Status: 10/31/2022 4:31 p.m
The media speak of a “miraculous rescue”: A diver is missing for hours in underwater caves off Mallorca – his oxygen should have been used up long ago. In the end, however, he can be saved.
A missing diver has been saved from asphyxiation in a dramatic race against time in Mallorca. After a search of more than six hours, the 50-year-old was found in an underwater cave around 11 p.m. Sunday night. The media reported, citing the authorities of the Spanish Mediterranean island. The newspaper “Diario de Mallorca” spoke of a “miraculous rescue”.
The professional diver was in the extensive Cova de sa Gleda caves in Manacor, around 60 kilometers west of Palma, with two fellow divers who were also experienced, when he apparently got lost. The complex system of flooded cavities runs almost parallel to the southeast coast of Mallorca at a depth of up to 24 meters and is 13.5 kilometers long.
Special team called from Madrid
At around 4:30 p.m., he was reported missing by his colleagues. According to media reports, the contents of his scuba tank only lasted until 5:00 p.m. According to the information, several expert teams from the police and fire brigade took part in the search operation, which was initiated immediately. A special team from the Guardia Civil police unit even set out from Madrid, but did not have to intervene in the end.
Later that night, the missing person was discovered alive – he had saved himself in a small air chamber and stayed there until he was rescued. The Cova de sa Gleda is considered to be the largest underwater cave discovered in Europe to date.
Companion experienced something similar in 2017
It is not the first incident of this kind on the popular holiday island: one of the companions of the rescued was a professional diver, who had been searched for for two days in April 2017. He had been reported missing in the same area and was rescued from an air chamber in the Cova de sa Piqueta underwater cave.