Dear caver and diver friends,
On April 3, 2022, our friend Márton Mede disappeared during an exploratory dive. Several organizations worked hard during his search and later to bring him to the surface, with their help our friend's body left his beloved cave after a week.
The longest rescue operation in the history of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service ended on at around 2 p.m on Sunday, the 10th of April 2022. After 7 days of search and rescue, the body of a cave diver who died on the 3rd of April during an exploratory dive was brought to the surface.
The body of the missing diver was found on Tuesday, at a considerable distance, about 250 meters, from the start of the dive, the entrance to the “Reménytelen” (Hopeless) Sump, at a depth of about 30 meters. The cause of the accident seems to be a collapse of the passage, the traces of which were discovered by the cave divers diving the next day, at a depth of -48 meters at the end of the known passage.
The terminal zone of the passage was filled up with muddy sediment and the diving guide rope was stuck beneath it. The possible signs indicating the collapse are being examined by the experts of the Aggtelek National Park by analysing the data of the karst water level registering well and the water flow meter at the “Nagy-Tohonya” spring.
Dear cavers, dear friends!
The Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, together with several cave rescue and diving services, has been organizing and performing several search and rescue operations inside the Kossuth Cave. These activities are related to the accident that happened on Sunday. Cave rescue service personnel, cave divers and civilians are engaged in a physically and especially mentally exhausting tasks in extreme environmental conditions.
In addition to the large number of volunteers, the members of the Counter Terrorism Centre (TEK)– have joint the operation on Monday night. Their task is to help the organisation and the logistics and support the work of the professionals working inside the cave. The commander of TEK ordered a full news block on Monday in connection with the ongoing operation.
As soon as the Counter-Terrorism Centre lifts the news block, we will be happy to inform all those interested about the current situations and the results of the rescue process. It will also be possible to answer the many questions that have arisen since.
We would like to thank you for your support and for the understanding of the current situation.
Hungarian Cave Rescue Service
On Sunday, 3rd of April 3 2022, members of a cave diving group from the capital conducted exploratory dives in the Kossuth Cave near Jósvafő. An accident happened during their dive: one of the cave diver did not return by the prescribed time to the starting point located in the Apáink-terme (Our Father’s room) part of the cave. The companions of the divers, who were provided the safety of the diver set off immediately after, but were not able to find the trail of the safety guided rope in the known passages. The visibility in the underwater parts of the cave at that time was next to zero.
After the alert of the cave rescue teams, the Gömör-Tornai Territorial Unit of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service arrived at the scene in the afternoon, with the assistance of the North Hungarian Association of Cave Rescuers, the Bakonyi Cave Rescue Service and the Speleo Roznava (SK) In collaboration with BAZ County Specialists of the Disaster Management organization, the Neptune Diving Club and the cave divers of the Amphora Diving Club, which has been researching the cave for decades, began planning further dives to locate the missing diver. Additional assistance arrived for the operations in the evening and in the morning, including several rescuers with relevant cave diving experience.
March 6, 2022. The early afternoon the emergency phone rang. On the other side of the line is a parachute pilot, who hang on the tree in the wooded part of Óbuda (this is the 3rd district of Budapest).
Fortunately, she was not injured, but she was hanging on a 30 feets high on the tree, and unable to come down on her own.
Some minutes later we sent an alert to the Tree Rescue Forces, for which four rescuers soon applied.
Gábor Berta was the nearly and he started immediatly.
Gábor arrived at the scene with the equipment about 1 hour after the accident. The pilot lady sent her position on Google Maps, so it was not so difficult to find her in the dense forest.
She hung on a storm-damaged oak tree, about 30 feets high. The parachute was tangled in the dense shoots of the broken tree.
Luckilly the pilot was not stuck and could move her limbs. After the rescue the second task was the parachute untying from the tree. The cord was tangled but in the end the parachute was released step by step without any destruction.
On the afternoon of 28th of November 2021, in the rainy weather, a middle-aged lady suffered a fractured ankle during hiking on the area of „Hármashatár Hegy” on the side of „Újlaki Hegy”. Due to the difficult and exposed terrain, help was requested on the helpline of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service (BMSz), and also an alert was also issued on the rescue hot-line of the National Ambulance Service. By consulting a relative of the injured by phone, the location of the patient could be determined, and a little later accurate GPS coordinates could be obtained.
The relatives reported that the person had suffered a leg injury, but not injured anywhere else, was conscious, they can talk to her, and is not disturbed - but he certainly could not stand on her feet on her own. They were asked to cover the patient with all the available clothes and coats for protect against the cold. They were reassured, that help will be arriving soon.
The report revealed that the site is about 700 meters from the end of the paved road that can be reached by car or by ambulance. From there the scene of the accident can reached on a steep rocky road, by SUV for a shorter distance and then only on foot.
On Saturday, May 8, 2021, shortly before noon, the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service received a call for help about a hiker in Börzsöny, near Nagyirtáspuszta, suffered an ankle injury on só hegy (Salt hill), he is unable to stand on his feet, so he has no chance to get off the mountain without help. They also asked for help from the National Ambulance Service (OMSz), which sent the ambulance from the town Vámosmikola to the scene.
The caller also mentioned that we should prepare for a heavy lift since the gentleman weighs around a 100 kg so that it will not be easy to transport him on the difficult terrain.
We issued a state-wide alert to the rescue members and then negotiated with the OMSz dispatch so that our units could work efficiently together.
At 12:30 the first cave rescuers together with the OMSz ambulance arrived in the parking lot of the nearby Szent Orbán pension. We received the exact GPS coordinates of the accident from the caller, which allowed us to start our hike to the site, which was about 1.5 km away.
