1115 Guangxi diving accident: "Bottomless deep pool", three people returned, one died at 140 meters

Diving is a niche and dangerous sport. Although diving accidents occur frequently, it cannot stop people’s determination and enthusiasm to dive into deep seas and caves again and again in order to explore unknown underwater scenery.

In Guangxi, there is a mysterious "bottomless deep pool" with complex underwater terrain. Groups of experts and diving enthusiasts have studied and investigated it. So far, no one can tell what it is. How deep it is, this mystery also attracts more people to explore.

But when many people are exploring the unknown, they seem to ignore the danger of this "deep pool". In the "1115" Guangxi diving accident, a female diver from Chongqing died here, which may provide some clues. More people are a warning.

As we all know, my country's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region is dotted with famous karst landforms. The dissolution and precipitation of soluble rocks by groundwater and surface water, coupled with the effect of the earth's gravity, have formed many karst landforms in the hundreds of thousands of mountains in Guangxi. Cave, sinkhole, deep pool, dark lake.

The Duan Underground River National Geopark in Du'an County, Guangxi is a geological heritage park that mainly features karst underground rivers, karst landform relics, and karst area water landscapes. The Disu Underground River in the park is currently the world's largest geological heritage park. The largest underground river system discovered in the world has also created a bottomless "mysterious deep pool" in the park - Badin Pool.

The nearby villagers are full of awe of Badintan, because it looks small on the surface, but in fact it is in the shape of an inverted funnel, with curved bifurcations under the water, and complex terrain. It is so deep that no one can tell how deep it is.

Relevant experts explained after on-site inspections that Badintan may be a "small skylight" filled with water above the Disu underground river.

Long-term rainwater has caused the sinkhole to expand continuously, and the continuous incision of the underground river has caused the roof of the cave to collapse, forming a deep pit connected to the surface. When the water table rose to near the surface, the bottomless Badin Lake was formed.

Experts said that although divers only dived to a depth of more than 100 meters, due to the special nature of Custer's landform, rainwater will continue to dissolve along the cracks on the surface, forming more holes extending downward. , to some extent, Badintan is indeed "bottomless".

Due to the two "danger factors" of Badin Pond's bottomless depth and complex terrain, it has attracted many diving enthusiasts. People continue to dive and explore, trying to discover more unknowns.

In 2011, divers discovered the "giant panda in the water" peach blossom jellyfish in Bading Lake - an ancient creature that has very high requirements for water quality and is very rare in the world. Since then, Ba Ding has Dingtan is also known as the "Peach Blossom Jellyfish Skylight".

After that, more and more people went to Badin Lake to dive, and unfortunate diving accidents also followed.

According to official reports, on November 15, 2020, five members of a diving club in Nanning, Guangxi went to Bading Lake to dive together. At about 12 noon, 4 of them went into the water and the other one was in the water. Shore watch equipment.

Ten minutes later, two of the four people who went into the water surfaced. After discovering that two of their companions failed to come up, they dived again for search and rescue.

Around 1 p.m., the two found one of their companions and surfaced together. There was also a female diver from Chongqing who was missing. An hour later, several people called the police and Duan Lanqi Search and rescue personnel from the rescue team rushed to the scene.

The people responsible for the search and rescue operation this time were Dong Sir, a top expert in the diving industry, Laomao, who only set a Chinese diver's cave diving depth record (202 meters) in October, and many other senior instructors.

They said that cave diving in Bading Lake is already very difficult, but in November when the incident occurred, the visibility in Bading Lake was poor and the risk factor doubled.

That night, the search and rescue personnel went into the water to launch a search and rescue. Because the only possibility of the female diver's survival was to be found in the air chamber in the underwater cave, the first thing they searched was the air chamber.

The so-called air chamber is a space in an underwater cave with a lot of air. If a diver is in an air chamber, he or she has a relatively high chance of survival. Unfortunately, after searching, it was found that there is such a space underwater in Badintan, and the search was fruitless.

Everyone understands that the possibility of the missing persons surviving is now very small, and their "search and rescue operation" has actually turned into an operation of "recovering remains."

Due to the complex terrain of Badin Pool, the depth of the lower half of the pool is between 110 meters and 160 meters, and the underwater area is vast, full of dark caves and ravines, and the visibility is poor, even for experienced divers. Searching is also fraught with risk.

Therefore, divers can only search in the upper part, and can only wait for the arrival of the underwater remote-controlled robot to search the lower part.

From the evening of November 15th to the evening of the 19th, search and rescue personnel took turns to go into the water and searched almost the entire area above 90 meters in Badin Lake. However, the missing divers could not be found. People understood that what would happen next The best-case scenario is that her body can be successfully brought ashore.

On the evening of November 19, the underwater remote-controlled robot finally arrived at Bading Lake. After the robot's search, the victim's body was found more than 130 meters underwater in Bading Lake (the actual rescue depth is 143 meters). remains.

