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1999-06-24 Incident
Rescue Or Recovery Or Near Miss: Rescue
Date of Report: 6/27/99
Location of accident:————–
ThunderHole, Madison County, Florida
Accident Date: 6/24/99
Time of Accident: 3:40 PM
Age of Victim: n/a
Sex of Victim: female
Victim Certification Level: Full Cave
Certification Agency: NSSCDS?
Date of Training: n/a
Years of Experience Diving: n/a
Total number of dives: n/a
Number of dives this year: n/a
Trained in Cave Diving?: yes
Cave Diver Training Agency: NSSCDS
Date of Cave Diver Training: n/a
Years Experience Cave Diving: n/a
Total number of cave dives: 100+
Number of cave dives last year: n/a
Date of dive(s) at this location: n/a
Location comments: ——————–
Rescue
ThunderHole had algae bloom on the surface and less than 2′ visibility. The upper level of the cave had 1′ visibility to a depth of 30′ then clear water. victim never had contact with permanent line at entrance. She fell into the cave entrance opposite the line and into small room that is very difficult to get out of with back mount and stage bottles. She had hit it just right and fell into it. With no knowledge of the site she had no mental picture of the cave. She attempted line search and jammed her reel, then lost her knife trying to fix the jam. She settled on the ceiling and creating an air pocket at 8′. She then used her stage bottle then oxygen bottle to breathe. She breathed her exhalations in the air pocket until stale. She heard vehicles on the scence (most likely the diesel wrecker that towed her van). After the vehicl was gone I enterd the water and started the search for the body in the alcove off to the right in the zero visibility. I heard banging and checked out the ceiling, I yelled her name and got a response. After about 10 minutes I found her on a ledge at 20′ still alive. I brought her out to safety.
Equipment: double 95’s, 80 – stage and 45 – oxygen bottle. 95’s still had 2000 PSI of gas.
Total bottom time for victim was 5hr and 50 minutes.
Dive partners: 1
Dive partner address:——————
n/a
Dive partner experience:—————-
cave diver 100+ cave dives
Orginal dive plan: ———————
Thunderhole: to drop and explore lower level. No line was run from surface to mail line at entrance. Depth from surface approximately 12′ to permanent line. Dive buddy entered water first and set deco bottle at 30′ and waited for partner. She didn’t show up after a few minutes so he surfaced looked for her there then entered the cave and looked for her along the main line thinking they may have passed in the bad visibility. Surfaced and called for help at 4:15 pm
Max. known depth: 200+ after drop 400′ back
Depth body found: 20′
Distance to exit: 30′
Description of silt: extreme – 1′ visibility
Normal visibility distance: 50+
Visibility during recovery: 1 foot
Weather conditions: —————–
drizzle rain
Entry conditions: ——————-
normal, slope to water 2′ visibility in basin
Description of equipment: ————
Equipment in good shape. 80 stage not recovered as of today, safety reel and knife not recovered as of today. oxygen bottle empty and 2000psi in doubles. All recovered equipment seemed in normal working condition. nothing reported by victim
Description of body: —————–
She was chilled and well composed considering the ordeal. She had no decompression on the computer. She was taken to the hospital and checked for hypothermia.
Report prepared by: Lamar Hires
Address of preparer:——————
Rt 9 Box 2122
Lake City, Fl 32024
Recovery team memebers:—————
Lamar Hires (in water)
Bob Janowski(support)
Bill Rennaker (support)
Mike Bruic (in water evaluation of scene)
Law-enforcement officer in charge:———
Madison cty Captain, there were at least 6 deputies on the scene