GIVEN THE DANGER OF CAVE RESCUE DIVING, THE UNTRAINED RESCUE DIVER HAS NO BUSINESS VENTURING INTO THIS SPECIALTY AREA.
BY MARK V. LONSDALE
Cave rescue and cave diving are very specialized forms of diving that should not be attempted by untrained personnel. Modern day cave diving can involve significant penetrations and may include notable depth. Furthermore, the complexity of the cave systems, the uniqueness of the environment, and the narrowness of some passageways can greatly complicate operations and put team members at significant risk. Given the danger of these operations, one point is clear: The untrained rescue diver has no business venturing into this specialty area.
Cave divers have always been considered the “extreme” of the recreational diving community, but their work in research, deep diving techniques, and long-duration subterranean travel laid the foundation for what we now know as technical diving and is definitely worthy of respect. Long before technical diving came into vogue, cave divers were routinely doing decompression dives, and mixed gas diving had become the standard for deep cave exploration.
The Global Underwater Explorers organization, working in concert with the Florida-based Woodville Kast Plain Project, has expanded cave exploration well beyond what anyone would have thought possible. In 1998 representatives Jarrod Jablonski, George Irvine, and Brent Scarabin set a world record in Wakulla Springs in northern Florida by penetrating 18,054 feet from the spring entrance. To accomplish this record-setting dive, the team used rebreathers, mixed gas (10% oxygen, 70% helium, 20% nitrogen), five different decompression mixes, specially built propulsion vehicles, and more than 30 safety tanks. The significant experience, training, and logistical planning that led to this effort had to support the team for more than six hours at 300 feet and for an additional 15 hours in water decompression.
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(1) A diver prepares to enter an overhead environment. (Photo by author.) (2) A cave-diving setup with double tanks manifolded together, two regulators, primary light canister, and “DIR” (“Doing It Right”) configuration. (Photo courtesy of Halcyon.)
Record-setting cave dives are by no means the norm. Nevertheless, “recreational” cave diving is consistently expanding in scope and popularity, making more ambitious diving profiles more common. Public safety divers with an interest in cave rescue operations should first become certified cave divers. Becoming a truly proficient cave diver is a time-intensive activity. However, cave rescue personnel can greatly increase their personal skills and prepare for limited cave operations by pursuing formal cave diver training.
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Typically, cave training is roughly divided into three phases; each lasts about a week. Despite this training, rescue personnel should remain aware that in some cases local experienced cave divers may be the most qualified for recovery operations.
This article is not in any way designed to prepare individuals for cave operations. It is designed to highlight the complexities of this specialized environment and to prevent a rescue team from venturing into an area well beyond its capability.
Diving in any body of water presents the potential for drowning. Several additional dangers are unique to cave diving or any overhead environment:
- There is no direct route to the surface.
- Light is completely absent.
- It is a considerable distance from the entrance to a cave.
- There are maze-like formations with numerous side tunnels.
- Narrow restrictions can slow or trap a diver.
- Just one incorrect move can cause fine silt to eliminate all visibility.
- You can become totally dependent on equipment because you cannot simply surface in times of trouble.
- The inherent dangers increase stress and necessitate task loading.
DIVING FATALITIES
Cave diving fatalities are commonly the result of human error. The most common factors contributing to cave diving fatalities include the following:
- a lack of formal training in cave diving,
- failure to run a continuous guideline to open water,
- failure to reserve at least two-thirds of the starting air supply for the exit swim,
- exceeding the maximum depth limits for the diver’s level of training, and
- failure to use at least three lights-one primary and two backup.
ACQUIRING INFORMATION
As with any penetration (overhead environment) rescue dive, there must be a period of fact finding, interview, and investigation. Cave operations require that the diver acquire information about the missing diver and the cave system.
Missing Diver Information
The information about the missing diver(s) should include the following:
- How many divers are missing, and what kind of equipment was being used?
- Was the diver cave certified and equipped?
- How long has the diver been down or missing?
- How much gas/air was the diver carrying?
- Where was the diver seen last? Was he conscious or unconscious?
- What was the proposed dive plan? What was the depth of penetration?
Cave Information
The rescue diver should have a current map of the cave system and seek answers to the following questions:
- Where is the cave’s entrance located? What is the position of the permanent guideline?
- What are the depth and length of the main tunnel?
- What is the possibility of finding air spaces or dry caves?
- What are the flow characteristics of the cave (spring or siphon, for example)?
- What weather changes are expected? Is there a chance it will rain?
- What are the natural hazards such as restrictions, low visibility, or silty conditions?
The victim may not always be a cave diver. It could be a dry caver who has been trapped by rising water or become incapacitated by injury, hypothermia, or exhaustion.
MINIMUM EQUIPMENT
The following equipment is considered the minimum for one cave rescue diver:
- a set of double tanks with isolation manifold;
- harness, backplate and wings (welded together), 45- to 55-pound lift;
- two regulators with clean “DIR” (“Do It Right”) cave configuration;
- a seven-foot, second-stage hose on primary regulator;
- a digital bottom timer/depth gauge;
- a compass/redundant instrumentation;
- a primary light with canister mounted on the right hip;
- two backup lights attached to harness shoulder straps;
- a primary reel (300 to 400 feet) run from open water to the main line in the cave;
- a safety reel (100 to 150 feet);
- a jump/gap reel (50 to 75 feet);
- directional line markers;
- a small, sharp knife on harness;
- dry suit or wet suit (depending on water temperature);
- fins, two masks, weight belt (where necessary);
- diving tables; and
- repair kit and spares.
