The cave diver missing in the Kossuth Cave in Jósvafő, a member of the diving service of the Budapest Emergency Management Directorate, suffered a fatal accident during a planned reconnaissance dive, the Hungarian Counter-Terrorism Center (TEK) told MTI on Tuesday evening.
This article was originally published on our sister-site, Ungarn Heute.
The cave diver disappeared in the Kossuth Cave on the edge of Jósvafő in northeastern Hungary on Sunday afternoon. After an exploratory dive, he did not return to the starting point. The 42-year-old man had been working as a firefighting diver since 2008 and had dived in the Kossuth Cave several times. The accident occurred in a narrow passage with a length of 15 meters.
“After extensive analysis and consultations with cave and dive rescue experts, the exploration work continued Tuesday evening with another exploratory dive by the divers,” a TEK statement said. While searching for signs of life, the search team found the missing diver.
The analysis of the video footage taken by the divers has begun, andexperts will decide on the recovery and the circumstances of the recovery depending on the results, they added.
The Counter-Terrorism Center’s Director-General, János Hajdu, who coordinated the search, expressed condolences to the deceased’s relatives on behalf of all those involved in the search, the statement said.
The diver won a bronze medal at the 2014 European Championships and was awarded the silver medal for extraordinary bravery for his efforts in the search and rescue after the ship collision (Hableány disaster) in Budapest. His comrades bid him farewell with a photo on their Facebook page.
Sources: MTI, Index
Featured image via the Hungarian Cave Rescue Services’ Facebook page
