00:01Curtain Pot Tragedy
00:03On June 1st, 2019, 74-year-old Harry Hesketh, a retired computer programmer and passionate caver known to his friends
00:13as Esky,
00:15descended into Curtain Pot on Fountains Fell in the Yorkshire Dales, England.
00:20Caving had been his lifelong passion, a constant pursuit since his teenage years.
00:26On this day, he was with two friends, Bernard Walker and another caver, exploring and excavating a new section of
00:35the complex cave system.
00:36They were about an hour into their trip when the day took a catastrophic turn.
00:42While navigating a tight, nearly vertical pitch, Harry was sliding down a rope when he lost his grip and fell.
00:49His friends, unable to see him in the darkness below, heard a loud thud, followed by groans of pain.
00:58The fall was approximately 20 feet, 6 meters, and the impact had cleanly fractured his left femur.
01:06A broken thigh bone is a severe, life-threatening injury, causing excruciating pain, massive internal bleeding, and a rapid descent
01:16into shock and hypothermia,
01:18especially in the cold, damp environment of a cave.
01:23And somewhere in that freezing darkness, despite the pain, you can almost imagine one of the cavers muttering,
01:31Eh, bro, at least we know gravity's still working.
01:35Anyway, his friends immediately called for help, triggering one of the largest and most complex cave rescues in the region's
01:42history.
01:43Nearly 100 volunteers from at least seven different rescue organizations, including the Cave Rescue Organization and the Upper Wharfdale Fell
01:52Rescue Association,
01:54responded to the call.
01:56But Curtain Pot is a formidable challenge.
01:59Rescuers described it as a three-dimensional maze of narrow, twisting passages and vertical drops,
02:07making any extraction incredibly difficult.
02:10A medical officer, Alistair Morris, was among the first to reach Harry deep within the cave.
02:17He found him in immense pain, but initially responsive.
02:22As the hours ticked by, however, Harry's condition steadily deteriorated.
02:28He grew confused and began to drift in and out of consciousness.
02:33At one point, his heart stopped.
02:37Rescuers performed CPR for a minute in the cramped passage and managed to bring him back.
02:44It became clear that waiting was no longer an option.
02:49At around 10 p.m., more than nine hours after the fall, the team made the desperate decision to begin
02:56the extraction,
02:57knowing it was his only chance of survival.
03:00The process was agonizing.
03:04One rescuer would later state it was the most difficult extraction he had ever been involved in.
03:11The stretcher carrying Harry had to be repeatedly removed and re-rigged to maneuver around the tight, awkward bends.
03:19The only way the rescue could have been successful, another volunteer noted, was if Harry had been able to help
03:26himself.
03:27During the slow, arduous process of lifting him up the first vertical pitch, Harry Hesketh passed away.
03:35After a grueling 17-hour ordeal, his body was finally brought to the surface at 5 a.m. the next
03:43morning.
03:43The coroner later ruled his death an accident, caused by shock and hypothermia from his injuries.
03:52Eagle's Nest, Florida's deadliest dive site
03:55On Christmas Day 2013, Darren Spivey, 35, and his 15-year-old son, Dylan Sanchez,
04:03descended into the waters of Eagle's Nest Sinkhole in Florida.
04:08They were there to test out new dive gear, a Christmas gift.
04:13But they were diving into what is known as the Mount Everest of cave diving.
04:17A system so dangerous, a sign at the entrance warns,
04:22Stop. Prevent your death. Go no farther.
04:29Bro, I would have turned around right there.
04:31What do you think the main characters of this segment decided?
04:35Exactly. Neither Darren nor his son were certified cave divers.
04:41Their dive computers later revealed they reached a depth of 233 feet on compressed air,
04:47a depth that induces severe, intoxicating nitrogen narcosis.
04:54Investigators believe that while deep inside the labyrinth, confused and impaired,
04:59they lost track of time and air.
05:02The tragedy likely began when 15-year-old Dylan ran out of air.
05:07His father would have attempted a panicked rescue,
05:10trying to share his own air in the disorienting darkness.
05:13Their new dive lights had also failed.
05:16Their batteries depleted.
05:18In the pitch-black, silt-filled water, a desperate struggle ensued.
05:24Dylan's body was later found at 67 feet,
05:27his mask torn off and floating around his neck,
05:31a clear sign of a futile, panicked ascent.
05:34Darren was found deeper, his air regulator out of his mouth.
05:39Both of their tanks were empty.
05:42This incident was a stark example of inexperience leading to tragedy.
