if there was ever a pair of divers so skilled that nobody could think tragedy would happen to them it was these two divers Parker Turner and Bill Gavin but when they went to the caves in the Indian Springs on November 17th 1991 their many years of experience were put to the test when the cave collapsed trapping them inside with no visibility and only a few minutes of air left Turner and Gavin fought for their lives with everything they had this is the terrible story of the Indian Spring cave collapse in 1989 the cave exploration organization
Woodsville cars plane project started laying down plans to further explore the underwater cave systems of the Indian Springs these caves are part of an intricate network of underwater passages connecting to the Florida aquafer and the well-known wakula Springs nobody knows exactly how long the Indian Springs underwater cave network is but it's part of a network that stretches over 18 mies from the south of Tallahassee to the Gulf of Mexico however as of when this expedition was being planned only 10% of the underwater cave system had been chartered many Dives were scheduled for further exploration of
the caves with the first set that happened on November 17 1991 spearheading the operation was one of wkr P's Founders Parker Turner and his partner Bill Gavin two of the most experienced divers in the world at the time the two of them together with Bill Main and Lamar English hold the record for the longest and deepest dive Parker Turner and Bill Gavin Dove 240 ft into the Sullivan sink and swam a mile and a half through it Turner a key innovator in diving safety measures techniques and modern equipment like rebers and dive lights chose Gavin
as his dive partner however they still couldn't do this alone though together with the pair were two teams of support divers who were going to help them on their expedition but little did they know that these teams would have a hand in what was about to happen nevertheless before Parker Turner and Bill Gavin went down to the caves the two separate teams of divers went in to put guide in lines and air tanks in place to make their expedition easier team one consisted of two divers who were part of the wkpp and their role was
to lay down the guiding lines after they did this team two consisting of the more experienced L English and George Irving went on to put gas tanks at various intervals along the guiding lines when they were done they went back up to the Cave opening while Turner and Gavin made their descent to these two seasoned veteran divers this was just another routine dive but little did they know that they were in for a reality check their Journey began with a 140t descent at the cavern after which they went through the narrow passage known as the
squall's Restriction from there their Journey continued Upstream through the mid River tunnel at the end of the this passage they entered the Hall of green Giants a space with a rocky floor bed instead of a slitty one in an hour to two had descended roughly 300 ft and traversed over half a mile of cave space they had gone far for a first dive and if there was a good time to return back to the surface it was now everything had gone smoothly up to this point and their return was going just as well but as
they approached the squall's narrowing the water was a little murky making it hard to see although it was still clear enough for them to move forward this was their first sign that something was wrong with each passing foot they got closer their Vision became worse where they would normally be able to see over 50 ft ahead of them they could barely make out what was 5 ft in front of them this wasn't enough to scare the two divers given their level of expertise but they would soon meet something that would send them into Panic The
Guiding line that was put in place was still present for them to follow but when it led into the Sandy ground that's when it hit them their exit was blocked but how did this happen the die was done by the best of the best months of planning went into this if there were chances of anything going wrong Turner and Gavin would have known but one thing they may have forgotten is that in Mother Nature's Domain anything can happen and the moment they dove into the cabern they were descending to their Doom you see just as
Turner and Gavin were making their descent team two comprising of English and irvan were resurfacing and given how deep this underwater cave was divers had to stop at intervals in their Ascension to avoid decompression sickness this was basically the origin of the problem it so happens that team 2 spent far too long to decompress and When Irvin exhaled air from his breeding gear the bubbles Rose and met the ceiling of the cave you would think that this was no big deal and it wouldn't have been if the cave ceiling wasn't made of limestone which is
a very light rock because of its nature the air bubbles were enough to dislodge portions of the ceiling therefore as the pieces of limestone came down they fell towards the narrow passage below carrying along sand and debris which formed a cloud of dirt that filled the water around them and this is the top this is the bottom you can see here a metal ball attached to the ceiling of the cave and this supposed to to represent a rock and the idea is that sometimes because of bubbles uh those rocks fall to the ground meanwhile on
the surface the other teams noticed the water levels in the Indian Spring temporarily going down and then Rising back up they didn't think much about it at the time but little did they know that this was a harbinger of the terror going on underwater they were going up so they didn't have anything to worry about except that Turner and Gavin was still down there and it was only a matter of time before the two would hit a roadblock and when they did they started looking for alternative paths to reach the surface Turner and Gavin were
communicating on their slate and Turner told Gavin that he would try to find another way out since the squall's narrowing was blocked Turner went deeper into the cave in the hopes that he might reach an opening somewhere else while Gavin sat waiting for Turner to return the seconds turned into minutes and with each moment that pass that meant less oxygen to sustain them if Turner didn't find a way out soon the two of them were done for Gavin wasn't waiting to find out what would happen if Turner wasn't successful so when he went back to
the block passage he noticed another lime attached to the main line in Gavin's head he knew that if he waited for Turner he was as good as dead but if he could just make it through this narrow passage of debris it would be a one-way Ascent back to the surface so he went straight into digging the was blocked with sand and little rocks therefore using a small opening he squeezed his way through pushing through the slit in sand he continued at this until he faced no more resistance he successfully made it through an even Rose
to where there were gas tanks but he still wasn't yet at the surface because he needed to decompress over on the top side the support divers went down for a routine check seeing that there were gas tanks still attached to the line they felt everything was all right and going according to plan they were completely oblivious to the dire situation Turner and Gavin were in and it wasn't until they got back to land that had hit them that something might be wrong one of the divers asked if he had seen Turner and he said he
had as well as Gavin he even added that Gavin waved at him but another of the divers said he was the one who had waved and not Gavin it was at that moment that they knew there was a problem a very big problem so both teams quickly do back in to look for Parker Turner and Bill Gavin nearly halfway down the cave entry George Irving came in contact with Gavin suspended in the air motionless but still breathing when George tried to check how much air Gavin had left Gavin moved and passed him his slate which
had three words that would send chills down George's spine the Slate read Parker is dead it all made sense then why he met Gavin Motionless In The Water the two of them Shar what they knew about the situation and that was when George went deeper into the cave in an attempt to find Turner's Body but after searching and searching the pleting oxygen levels forced him back to the surface his hours under water had yielded nothing and by the time he got back on land police and medical personnel had shown up as if it was a
crime scene it could be called that because Mother Nature had just taken the life of one of the best divers the world had ever known the First Responders couldn't go in as soon as George came out since they didn't have all the ne necessary gear but early the next morning a rescue team carried out an expedition to find Parker Turner's deceased body when this incident happened it was still unsure the exact cause of the mudslide that caused the blockage but Florida State University still thought it was relevant to find out exactly what happened because that
would be what Parker Turner would have wanted in their search they found that air bubbles affect the buoyancy of mineral rocks especially Limestone with this finding diving has been made easier and safer and more the Indian Spring underwater cave has been explored what happened to park of Turner was a terrible tragedy but what happened in the Gregory and the why anapanapa caves is still raising some questions to this day go check out that story here
