Seeing a massive great white shark ambushing Ben and dragging him off mid-sentence makes for a terrifying jolt, but the subsequent grey blur could hardly be called chilling. reopened in 2003 amid pressure from the National Association for Cave Divers and the National Speleological Society Cave Diving . Without cave diving training, Sorenson said, there was no way Ben could have gotten through some of the narrower passages, called restrictions by divers, in the cave. But when John breathed in again, his chest expanded and he was wedged inside for good. The rescue mission became a body recovery operation, but it became apparent that it would simply be too dangerous to get John out of the passage. Around 7:30p.m., as the sun began to set, he went in again. There were no marks on the limestone where a divers helmet or tank would have scraped the cave ceiling. Two tanks known to belong to McDaniel were found near the entrance to the cave. In Ron Howard's "Thirteen Lives," out Friday on Prime Video, Viggo Mortensen plays Rick Stanton, a British cave diver who recounts his rescue of a Thai boys soccer team from a monsoon-flooded cave. Lengthy searches have only located some anomalously placed and filled decompression tanks; many of the divers who took part in those searches believe that if McDaniel is indeed dead, his body is not in the cave as he was too large to enter its narrower passages. Knowing that divers in trouble will often burrow deeper into narrow crevices such as those within the cave in a mistaken effort to get back to the surface, she revised her opinion. Results: Unquenchable heroism and complex human relationships amid the perils of extreme sport. Ben did not have the certification required . His family said the diver wasn't looking for Ben McDaniel, but cave divers are skeptical.The family steadily increased a reward to $30,000, which incensed the cave diving community because they thought it was recklessly encouraging inexperienced divers to . Tank one, an "aluminum 80" (80 cubic ft capacity), full tank with a regulator, was found 200 feet (61m) inside the cave. No one is known to have seen him since. [2][1] Beginning at the gate, over 1,600 feet (490m) through the area's limestone bedrock have been mapped, to a depth of 310 feet (94m); the cave's full extent is unknown. After struggling to breathe for several hours, John became unresponsive shortly before midnight. Before Updated [3], McDaniel had been living at his parents' beach house on the Emerald Coast during a sabbatical in the wake of a divorce, a business failure, and the death of his younger brother two years earlier. Some theorise that something more sinister happened to Ben: that he was murdered. Very interesting. By that point John had been hanging upside down for more than eight hours. Ten people, including two who were found Monday, have had fatal incidents inside the Eagle's Nest cave dive area in Western Florida since 1981. . [2], McDaniel's dives at the site were regular enough that the dive shop employees and other frequent visitors came to know him. Edd Sorenson (born October 17, 1959) is a technical cave diver known for numerous rescues of lost or trapped divers in the underwater caves of Florida particularly in Vortex Springs and Blue Springs Recreational Park. Ben was last seen by two Vortex Spring (VS) employees at the gate blocking untrained and non-certified divers from entering the most dangerous parts of the cave. This means that we may include adverts from us and third parties based on our knowledge of you. He had a failed marriage and financial trouble. The entrance to Nutty Putty Cave was boarded up and declared a public health hazard. While divers couldnt find Ben, they did find two decompression tanks which are left by divers as they ascend to avoid decompression sickness. For those who are willing to push boundaries to the absolute limits. Last modified on Fri 14 Jul 2017 15.42 EDT. There were some rather distasteful discussions as well, things that nobody really wanted to do," Sgt Cannon said. Authorities in Florida are investigating the deaths of two cave divers at a wildlife park, the Hernando County Sheriffs Office said. MeSH "I know what I'm doing and I barely made it through," he told the Commercial Appeal. Whatever the final cause of death, whichever of the million things a real cave diver knows can go wrong and kill you, which an open water diver has no idea . For more information, please see our Kelly said shortly afterwards that on that evening, a man he described as "wild-eyed" and apparently drunk showed up at the shop and asked if it was too late to dive; the possibility has been raised that this man, if he existed, may have been involved. BlueTrin; Jan 18, 2020; 2 3 4. Teacher with prosthetic Z-cup breast FINALLY put on leave. Two