3 unaccounted for after a flooded magnesite mine 'Maria Concordia' dive in Poland

[Celt]

Yes, I get your point, which is also the point of @O-ring and I believe anyone else here (me included). In the end, we can get an idea, but we cannot know for sure.

I remind you all that there was a line trap (see the report). Frankly speaking, I can think of only three reasons:
(1) the line trap combined with the bad visibility made the instructor think that the ceiling collapsed
(2) the line trap, together with the bad visibility, made think the instructor that going back was too hard (this is mentioned in the report)
(3) they spent a bit of time looking for the exit, and they started getting a bit nervous and panicked, so they tried for another option

Due to the conditions, I suspect option 1, but who knows for sure... If you can think of anything else, I will be "happy" to hear you (well, surely "happy" isn't the best word in such a context, but I am not a native speaker, I don't know which word to use here...).

I thought they were recovered on the exit side of the line trap. Must have missed something. I’ll check that out thanks.

 

[ginti]

I thought they were recovered on the exit side of the line trap. Must have missed something. I’ll check that out thanks.

The report mentions a line trap, but I read it quickly, so maybe I misunderstood something... yes, have a look and tell us what you think, thank you!

 

[O-ring]

I thought they were recovered on the exit side of the line trap. Must have missed something. I’ll check that out thanks.

Yes, they had cleared the line trap at the wooden frame and were basically found in the middle of the "T".

 

[ginti]

Yes, they had cleared the line trap at the wooden frame and were basically found in the middle of the "T"

So actually I missed something, my bad

But my thinking doesn't change too much. With such low visibility, instructor and student 1 may still have been thinking to be on the wrong side, and student two might have arrived too late and died while trying to save them

 

[ginti]

Also, I am wondering... if they were disoriented and at the T, with such low visibility and a damaged line, the only way to know for sure the direction was to use a compass. I wonder whether the instructor and the students actually knew which direction to follow.

Given that the rescuers found so much equipment in the wrong direction, I am thinking that they just didn't know where they had to go (which is another negative point for the instructor, he should have known the orientation of the cave...)

 

[Celt]

Yes, they had cleared the line trap at the wooden frame and were basically found in the middle of the "T".

View attachment 703449
They were clear to the stone dam so. Very odd.

 

[O-ring]

The more I read the report the more strange it is to me for some reason. The instructor's computer indicates that he was not just stationary in the air pocket, but was roaming around for quite some time before ultimately returning to the air pocket. I suspect looking for a way out. All the cut yellow line and the yellow line spooled up around the backup light they found indicate that somebody was dealing with an entanglement and the subsequent cleanup of all the cut line. The report said student 2 (the one who initially survived but then died on the rescue attempt) surfaced with yellow line tangled around his fin. I wonder when the yellow line entanglement happened and whether it was the line they put in the side passage when working the unconscious diver drill or if it was the yellow line they used for the jump. I'd be curious who's backup light that is. That might help explain it a bit.

The other odd part is all the reported bottle movement. Lots of bottles getting dropped much closer to the exit than the bodies were found somehow making it down to the "T" and ending up being utilized and emptied by the decedents. We know "observer" didn't carry them down there since he never found the divers and aborted every attempt due to bad vis so somebody was ferrying bottles from close to the stone dam to the "T" and was really close to exiting. I suppose it could have been student 2 and nobody else made it that far down the passage. I have to think that if the instructor made it to the log or stone dam (assuming he was able to see/feel them) that he would have known the exit was just past the stone dam since he was familiar with the system. Also odd is student 2 didn't make it out. If he made that trek at least a couple of times during his initial exit, reentry, bottle ferrying, etc. you'd think he would have a decent idea of which direction out was. Could be he just stayed until the bitter end trying to render aid.

Does anybody know the system? Is the jump correctly marked below in red (my markings - not original to the report)? It looks like that is the jump and the white guideline should have continued from the log into the rest of the passage. If so, what is the yellow line running parallel to it? Was that student 2 or somebody else running one of the yellow reels/spools trying to find a way out since the white guideline looks like it was damaged at some point (my blue line - not original to the report - attempting to show the white guideline).

 

[Vicko]

One of the things that came to mind, pure conjecture.
If you read about cave rescues there are 2 cases where unconscious divers were revived by the recovery divers exhaust gas.
It could be possible that student 2 knew about it, found the 2 unconscious or drowned divers and tried to create the air bubble to revive them in, after failing lost his guide line and drowned.
That would explain all the equipment found after the restriction.

 

[O-ring]

Also kinda weird.. I wonder why student 2, when coming back on the rescue dive with 4 bottles, dropped 3 of them (presumably carrying bottom mix) at the jump but chose to carry an o2 cylinder with him to the "T"? It was later found empty and if I am reading the report correctly that part of the cave is about 15m deep. Maybe he was just rushing/panicked? Bottle marking issue? I don't think student 2 breathed it since it wasn't found on him, but instead was found tangled with the instructor's body in yellow line. So did student 2 make the handoff of an o2 cylinder? Did it have a reg on it when found empty? I wonder if the instructor breathed off that bottle or if it got purged/dumped into the air pocket? Just more questions..

EDIT - just re-read that part about the o2 cylinder. It looks like that was found with the reg on and it was empty so somebody was breathing o2 at depth (unless they purged it into the air pocket).

 

[Celt]

The more I read the report the more strange it is to me for some reason. The instructor's computer indicates that he was not just stationary in the air pocket, but was roaming around for quite some time before ultimately returning to the air pocket. I suspect looking for a way out. All the cut yellow line and the yellow line spooled up around the backup light they found indicate that somebody was dealing with an entanglement and the subsequent cleanup of all the cut line. The report said student 2 (the one who initially survived but then died on the rescue attempt) surfaced with yellow line tangled around his fin. I wonder when the yellow line entanglement happened and whether it was the line they put in the side passage when working the unconscious diver drill or if it was the yellow line they used for the jump. I'd be curious who's backup light that is. That might help explain it a bit.

The other odd part is all the reported bottle movement. Lots of bottles getting dropped much closer to the exit than the bodies were found somehow making it down to the "T" and ending up being utilized and emptied by the decedents. We know "observer" didn't carry them down there since he never found the divers and aborted every attempt due to bad vis so somebody was ferrying bottles from close to the stone dam to the "T" and was really close to exiting. I suppose it could have been student 2 and nobody else made it that far down the passage. I have to think that if the instructor made it to the log or stone dam (assuming he was able to see/feel them) that he would have known the exit was just past the stone dam since he was familiar with the system. Also odd is student 2 didn't make it out. If he made that trek at least a couple of times during his initial exit, reentry, bottle ferrying, etc. you'd think he would have a decent idea of which direction out was. Could be he just stayed until the bitter end trying to render aid.

Does anybody know the system? Is the jump correctly marked below in red (my markings - not original to the report)? It looks like that is the jump and the white guideline should have continued from the log into the rest of the passage. If so, what is the yellow line running parallel to it? Was that student 2 or somebody else running one of the yellow reels/spools trying to find a way out since the white guideline looks like it was damaged at some point (my blue line - not original to the report - attempting to show the white guideline).

View attachment 703458

Someone done a lot of unselfish work ferrying stage bottles back into the system to the tee. That’s the actions of a cool head and someone that knew what he was doing. Unfortunately it didn’t pay off however well intended.