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2019-11-25 Incident
IMPORTANT NOTE: All first-person point-of-view references in this report were derived directly from the referenced material (links at bottom). The IUCRR makes no claim on their accuracy.
On November 24, 2019, the Victim – a Chinese national — died in a cave diving accident in Manatee Springs in north Florida. The Victim was diving with her husband and two other divers who had come to Florida from China with the express purpose of diving those caves. The Victim was a newly certified cave diver, described by her certifying agency (WUD) as having 11 hours of experience. The others, including a cave instructor, had more experience, including in Florida.
The flow into the Manatee Springs headspring is normally very strong, so divers do not enter the cave system at that point. They instead frequently enter at a nearby sinkhole called Catfish Hotel and then proceed upstream through the cave, encountering other openings (Sue’s Sink and Friedman Sink) along the way. Such trips sometimes are done as traverses, meaning the divers enter in one area and exit in another.
In years past, divers would sometimes go downstream from Catfish Hotel and exit the cave at the Manatee Springs headspring, an adventurous traverse in the high flow. Collapses in the tunnel near the headspring in recent years, however, have made the opening much smaller and the exit more dangerous, and local experts warn that this is no longer a safe practice. In November 2019, rains had made the flow even stronger than normal, making such a traverse even more dangerous.
The group was led by Diver-1, a WUD cave instructor with more than 500 hours of experience, including experience in Florida caves, although not in the last few years. He reported that he has made the trip from Catfish Hotel to the Manatee Springs exit three times in the past, but he was not aware of the recent changes to the opening of the spring. The group’s dive plan called for them all to exit downstream into Manatee Springs.
That plan called for Team 1 (Diver-1 and Diver-3) to enter the cave at Catfish Hotel wearing rebreathers and using dive propulsion vehicles (scooters) to go against the current past Friedman Sink and then turn around to join Team 2. Team 2 (Victim and her husband, Diver-2) was to enter Catfish Hotel an hour later wearing LP 95 backmounted double cylinders, do a short dive on their own, meet up with team 1, and then proceed with team 1 downstream to the Manatee Springs exit.
Normal cave diving protocols call for verifying that the viability of a planned exit on a traverse before the dive. This would normally mean going to the Manatee Springs area and inspecting it. They did not do this. According to his description of the incident, Diver-1 believed that he and Diver-3 could tie off their line to the end of the main line before the spring and inspect the exit from within the cave before exiting, apparently believing they could be able to turn the dive and return to Catfish Hotel if there were any problems.
Diver-1 reported that the flow was light when they tied off a reel to the mainline and headed toward the exit. This called for them to ascend a slope, and as soon as they did, they were caught in a current that was too much to handle. He tried to hold onto stones to hold his position but could not do so. The current tore at his mask and his rebreather, interfering with his ability breathe through it. Diver-1 was soon thrown out of the cave by the current.
According to Diver-1 he tried to get back into the cave to help the others. He could see light signals calling for help. At that point Diver-2 was also thrown out of the cave. Diver-1 could see that Diver-3 was unconscious with the regulator still in his mouth, and he could see that past him the Victim did not have her regulator in her mouth. Diver-3’s scooter and light head were firmly wedged in the rocks. Diver-1 cut him free from the scooter and freed the light head, after which Diver-3 was also thrown out of the cave. Diver-1 decided to hope someone on the outside could take care of Diver-3 while he tried to get the Victim. He said he was unable to get to her because of the current and decided to return to help Diver-3. Diver-1 and Diver-2 found Diver-3 and were able to revive him.
A team from the International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery organization was called to recover the body. (See information on the recovery below.) Since this incident, the main line from Manatee Springs to Catfish Hotel has been removed, and a warning sign has been placed to discourage divers who enter at Catfish Hotel from heading toward Manatee Springs.
References:
Initial news story: https://www.wcjb.com/content/news/Diver-dies-at-Manatee-Springs-565426851.html
Chinese Dive Incident: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/zZBLYEr59ytdBkRJ5MTHAA
Local Warning about this traverse: https://cavediving.com/where/manatee/
The IUCRR is not responsible for maintaining the above links, nor can we ensure they stay “live”.
Original report written by John Adsit
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Summary description of recovery:
Location: Manatee Springs
Date: November 25, 2019
Time in: 12:00
Time out: 15:00
Recovery Diver 1 (RD1) — who provided this summary — arrived on the scene with the expectation of helping two other recovery divers, already on-site, to pull the equipment but was notified on arrival that the body was still in place. Three recovery divers then spent approximately 3 hours attempting to extricate the victim who was caught against a rock in the flow. “Think swift water with an item pinned via force of water.” After numerous attempts to pull or reposition the victim, rocks were moved, creating a second exit potential on the right side of the cavern (orientation facing the headspring entrance from the spring pool). RD1 received authorization from law enforcement officers to puncture the divers’ buoyancy bladder thus reducing drag and the water’s grip on the body. Recovery divers also cut equipment from victim, including cutting several hoses and the light cable which were becoming entanglement problems. Eventually, double tanks were removed from the victim but the victim was still wedged firmly in place. Efforts to bring in a pulley system to remove a boulder were taking place when recovery divers were able to successfully extract the victim via manual force. Recovery divers made a final surface with the victim and passed the body to law enforcement on-site.