05:47But Eagle's Nest is just as deadly for experts.
05:51On October 15, 2016,
05:55two close friends and highly experienced certified cave divers,
05:59Patrick Peacock and Chris Rittenmeyer,
06:02geared up for a deep dive into the system.
06:04A third friend, Justin Blakely,
06:07remained in the Sunlit Basin as a support diver.
06:11Peacock and Rittenmeyer entered the cave around 2 p.m.,
06:15expecting to be back within the hour.
06:17When they failed to surface,
06:19Blakely checked for them every 30 minutes until 6 p.m.,
06:22when he finally called for help.
06:25A specialized recovery team was dispatched.
06:28After an initial unsuccessful search,
06:31they re-entered the cave the next morning.
06:33They found the bodies of the two friends
06:36lying close together in a deep,
06:38dangerous,
06:39and complex section of the cave,
06:41at a depth of about 260 feet.
06:45They were in a treacherous part of the system,
06:48where any minor issue,
06:50a silt-out reducing visibility to zero,
06:53or a problem with their complex rebreather equipment,
06:56is magnified into a fatal incident.
07:01Their deaths proved that in the depths of Eagle's Nest,
07:04there is no margin for error,
07:06regardless of skill or experience.
07:11Easegill Caverns Rockfall
07:13On the morning of May 28, 1988,
07:16a massive search was underway
07:18in the Easegill Caverns in Lancashire, England.
07:21Three cavers,
07:22Janet Barnfield,
07:23Michael Preece,
07:24and David Simpson,
07:26had failed to return from a trip the previous day.
07:28A fourth member of their party
07:30had turned back early,
07:32feeling unwell,
07:33and raised the alarm
07:35when his friends didn't surface.
07:38All night,
07:39rescue teams had scoured the vast system,
07:41one of the longest in Britain,
07:43but found no trace.
07:46The hope was that the group was simply lost,
07:48or stranded with failed lights
07:50in one of the cave's many side passages.
07:53That hope was shattered
07:55when a searcher,
07:56navigating the mainstream way
07:58below a large chamber
07:59known as the Assembly Hall,
08:01noticed signs of a recent,
08:03massive collapse.
08:05A huge section of the ceiling,
08:08a boulder choke,
08:09had given way.
08:11At first,
08:12the rescuer thought he saw
08:13another team member
08:14squeezing through the pile of debris.
08:16On closer inspection,
08:18he realized he was looking
08:20at the body of one of the missing cavers.
08:22Pinned high against the cave wall
08:24by a rock the size of a small van.
08:27The search had ended.
08:30A grim recovery
08:31was just beginning.
08:34The scene that greeted the recovery teams
08:36was one of utter devastation.
08:39The passage was choked
08:41with tons of freshly fallen rock,
08:43and the stream roared
08:45beneath the unstable pile.
08:47The first two victims,
08:49Janet and Michael,
08:50were recovered from the debris.
08:53But the third,
08:54David Simpson,
08:55was still trapped
08:57in the heart of the collapse.
08:58He was horrifically compressed
09:00by the main boulder,
09:02his body crushed against the wall.
09:05One rescuer who was there
09:07described the scene
09:08as something he was unlikely
09:10to ever forget,
09:11noting the victim's facial features
09:13were unrecognizable.
09:17Bro, at that point,
09:18even the boulder probably went,
09:20uh, my bad.
09:22The operation to free him
09:24was one of the most difficult
09:25and dangerous
09:27in the history of UK cave rescue.
09:30Before they could even begin,
09:32the entire collapse
09:33had to be stabilized
09:34by painstakingly wedging
09:36smaller rocks
09:37under the larger,
09:38teetering boulders.
09:39Then,
09:40specialized equipment,
09:41heavy drills,
09:42and stone-splitting tools
09:44called plug-in feathers
09:45had to be hauled
09:46deep into the cave.
09:48For hours,
09:50the sound of hammers
09:51and drills
09:52echoed through the passage
09:53as the team worked
09:55to break apart the rock
09:56that held David's body.
09:58Finally,
09:59after a monumental effort,
10:01they were able to free him.
10:04The bodies were then placed
10:05onto stretchers
10:06for the long,
10:07arduous carry-out
10:08of the cave,
10:09a journey that took
10:11many more hours
10:12of pulling,
10:13lifting,
10:14and maneuvering
10:15through the tight,
10:16unforgiving passages
10:17of the Ysgill system.
10:18"...
10:19overd Zen?"
10:21..
10:23...
10:23...
10:25...
10:25...
10:25...
10:25You
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