Just 26 years old, John and his brother Josh chose the famous cave called Nutty Putty to reenact their childhood activities with their father, but it would be the worst decision they’ve ever made in their lives.
The initially enjoyable caving experience turned into a terrifying 30-hour experience involving 137 search and rescue workers. If you’re ready, let’s look at our tragic event together.
First, let’s take a look at the Nutty Putty cave.
Nutty Putty, located in the Utah region of America, was first discovered in 1960. It soon became famous for its narrow and slippery passages, twists and turns, and became a popular destination for cavers.
departments; The cave, which is named as “Birth Canal”, “Scout Eater”, “Great Slide” and “Labyrinth”; After the unfortunate and gruesome event in 2009, it was permanently closed to visitors.
The life of John Jones, the victim of the unfortunate incident in the cave, was going quite well.
John had a lot of caving experience, but it was all in his childhood. Their father would often take John and his brother Josh on caving trips.
One of the brothers, John, who went on an expedition in 2009 to revive his memories, was studying cardiology. He had recently become a father and his wife was pregnant with their second child.
On November 24, 2009, events took place that would radically change the lives of the brothers.
At around 20:00 in the evening, two brothers and 9 friends went to Nutty Putty cave. For the first hour everything was fine. The group had explored the “Big Slide”, the largest part of the cave.
The group that wanted to move from that section to another large section called the “Birth Channel” had to pass through a narrow place. John decided to go ahead and crawled forward for a while, but he did not encounter a large area. As he continued to advance, part of his body drooped downwards. It’s all too late now.
John; he was stuck in a place where he could not get back on his own, going straight down.
The place where the man was stuck was about the width of a washing machine mouth, but not in a perfect circle. John was trapped in the narrowest part of this opening.
Stranded 30 meters below the ground, John’s brother was behind him and he tried to pull the man back, but in vain. When he pulled it out a little, it would slide back into place the moment he let go. Realizing that he could not handle this job alone, the brother immediately called for help.
More than 3 hours had passed since the jamming when the first person from the relief team arrived.
In the following hours, dozens more rescue teams arrived. They measured everything, argued among themselves, considered every possibility. It was difficult for John to hang upside down into the void. In the end, they decided to use a rescue rope, one end of which would be tied to John’s legs.
Eight people were pulling the rope. Because the trapped man was in so much pain, they had to take frequent breaks. Still, things seemed to be getting better, every time they pulled the rope, John was getting a little higher. At one point he even got high enough that he could make eye contact with the person closest to John.
The following dialogue took place between the team and John:
Team worker: “How are you?”
John: “It sucks. I’m upside down. I can’t believe I’m upside down. My legs are killing me.”
Rescuers saw that John had a hopeful smile on his face despite his complaints.
Something happened when the rescue team pulled John up for the fourth time.
After a final rest, the crew and John pulled the rope again. The man almost came out, but the rope suddenly came loose and the whole team fell back.
The rescue team got up and saw that the stone belt to which the rope was attached had been shattered and the key bolt snapped. And John had slid down the rift so much that he was even worse than when he first entered.
Of course they didn’t give up and continued the rescue effort, but unfortunately things were not looking good.
When they reached John again, his breathing had lessened. They were calling out to him, but the man was no longer answering. After a while, a medical professional stepped in and reached out to him. As the clock struck midnight, John was officially declared dead.
137 crew members, who worked for close to 30 hours, had to return empty-handed.
John died as a result of a tragic and sensational event at the age of 26. The next day, the authorities decided that it was too difficult and dangerous to get the body out of the cave, and they sent John off on his eternal journey there.
A week later, the Nutty Putty cave was permanently closed to the public. The family of the man who fell victim to the unfortunate accident affixed a plaque to the entrance of the cave. Thus, the event went down in history as one of the most terrible cave accidents in history.
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