
During the tour, Miquel separated from his companions . The other two divers left the cave at half past four in the afternoon, as they had agreed, but Perelló stayed inside. The alarm sounded immediately.
Perelló had air in his cylinders until approximately five in the afternoon, but his colleagues hoped that he could have taken refuge in one of the chambers that house air bubbles that they know are inside sa Gleda.
Meanwhile, the emergency teams were mobilized to prepare everything for the rescue . Several teams from the Special Group for Underwater Activities (GEAS) of the Civil Guard, and the Mallorca Fire Brigade, as well as crews from the National Police, were stationed at the entrance to the cave. A GEAS team specialized in rescues in submerged caves was traveling from Madrid. A group of volunteer rescuers from the Balearic Federation of Speleology was also mobilized.
Initially yesterday's plan was to wait for the arrival of specialists from the Madrid Civil Guard, but Perelló's colleagues knew of a chamber in which he could have taken refuge . At eight o'clock at night , two of them were authorized to dive to this point and check if he was there . The attempt went well. At eleven o'clock at night they went outside with Perelló . They had checked that he still had enough air in his bottle, so he was able to accompany them to the surface.
Miquel Perelló, in his fifties, is a professional diver and is considered an expert cave diver. Yesterday this circumstance fueled the hopes of his teammates , including Xisco Gràcia , who was already the protagonist of a miraculous save. On April 22, 2017, Gràcia was rescued after spending two days in an air chamber at the Cova de sa Piqueta, in the same area. Sa Gleda , with thirteen kilometers of flooded galleries, was the scene where an extreme rescue was repeated last night, which had a happy ending.
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