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At 07:56 AM 3/1/2001 -0500, Michael Domitrek wrote: >Anyone have any information on this, spotted a small article in the local paper. Article stated it was at Clarksville, NY cave and that as of Tuesday they could not recover the body........ Michael By BRUCE A. SCRUTON, Staff writer Last updated: 12:15 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 27, 2001 Divers enter cave to recover body RPI student dies in underwater tunnel NEW SCOTLAND <New York> -- An RPI graduate student who wanted one more try at clearing an underground, underwater tunnel apparently became caught in the 20-inch opening and died when his air supply ran out, officials said early this morning. Robert Svensson, 23, was studying computer science at RPI. His hometown is Sherborn, Mass., between Boston and Worcester. Divers called off their search after several hours but returned later this morning to Clarksville Cave in an effort to recover the body. Svensson was among three students from the Troy school who went to the cave Monday afternoon. Experienced divers, the trio planned to use an underwater passage from one part of the cave to another. The passage dips down from one level and then back up into another room in the complex just off Route 443. It is that U-shaped < it's a sump; U-shaped refers to crosss section along the long axis of the passage> area that collects snow-melt and runoff from the Heldeberg Mountains and is always full of water. Albany County Deputy Chief Craig Apple said divers who went into the water-filled tube encountered near zero visibility because of the darkness and the amount of silt in the water. ``There's no current to move stuff away, so it all settles in there; very fine silt. As soon as they (divers) touch the water, it gets stirred up.'' <The sump is not entirely the result of water ponding in a low spot. It is simply one part of the stream that flows through most parts of the cave; currently the flow rate may be pretty low.> The Lake Room is about 1,000 feet from one of the entrances to the cave, a trip that takes about 45 minutes one-way crawling through openings that are sometimes 18 inches wide. .``There's house-size rooms in there, too, and that's the appeal (of exploring the cave),'' Apple said. < There is perhaps 100 yards worth of low crawl about 18 inches high; the only thing less than a few feet wide on the route to the Lake Room is the entrance, which is a roughly circular hole about 20 inches across. The "Big Room" is about 40 feet across and 15 feet high; it's apparently the main appeal for people who just want to sit in the cave and drink their beer in the summer.> The two remaining students told investigators that all three were experienced divers and dragged their equipment, including small air cannisters, from the entrance to the water's edge in the Lake Room. There, when they encountered the blocked passage and could not get through to the other parts of the cave, they decided to take turns trying to clear the limbs and collected debris. "They were down there for about an hour-and-a-half and were getting tired," Apple said. "They decided to call it quits and he (victim) said he wanted to give it one more try." "He went back down and after a period of time, a column of bubbles emerged.That was the last they saw of him," he said. The pair told officers they went into the water and tried to pull their friend out, but he was caught. "They did manage to push him forward some, but they couldn't get him out. He was tangled on the bend somehow," Apple said. The two then had to make the 45-minute crawl back to the entrance and run through some woods to get help. Officials got the 911 call about 9 p.m. Divers from both the Albany County Sheriff's Department and the Albany County Dive Team were called to the cave, along with specially-trained volunteers who have made dozens of rescues from the surrounding caves over the years. <These would be mostly local cavers with no cave diving experience; many of the cavers as well as several local volunteer firemen have attended a weekend orientation to basic cave rescue; a few of the local cavers have substantial experience at cave rescue. AFAIK none of the local dive rescue people have cave training.> Albany County Undersheriff John R. Mahan said this is the first death he can remember in an Albany County cave in the 25 years he has been with the department. <AFAIK it's been about 25 years since any cave death in New York. I believe there was a death while doing vertical work in a nearby cave around the mid to late 70's, and a caver was crushed by falling ice at another Albany County cave in '76. There would have been at least two more cave diving deaths in still another Albany County cave in '91 when students from the Syracuse University Outing Club were trapped by a flood. Rescue divers (with no cave training) were just about to enter a normally dry cave when a member of the cave rescue team showed up and convinced them they would die if they entered.> Working in two-man teams, the 10 divers took turns dipping into the frigid waters of the tunnel. While the air temperature in the cave remains about 55 degrees year-round, the water temperature is in the low 40s, the two officers said. "The tunnel where Svensson's body is trapped is only about 18-24 inches in diameter and, with his body in that space too, there's not much room to work," Apple said. After several hours of work, the divers still could not free the body, Apple said. About 1:30 a.m. today, the decision was made to bring the divers out of the cave. "We're going to get them some rest, discuss this, and come up with a different plan in the morning," Apple said. -Mike Rodriguez <mikey@mi*.ne*> http://www.mikey.net/scuba/schedule.html Pn(x) = (1/(2^n)n!)[d/dx]^n(x^2 - 1)^n -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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