Posted by JR Gordon on December 10, 2004 at 11:56:22:
From Nic Toussaint; Akumal Dive Center:
"It was a sad day for cave diving in Mexico !
Two cave divers failed to comeback to exit, It was 9 diver group split in two groups of 4, one with guide,
te dive plan was a double jump traverse calimba - boschen, in sac actun cave system,
both teams sharing reels, jumps was 2 minutes form each other
one team turn the wrong way at the jump even they pickup their "team cookie marker" at jump reel,
4 divers miss it ! as they follow the arrows instead of their exit direction and travel 1500ft of passage not travel on the way in !
2 divers where taking pictures as they swam the 20-25 minutes to the end of the line following the arrows until they realize the line is over and they were lost,
they try to jump again but could not find Gran cenote - Hotul main line and swam back.........
In the meanwhile the other team pick up the second reel but left the first one for next day dive,
(actually this is a "snap and gap", but I never use) and head out thru the boa restrictions,
coming out uneventful however the other team was not out ! So they decide to drive to Gran Cenote and look for them
Back inside at the "snap gap" the team split in pairs and 1st pair make it out after sharing gas with less than 500 psi left on the tanks,
prior team re-arrenge gas a went looking for divers left behind,
the other pair did not make it out, running out of gas 200-300 ft from entrance,
the 1st search team brougth one out, 2nd search brought next one out
Too sad this is the 6th cave diver death in Mexico this year and they all link to the usual people involved, poor training and logistics wise !
Be smart guys !"