The rescue operation has managed to extract the lifeless body of the French speleologist who died yesterday Thursday after being trapped in a cave under exploration in the Cantabrian municipality of Soba, in the area of ??Portillo de La Sía, around four in the morning. by a rockfall.
Members of the Potes Mountain Rescue Group (GREIM) have guarded the body ever since, waiting for a Cantabrian Government helicopter to take it to the airport, where it has already landed to remain in the custody of the Civil Guard.
As reported by the regional government, a “complex maneuver” of rescue has had to be carried out that has included small blasting to allow passage and transfer the body on a stretcher to the exit. In addition, it has detailed that the device has had to overcome “very narrow” passages and two shafts of 25 and 7 meters high with counterweights.
The government helicopter has gone to the scene this morning and the rescuers have carried the body to the vicinity of the aircraft, where they have hoisted it on board with the crane. Next, the flight back to the airport has been undertaken, where the corpse has been received by the funeral services.
With this, the rescue operation of this speleologist is concluded, who, according to the Government, like his two companions – who have been unharmed – was an experienced professional who had mapped various caves in Cantabria on numerous occasions.
The Cantabrian Executive yesterday activated a device of more than 30 people to rescue the victim. Part of the operation finally managed to reach him and confirmed his death.
The body was in a rather unstable area due to the rockfall that caused the fatal outcome. The two people who were with the deceased, also of French nationality, were the ones who notified the emergency services after part of the roof of the cave fell off.
According to the information that has emerged, it is a complex and very narrow cavity, with two 25-meter and 7-meter wells, very narrow meanders that probably would have to be removed with microblasting, and a circular 1.5-meter room where knocked down the roof.
Technicians from the General Directorate of the Interior of the Government of Cantabria, speleologists from the Red Cross, GREIM from the Civil Guard of Potes, Civil Guard and volunteers from the Ramales de la Victoria Civil Protection Group have participated in the search device.
A first evaluation team, made up of members of the GREIM, cavers from the Red Cross and the coordinator of the General Directorate of the Interior, initially went to the cave with the aim of evaluating and providing information on the situation. These troops are the ones who reached the fatality.
Meanwhile, other members of the operation proceeded to mark the area to avoid losses and set up a transmitter at the mouth of the cave to guarantee communications with the Advanced Command Post, located in the La Gándara de Soba sports center.
The regional government has thanked “the professionalism and effort” of all the members of the operation, who have successfully resolved “an extremely complex rescue.”