The clips on lights, reels, stages, and so on should be stainless-steel bolt snaps for maximum reliability.
Long penetration recoveries may require specially trained cave divers and underwater diver propulsion vehicles (DPVs).
If decompression gases are used, the following equipment will also be needed:
- decompression tanks of nitrox and/or oxygen with maximum operating depth (MOD) clearly indicated,
- additional decompression regulators with submersible pressure gauge (SPG), and
- cylinder attachment that can be cut should a clip fail or the diver become entangled.
Trips to the recovery site may be over land or through dry caves, necessitating adequate support personnel. Operations may also require an assortment of camping gear, sleeping bags, and food to sustain a prolonged search.
OPERATIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR WET AND DRY CAVE RESCUES
The following will be needed:
- communications systems;
- body bags;
- medical supplies, oxygen, backboards, litter;
- hypothermia bags, warming tents, warm air breather;
- strobes, lights, additional reels and lines;
- rescue ropes and hardware for raising and lowering systems;
- air compressor for remote areas;
- special gases (nitrox or trimix), where applicable; and
- gas analyzers.
SEARCH, RESCUE, AND RECOVERY
Incorporating the techniques for safe cave diving, the team can proceed with the search, rescue, or recovery. Special attention must be given to the following:
- Planning the dive carefully, and selecting a turnaround point using the “one-third rule”: one-third to go in, one-third to come out, and one-third for emergencies.
- Maintaining a continuous guideline out of the cave system.
- Including all relevant cave equipment and lights in all operations.
- Maintaining neutral buoyancy at all times.
- Using proficient, anti-silting swimming techniques.
- Not exceeding the equivalent narcosis depth (END) the back gas will safely permit.
- Marking all travel and decompression bottles CLEARLY with the maximum operating depth (MOD).
Frequently, there are clues that can help direct a search team to the missing diver(s); these include disturbed silt, bubbles on the ceiling, abandoned equipment, chipped or scraped walls, the gathering of catfish, and possibly guidelines or markers placed by the victim(s).
Panicked divers frequently try to surface in the cave and are often found in overhead cracks; they may also be found wedged in side areas or on the floor.
Rescue teams should initiate a search based on the lost team’s dive plan (if known) or the last point at which the dive team was seen (where applicable). Barring any information about the lost team’s location, rescue personnel should go directly to the deepest point/maximum estimated distance of the penetration and then search on their way out. This procedure will make the best use of their gas supply and decompression procedures while allowing later search efforts to be conducted at progressively reduced penetrations.
Containment of the crime scene and rules of evidence apply to cave fatalities involving homicide. Prior to moving cave victim(s), record crime scene information (that is a whole other article).
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(3) Primary light, backup light (two are recommended), and reels essential to safe cave diving. (Photo by author.)
Transporting victim(s) through the cave can be difficult and tiring and can place the recovery divers under greater risk. If the victim has been in the water for a prolonged period, several complications arise. Rigor mortis can greatly increase the difficulty of managing a victim in restrictive areas. Furthermore, when decomposition has begun, the body can become positively buoyant, requiring additional weight to keep the body off the ceiling and simplify the extraction. In cases of extreme body degradation, bags or webbing wraps can be used to transport, stabilize, or weight the victim. Since few passages will allow the rescue divers to swim on either side of the victim, most operations result in one diver pushing and the other pull ing. The body can be further damaged, especially the face and exposed areas, when it is dragged or pushed through restrictions.
Injured divers or cavers can be transported through the water in a sump litter (a heavy nylon bag open at the head end and equipped with zipper, cinch straps, attach ment points, and handles). The survivor can be strapped into the sump litter and equipped with a full-face scuba mask and head protection. The scuba tank can be strapped to the bag between the victim’s legs and the whole package guided through the sump and chambers to the exit. Give the victim the opportunity to become comfortable with the bag and scuba unit before fully submerging him.
Cave rescues and recoveries are generally cold and arduous operations at best. The dark, inhospitable, and often claustrophobic environment adds to an already difficult task. For rescue teams that have caves, tunnels, or mines in their jurisdiction, their divers should get specialized training; make the neces sary equipment modifications; select rescue personnel with an aptitude for working in confined spaces; learn the local cave systems; and practice regularly. Search teams should never engage in cave or mine operations beyond their abilities or hesitate to abort a rescue that evolves beyond team capacity.
MARK V. LONSDALE is a diver, diving supervisor, and training officer for the Los Angeles Sheriff’s SEB Marine Company Dive Team. Attached to emergency services detail, he is responsible for training and operations in the ocean, lakes, and rivers within Los Angeles County, using scuba and surface-supplied diving equipment. He has been published in various magazines related to emergency services and is the author of SRT DIVER – A Guide for Special Response Teams (www.sttu.com) and ALPINE OPERATIONS – A Guide to Cold Weather Warfare and Mountain Rescue. Before entering the public safety diving arena, Lonsdale was a commercial oil field diver.
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