men died while diving at Eagle's Nest sinkhole in Florida, Oct. 16, 2016. "[1], In mid-August, four months into his Florida sojourn, Ben returned to Tennessee for a week. I plan to make a longer video covering all of the different theories and all of the details I left out at a later time.I would like to also thank the YouTube Channels deepswim and dcainret for the fantastic footage of Vortex Spring I was able to use; including some of Ben and the initial recovery efforts.The footage used in this video come from the YouTube channels of:dcainret:https://www.youtube.com/user/dcainret/videosdeepswim:https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=deepswimVideo of Ben McDaniel inside of Vortex Spring:https://youtu.be/VbyoBlQtjNUVideo of the ROV:https://youtu.be/4QuxtejMUR0Songs: Emmit Fenn: CreepMaksym Bubyriev - Conspiracy Theory Short Version BEsther Abrami - No.8 Requiem\"Copyright Disclaimer Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for \"fair use\" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. They went through their very long decompression burdened by the "mental horror that just took place.". Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. The authorities said it was too dangerous to retrieve their bodies, but four . The most common cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning, preceded by running out of breathing gas, usually after getting lost owing to a loss of visibility caused by suspended silt. One rescuer was able to get close enough to pronounce him dead of cardiac arrest. That's practically a death sentence when you're scuba diving, so always be careful. Dave Shaw was determined to bring this missing person's remains back to his family and set out on his final mission in 2005. Epub 2013 Jan 31. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much May 26, 2022. Through the years, McAniff, of Rhode Island, said he has seen the number of diving deaths decrease while the sport's popularity is on the rise. [14] The talk box, originally located in the Piano Room of the cave, was moved to the basin area of Vortex Springs and is now at a depth of only 21 feet (6.4m). Shortly after, the group of teens saw one of the divers floating face down and when they checked on him, received no response. "It's a really tight spot, but we've been able to get around him. The divers who recovered his body believed he was, however. But within minutes he realised he was stuck, with no room to turn around or even go backwards. Even with improvements in technology, the greatest hazards faced by cave divers remain unchanged. 2) Steve Gerrard "We Lost Our Friend" NACO News May-June 1988, (20)3, pgs. While police had already searched the spring, there were certain passages that they refused to search because it was much too dangerous and they werent experienced enough. Ben Haddon-Cave, 27, whose sister Jessie Cave played Ron Weasley's girlfriend Lavender Brown in the films, had been out drinking with 26-year-old Paddy Bolster who also died in the tragedy. Others, including Cronin and Kelly, suggested he had staged his own disappearance to start his life over under another identity and escape his past troubles. Last month, Larry Higginbotham, 43, of Biloxi, Miss., drowned inside the cave at Vortex. "If I had to guess his son suffered from some horrible narcosis. The main causes of death have been drowning when cave diving, drowning as the result of flooding or negotiating deep water, injuries incurred from falling from a height, and injuries incurred as the result of rock falls.In ten cases the bodies have not been recovered. Two cave divers . "Once John had been declared dead, there were discussions about 'How do we get him out?' Investigative documents detailing the events surrounding a diver's death at Roaring River State Park show that multiple factors likely contributed to the drowning deep inside a cave . National Library of Medicine [2], In March 2012, the McDaniels arranged for cadaver dogs to search the area of the springs again, but with no results. He came to Vortex Springs the next day. The Pair Have Been Involved in Other Rescues. [21], During a chili cook-off he was hosting at Vortex Spring in December, Kelly reportedly fell down the stairs and sustained a head injury. Home. Equipment failure and training are rarely an issue for experienced divers, while insufficient training is the most . Nevertheless, police refused to treat it as a homicide, much to the dismay of Lynn-Marie Carty. It considers all the theories regarding its subject's disappearance: an accident as originally believed, a murder or coverup of the accident as the McDaniels have sometimes alleged, and the possibility of a staged disappearance to allow Ben to escape his problems, which McClellan believes. Assisted by helicopters, they