The tiny opening of the Sorgente del Brenno cave (Image: Google Earth)
A cave diver has reportedly died during a dive in the Blenio Valley of Ticino, in the south of Switzerland.
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Local police have announced that they were alerted to the incident shortly before 2.30 pm on Saturday, 3 November, after the diver had failed to return from a planned dive in a cave known as the ‘Sorgente del Brenno’ – the source of the River Brenno – located in Alpe Pertusio.
Ticino Cantonal police officers and specialists from the Swiss Speleological Rescue Service were brought to the site in a helicopter by the Swiss air rescue service, Rega, to search for the missing diver.
According to a cave diving expert interviewed by Swiss news channel 20 Minuten, the cave, also known as ‘Pertüs’, which means ‘small opening’ in the local Ticino dialect, is one of the most challenging caves in Switzerland.
First explored in the 1980s, the Sorgente del Brenno has been traversed to around 400 metres of its length. It is marked by steep drops which reach a maximum of around 68 metres and is extremely narrow in places – space is so limited that it is usually explored as a solo dive.
The body of the diver, who has yet to be formally identified, was eventually located at approximately 7.30 pm, at a depth of more than 40m, some 200m from the cave’s entrance.
Operations to recover the body continued throughout Sunday, but the narrow passages, shape of the cave and poor visibility of the water are making the recovery process ‘complex and technically demanding’, according to a statement by the Cantonal Police.
Access to the cave has been prohibited while experts attempt to recover the deceased diver, a process which is expected to take several days.
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Crowley (known to his mum as Mark), packed in his IT job in 2005 and spent the next nine years working as a full-time scuba diving professional. He started writing for DIVE in 2010 and hasn’t stopped since.