It is extremely difficult to salvage the body at this depth. If the salvage personnel are not careful, they may lose their lives. On the issue of "recovering or not to recover", internal disputes occurred among the search personnel. debate.

Some people think that the risk is too great and meaningless, and they can try to use underwater remote-controlled robots for salvage. However, because bringing the victims' bodies ashore from a depth of 140 meters requires puncture, it is difficult for robots to complete this solution. was abandoned.

The search personnel explained that as the diving depth increases, the underwater pressure will continue to increase. During the diver's ascent, the gas dissolved in the blood will be eliminated with the blood circulation, but once When the human body dies, the gas will not be discharged on its own.

A depth of 140 meters underwater means that the pressure there is 15 atmospheres. That is to say, once the body comes ashore, the gas in the body will expand 15 times, and the body may directly "explode" ".

Therefore, during the process of bringing the body to the surface, it is necessary to use a sharp instrument to "puncture" specific parts of the body to release the gas in the body, so as to ensure the integrity of the body after landing.

After many discussions, the searchers finally decided to go into the water to salvage. They decided to use underwater robots to illuminate the body near the body, and the divers dived to a depth of 140 meters to bring the body ashore. .

Thanks to the efforts of the search and rescue team, except that the body was "hanged" on a steep slope of more than 70 degrees, which forced the search and rescue personnel to temporarily change the salvage procedures, the entire salvage process went smoothly.

After salvaging the body, the search and rescue personnel carried out puncture at a water depth of 105 meters, and then successfully brought the body back to the shore. By this time, it was already November 21, nearly 30 days had passed since the diver's death. One week.

This unfortunate diving accident made many people feel sad, but what everyone wants to know more is, why did such a tragedy happen?

Based on the data analysis of the victims’ diving watches by search and rescue personnel afterwards, they reconstructed the possible course of the incident. Search and rescue personnel analyzed that the female diver may have been separated from her teammates about 3-6 minutes after entering the water. At this time, she dived to a depth of 34 meters.

According to the feedback from diving instructors and other divers who returned successfully, they swam along the north wall of Badin Pond from east to west after entering the water. They dived to 34 meters and then turned back and ascended, right here. At that time, someone had already discovered that his companion was separated. Therefore, everyone speculated that the victims did not follow the team back, but swam into the cave to the north by mistake.

Then, she gradually groped northward, possibly looking for teammates, but in fact the water depth in this area gradually increased and the danger level also continued to rise.

According to standard diving operations, if you are separated from your companions, you should return to the surface after searching for one minute without success. But the female diver did not do this. We have no way of guessing whether she forgot the operating procedures because of panic, or whether she was unable to surface by herself, but her panic at the time is conceivable.

Of course, the reason why the female diver did not surface may also be that she encountered "nitrogen drunkenness" here.

The so-called nitrogen narcosis is a dangerous situation that divers may encounter. This means that when the human body is in an environment with a pressure of 3-4 atmospheres, the nitrogen in the high-pressure cylinder will enter the blood. .

This will block nerve conduction and central nervous system transmission, weaken various human body functions, and make people's reactions slower, resulting in a state similar to drunkenness, so it is called "nitrogen drunkenness" or "nitrogen drunkenness". anaesthetization".

Of course, some people will react with excitement and nervousness when experiencing nitrogen narcosis. Similarly, they will also lose judgment on their current situation. Moreover, environmental and psychological pressure may aggravate the reaction of nitrogen narcosis, and ultimately cause the diver to lose the ability to make correct judgments.

If a diver develops nitrogen intoxication in a complex cave and is not rescued in time, he is likely to die. The female diver who died was probably nitrogen intoxicated and headed north in a daze. sneak.

Another thing that can prove this conjecture is that the diving watch recorded that the diving depth continued to increase. Judging from the time and depth, the female diver was almost in a state of "natural fall" at that time.

Although there was a brief rise in the middle - that may be the female diver's last struggle - the final diving watch showed that she stayed on the slope 140 meters underwater. The search and rescue personnel believed that at this time she Already in distress.

This unfortunate accident made everyone feel sad, and also taught the divers a profound lesson, that is, they must strictly abide by the operating procedures, follow their companions closely during the diving process, and stay safe after an accident. Try to stay calm, conserve energy and gas, and wait for rescue.

In fact, the enthusiasm of diving enthusiasts will never be wiped out, but we hope that everyone can recognize the risks of diving, correctly evaluate their own abilities, and be able to correctly grasp the precautions for underwater accidents. measures to avoid more tragedies.

Langfang Radio and Television Station, "Flowers fall and people die, but there are fragrant hills - the whole story of the rescue of the 1115 Guangxi diving accident"

CCTV10, Geography China, "Magical Cave·Underwater Cave" 》