searched the swamps along the spring's outflow into Blue Creek and Sandy Creek to the Choctawhatchee River. There was no sign of a struggle at his car and his belongings were untouched, including $1,000 in cash. [2], Ben was 6feet 1inch (185cm) tall and weighed 210 pounds (95kg), one inch (2.5cm) taller and 20 pounds (9.1kg) heavier than Sorenson. [5], The following month, amid increasing criticism, the McDaniels rescinded the reward offer. Unable to load your collection due to an error, Unable to load your delegates due to an error. Seig Lu. )[16] In total, 16 divers spent 36 straight days looking for Ben's body in the cave with no results. The entrance to Nutty Putty Cave was boarded up and declared a public health hazard. Diving Hyperb Med. When authorities arrived, the diver was deceased, according to the sheriffs office. 1:38. The former owner, Lowell Kelly, was charged with driving an ex-employee into the woods and accused him of stealing money before beating him viciously with a baseball bat. Many divers are adamant that Ben isnt inside the cave. The body of a cave diver still remains trapped upside-down after his ghastly death. Mr Budd was right as among the horrific cave diving stories since 1973, is that of 26-year-old medical student John Edward Jones who became stuck in Utah in 2009. [2] The insinuation of cowardice alienated divers who had already risked their lives searching the cave,[17] and raised fears among them that it would only encourage untrained divers to enter the cave and take potentially fatal risks for the reward money. The spring remains a pleasant 68 degrees year round and boasts of thousands of tourists who flock to the spring for camping, swimming and of course, diving. [2] They agreed to put up $54,000 to guarantee the cost of replacing a remotely operated underwater vehicle brought to the spring by the Fort Lauderdale police, in case it was lost in the cave. )[20], McDaniel was not the only person associated with Vortex Spring at the time facing serious legal issues. Volunteer searches continued afterwards at the spring through November, often with the McDaniels and Greer in attendance. [2], Ben's truck was still in the parking lot the next morning, but with many summer visitors coming to enjoy the site's many water-based recreational opportunities and picnic grounds in addition to diving, the employees said they were too busy to notice. Three tanks believed to belong to Ben were recovered. July 1 - The progress of Belgian cave diver Ben Reymenants and engineers pumping out water convince them to stay. A Warner Bros. Armed with flashlights, they searched the spring. When the footage was reviewed, his team realized that Dave had captured his last moments underwater attempting to free Deon Dreyer from the depths of the cave. He called his mother on his cell phone, the last contact he had with his family. Terrifyingly John then slid even further down into the passage and was trapped with his arms pinned under his chest. -- Two cave divers in Florida were found dead after they were reported missing over the weekend, according to police . The 26-year-old was a medical student, father of one and an experienced spelunker, John Edward Jones died after getting trapped upside in a nightmarishly narrow cave passage in 2009, This diagram shows how John was firmly wedged upside down in a narrow passage, Nutty Putty Cave is located south of Salt Lake City, Utah, Rescuers worked for hours to try to pull John out to no avail, A memorial plaque to John stands near the entrance to Nutty Putty Cave. An overwhelming majority of the fatalities occurred in the state of Florida where many flooded caves are located. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Richard and fellow diver John Volanthen were the first divers to reach the stranded group in an underground network in Chiang Rai province ahead of their successful rescue. "Ben was brave," his father later said. This is the theory that Bens parents believe the least. Ben's brother who supposedly died from a stroke, actually died from a drug overdose; according to one pathologist there wasn't the slightest sign of a stroke. He has never been seen again. And a lot of times you become catatonic and just sit . In the 1990s, 13 divers perished in the cave. If Edd Sorenson says Bens not in the cave, hes not there. "After what we went through with Paul, we know our son well enough to know he wouldn't put us through that again," his mother told the Commercial Appeal.[1]. . Epub 2012 Jul 18. It is unknown at this time if all the equipment was working properly, the sheriffs office added. As the sun faded on the 19th of August, 2010, Ben walked down the narrow dock and slipped in the clear, warm, water of Vortex Spring. 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