I’m a diver but not that qualified, and far from an expert, but the fact that five (supposedly experienced) divers died, and now even a rescue diver has died, tells me this is in big part to do with the location itself rather than failure in the divers part.

I don’t remember the names, but some caves have water currents pulling in, and others pushing out. Out are the safest ones because it’s easier to get out. In are the most dangerous, because you might be going further than you realize and to come back you have to swim against the current - you won’t have enough air to make it back. That said, usually even experienced cave divers stay far from those caves, precisely because they know how dangerous they are. Also, if you are diving in a foreign place, you should really go with a dive guide who knows the area. AFAIK, there was no guide.

So even then, there was probably some type of mess up on the driver’s side. Because it seems they should not have been performing that dive, much less with no dive guide.

And statistically, the majority of victims of cave diving deaths were people who are not certified cave divers.

I’m saying all this because I’ve seen so many people talk about how dangerous it is, but statistically if you are qualified it’s safer than free diving. But no one complaints about that being dangerous.

EDIT: I should also mention I could not read the article, I got paywalled. I’m having to go just by the title.

Condolences. :(

And please, people, this is what drones are for.

Bravery is commendable, but darkness, floating sediment, high pressure (immediate ascent not possible - this got Mohamed Mahudhee) and working under a time limit imposed by oxygen reserves in an environment where one can get lost: these are not conditions suitable for a human being.

Please send a machine, it has no life, has a sonar, the operator on a ship won’t panic, if fiber stops working, acoustic communication is still possible, a drone can work for days without running out of anything, etc.

Damn. Didn’t even die trying to save a life but to recover their bodies.

Getting anxious just thinking about it.

It sounds like diving at that depth is already very dangerous, and that’s before you add going into a cave into the mix.

It will be very interesting to read any incident report that comes out.

I was just freaking out from reading into the Nutty Putty Cave situation from many years back, how awful!

What’s that, six dead now? What absolute clusterfuck.

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