Ongoing cave rescue in France

[Cleavitt]

I was wondering what caused him to drown after all this time?

If he survived this long, he had to have been in an air pocket or dry room from the reports, but he drowned going back to the collapse site.

Maybe he was having to use an air mix that might have been o2 toxic at that depth? (speculation) and was taking the chance because he didn't know of the rescue being mounted from the other side.

It's hard to say. He was on a rebreather though so he would have been able to set the mix to whatever was needed. It's unlikely that he would have had too much O2 (to cause OxTox) and more likely that he would have ran low on O2 given his situation.

As I pointed out in my first post in this thread, he was in the unfortunate position of having to execute some pretty serious dives with whatever gear/gas/supplies he had available in order to get to the supply drops at the collapse. It's a catch 22. He probably didn't have adequate supplies to do the dives safetly, but he had to do the dives to get more supplies. It's very possible that he was pushing the limits of his CO2 scrubber in order to get to those supplies.

 

[mike_s]

what's it refering to when they talk about his "twin set" ?

He has placed a twinset on the same site that they originally found his scooter.

 

[Cave Diver]

what's it refering to when they talk about his "twin set" ?

Twinset is normally European parlance for doubles. A bit confusing if he was diving CCR. Sad nonetheless that he didn't survive.

 

[mike_s]

Twinset is normally European parlance for doubles. A bit confusing if he was diving CCR.

that's what I initially thought. Doubles. But then it was reference above that he was on rebreather. so that's why I asked.

Sad nonetheless that he didn't survive.

yeah. especially when he was able to survive the initial incident.

 

[DandyDon]

His body was found: France24 - Cave explorer found dead after dramatic eight-day search They got to him in remarkable time considering.

An experienced potholer has been found dead underground in southern France eight days after he went missing.

Cave explorer Eric Establie, 45, who was on a mission to map the Ardeche Gorges underground tunnel complex, was found at the end of a dramatic rescue operation on Monday.

British rescue divers John Volanthen and Rick Stanton, called in from Wales, found his body 780 metres from the mouth of the cave and 70 metres beyond a rock fall that had blocked his exit.

Throughout the rescue operation hopes had remained alive that Mr Establie, a world caving expert and professional deep sea diver who owned a specialised underwater engineering business, would be found alive.

On Saturday the divers said they heard a tapping noise, adding impetus to the ultimately doomed rescue operation.

Experts said his life expectancy underground would have been approximately 15 days, considering the abundance of water, if he had sufficient air to breathe.

But late on Monday the British divers found his drowned body beyond the rock fall.

“We did everything we could,” Gerard Guedefli of French caving rescue services Speleo Secours Francais (SSF) told reporters. “But it has finished badly and we are deeply disappointed.”

Establie had worked as a volunteer rescue diver for SSF for four years, and last year himself recovered a dead caver from underground.