the Manchester hole tragedy in November 2005 14-year-old Joseph liser along with 10 classmates including his friends Charlie and Amy from his school his math teacher and a 17-year-old caver volunteer who knew the cave system well decided to explore the ndale caves in North Yorkshire England the cave system is famous for its 20 entrances and the group chose to enter through Manchester hole a small opening in the ground that leads to a huge cave they descended through a hole into a massive chamber about the size of a football field with a few inches of water water on the floor and a 50-ft high ceiling hung with stalactites after passing through they entered a tunnel and climbed down a muddy path into a second smaller chamber that still held all 11 students and had shallow water the tunnel then narrowed sharply forcing them to crawl on hands and knees for 40 ft through twisting Passages at the bottom a muddy stream soaked their clothes but led to a small chamber where they could stand again the math teacher was the last to follow the group when he reached the small chamber the guide became very worried because the water level was much higher than usual something had never seen before even though it was cold and windy outside there was no forecast of rain everyone was standing in freezing water their boots were filled with water and there was hardly any space to move to make matters worse the water kept Rising soon reaching above the knees of some students the guide confused by the sudden flooding knew they had to get out quickly so they decided to retreat the math teacher went first followed by the students one by one taking the small passage back to the previous chamber at one point the teacher and nine of the students were inside the tunnel when a sudden surge of cold water FL flooded the chamber the guide along with Amy and Joseph were the last to exit the chamber and enter the tunnel the tunnel was crowded with students struggling against the rising water realizing the danger the guide Amy and Joseph went back to the previous chamber to catch their breath but the water kept rising and they were nearly submerged taking a deep breath they re-entered the tunnel this time the tunnel was clear enough for them to move the guide led the way with Amy and Joseph following closely however in the previous chamber the guide pushed Amy out to safety but Joseph never made it out the water continued to rise even in the chamber the guide tried to go back for Joseph but the math teacher insisted on taking the other 10 students to safety tragically Joseph drowned in the narrow tunnel where there was no air after the incident the group went to the surface to alert emergency personnel and they emerged under a blue sky with strong winds but not a single drop of rain it was later revealed that strong winds had blown water out of the nearby scar house Reservoir that day thousands of gallons of water were forced into the river below causing it to rise 4 ft in just 1 hour this surge of water drained directly into the cave system normally water slowly trickles through and seeps into the groundwater but that day the huge volume overwhelmed the Cave's ability to drain triggering flash flooding throughout the system in just a few minutes cave Rescuers arrived within 20 minutes after being called by then the water had already receded to below their knees they found the lifeless body of Joseph liser in the narrow tunnel before the final chamber Neil Moss incident it was Sunday March 22nd 1959 when 20-year-old Oxford philosophy student Oscar Neil Moss along with seven other people four of whom were part of the British caving Association decided to visit Peak Cavern in the village of Castleton derbish the cave system was well known however 2 weeks earlier the same four BCA explorers had discovered a new Fisher in a side chamber that was 1,000 ft deep the eight explorers entered the cave system in the afternoon they were equipped with ropes lamps helmets and other necessary caving materials upon entering they discovered the Mucky Ducks section a wet squeeze tunnel that was frequently flooded after rain this led them to the boulder passage an easier section where they could stand upright while descending and maneuver around various obstructions approximately 493 ft into the passage a 10 ft climb on the north wall of the upper Gallery awaited them high above the Steep muddy slopes was Pickering passage a long narrow crawl space where you had to stretch your whole body to move through it concluded with an awkward Bend and a muddy sump above the eyehole just large enough to accommodate a human body laid the next challenge it led to a thigh deep muddy pool that connected to the stalagmite chamber a vast beautiful part of the cave filled with stalagmites with a ceiling high enough for a person to stand upright despite their fatigue they approached the newly discovered Fisher in the ground the shaft measured around 3. 2 ft by 2. 3 ft none had ventured all the way down there but it was estimated to be at least 40 ft deep to be safe they decided to deploy a 250 ft climbing ladder and Neil volunteered to go down he started to descend around 3:30 p.
