CUETZALAN, Mexico (25 Mar 2004) -- Divers on Thursday rescued six British explorers who had been trapped in an underground cave for more than a week. Two British and several Mexican underwater specialists worked for about six hours, escorting the final spelunker from the mouth of the Alpazat cavern system as night fell on the mountains of the central state of Puebla. The team was forced to retreat to a dry section underground after heavy rains triggered flooding that submerged the mouth of the cave they were exploring on March 17. Equipped with food, sleeping bags and supplies, the trapped team members did not have adequate scuba equipment to swim out on their own and had to be rescued by special cave divers. One of those rescued, Jonathan Sims, said the team was never in danger and would have preferred to just wait underground for the water to runoff so that they could walk out without assistance. "The thing is, everything went as planned. We thought we might have a problem with the (water) so we put in a plan, we had food in there, communications," Sims said. "The unfortunate thing is we got too much media attention." The cavers appeared tired, but looked far from haggard as they trudged up a humid valley. They asked journalists and rescue workers if anybody had brought beer and said they were looking forward to seeking their loved ones. "We're feeling quite cheerful," said Toby Hamnett, the only member of the trapped expedition who emerged clean-shaven. Moments after their rescue, the team was engulfed by more than 200 journalists and had to push their way to Mexican military vehicles that carried them to a nearby hotel. The scene was so chaotic that the Britons canceled a scheduled news conference, prompting members of the media to cling to the military vehicles as they rolled away. Even as the crisis was ending, however, Mexico was demanding that Britain better explain why members of its military were exploring Puebla's caves. The Foreign Relations Department expressed "profound concern" that the explorers had failed to seek permission to enter the country for scientific explorations. A diplomatic note demanded a "detailed explanation of the type of activities" the group was carrying out "and about the objectives of their investigation." | | Four of the trapped explorers were members of Britain's Combined Services – which encompasses the army, navy and air force. As a safety precaution, half of the caving team was above ground when the flood struck and was able to communicate with their trapped compatriots using ground-penetrating radios. One Mexican newspaper suggested the explorers might have been hunting for uranium. On Wednesday, President Vicente Fox announced during a trip to Honduras that his government was sending "a protest and a demand for clarification from the English government. Why were those people there?" Britain's Foreign Office said in London that the trip was "strictly a caving expedition, had no other purpose and any suggestions to the contrary are completely unfounded." The British Ministry of Defense said the men were on an "official military adventurous training expedition" of a military caving club, though not a formal military exercise. A spokesman for Mexico's National Migration Institute said scientific or exploration teams require special visas, and that laws would prohibit training exercises by foreign military forces on Mexican soil. British officials said similar teams had been openly visiting for 20 years and were helping to map the massive cavern system. Some Mexican news media expressed irritation that the cavers had shrugged off repeated Mexican offers of help at the same time they were calling in rescue divers from Britain. The British divers "have practiced doing this with these people. they have got their procedures in place and know exactly what they are doing," said Vijay Rangarajan, political chancellor at the British Embassy who was observing the rescue effort. Scores of heavily armed state policemen guarded the cave site at the bottom of a steep canyon at the end of a single-file trail through farm and forest land bursting with springs and rivulets of water. British officials identified the men who had been trapped as Sims, Hamnett, Charles Milton, Simon Cornhill, Chris Mitchell and John Roe, but they did not say which were military or give hometowns. SOURCE - Evening Standard |