m. pushing the ladder before continuing he went down 12 ft when he met his first challenge the corkscrew twist he succeeded in pushing himself into a 10t long slightly inclined passageway and then crawled through it pushing the ladder as he went afterwards he came face to face with a vertical passageway 18 ft deep a section none had ventured into before throughout his descent he maintained constant communication with his team above excited Moss dropped further down the tunnel but unfortunately he met a boulder there he knew he couldn't continue descending so he decided to climb back up unfortunately moss found himself unable to lift his feet sufficiently to ascend the ladder he became trapped in an elliptical crevice only 18 in wide he called out for assistance and despite efforts to lift him by pulling on the ladder it became jammed between the cave surface and his body ropes were lowered to help him but every time they tried to pull him up they either snapped or got cut by the sharp edge of the rock his body ended up blocking air from getting into the shaft so he needed to be rescued immediately before he ran out of oxygen some of the cavers left to seek more help within a few hours hundreds of volunteers from across England along with the Royal Air Force Force Police and even the Navy joined the rescue efforts just a few hours after Moss became trapped in the shaft The Rescuers encountered another obstacle by this time the air in the shaft had become polluted by carbon dioxide Moss became disoriented because of it and he began behaving irrationally Witnesses said that he wasn't helping at all that he didn't seem to care about how serious the situation was and that he even told The Rescuers to take a break to get something to eat experienced cavers were sent down the shaft to rescue Moss but one by one they were forced back by the toxic air three of the volunteers even lost Consciousness finally the fourth volunteer Ron Peters managed to secure a rope around Moss's chest and began to pull however he soon realized that this only worsened Moss's breathing difficulties the Royal Air Force brought oxygen tanks to ventilate the shaft and although the quality of air was marginally improved it proved to be insufficient the next morning 18-year-old June Bailey arrived and suggested breaking Neil's collar bone to help rescue him however the toxic air stopped all their efforts and they had to turn back by Monday afternoon roughly 24 hours after Moss entered the cave he was still breathing but it started to rain and the entire cave was evacuated as a precaution when it stopped The Rescuers went back to the shaft accompanied by a royal Air Force doctor they did not hear a sound Moss was not breathing and he was declared dead on Tuesday March 24th 1959 throughout the ordeal Moss's father Eric Moss stayed at the entrance and asked that his son's body remain where it was to avoid risking further injury or loss of life during the rescue the shaft was sealed with rocks from the stalagmite chamber that chamber which h the shaft later became known as the Moss chamber his final resting place the Manatee Springs cave diving tragedy on March 14th 2022 a couple of friends William and Harry and their respective fathers George and Jack decided to visit the Manatee Springs State Park in Florida to do some cave diving at manate Spring State Park divers need to have full cave diving certification and must dive with a partner who has previous diving experience at manate in order to access the cave area all four divers had only the intro to cave diving certification not the the full one the Manatee Springs system is known for its four entry points Manatee Springs mainly for Open Water divers catfish Hotel s sink and fredman sink the cave tunnels below these points extend for thousands of feet but only fredman sink and catfish Hotel have an entrance pool for cave divers the system is called a siphon because water flows like a river From A Distant entry point and naturally comes out at Manatee Springs due to this flow cave divers typically enter at one point and exit Downstream at another this type of dive known as a Traverse is more challenging because divers must know two Pathways instead of just one entering a siphon and a Traverse system was only allowed for full certified cave divers regardless they decided to enter the system at fredman's sink and plan to exit at catfish Hotel they started their dive at 11:17 a. m.
each diver equipped with two air tanks both filled to 3,800 piei since the tunnels were about 100 ft deep roughly four atmospheres of pressure the air was compressed to 1/4 of its original volume and consumed at four times the surface rate they all carried both primary and backup light sources as well as dive computers to track their depth heart rate movement and time additionally William and Harry had a GoPro in their head to document the entire dive William and Harry took the lead with their Dads following closely behind the gentle pull of the water from fredman's sink helped them cover the 1,700 ft distance to catfish hotel after the first 900 ft they came to an exit line at Sue sink a rope tied to a rock marked the spot and light from the surface was seeping into the tunnel this exit was meant for emergencies only because it wasn't set up for divers but for campers their planned exit catfish Hotel was 700 ft away they kept diving and eventually reached the end of the route near manate Springs but they couldn't see the exit line to catfish Hotel confused they started searching for any light coming from above but found nothing Fathers and Sons teamed up and decided to return by following the line at that moment George had 3,000 PSI of air remaining which was enough to exit safely however the return trip turned out to be more difficult than expected they were moving against the current so their air consumption increased rapidly as their breathing went up finally George spotted the exit at Sue's sink and noticed light leaking from the surface George and his son William emerged from the system at 12:00 p. m. however their friends didn't make it out something had gone wrong William wanted to dive back down to find Harry and Jack but George insisted on calling 911 instead Harry and Jack had apparently missed the exit at Sue's sink their lighting equipment washed out the natural light leaking from the surface and boulders further blocked it so they didn't see the exit they continued diving desperately for another 20 minutes searching for any exit finally Harry spotted the light at fredman's sink rushing ahead along the guideline he looked back to see his dad's camera light following him Harry managed to exit the system at 1220 p.
m. with one tank completely empty and the other below 1,500 pie eye but his father Jack did not emerge William and George met up with Harry at fredman's sink and they talked about why they had missed the exit at catfish Hotel they later realized there was no upline leading to catfish hotel deep inside the cave they could see light from the surface but it was partly blocked by a 10-ft deep passage arranged in a Double L shape a detail they wouldn't have known without prior experience in fact many divers enter through catfish hotel and exit at fredman's sink because it's easier even though they have to dive against the current cave Rescuers arrived around 12:50 p. m.
and found Jack's lifeless body just 100 ft from the exit at fredman's sink both of his tanks were completely empty he had traveled 3,400 ft through the system and ran out of air in the last 100 ft his final movement was recorded at 12:17 p. m.
