British cave diver Andy Rice has died in the Gouffre de Saint-Sauveur, a flooded cave system in the Lot region of south-west France. He was 43.
Rescue divers found his body at a depth of 88m (289ft) on the evening of Sunday 20 September. He had been missing for two days and Clara Ribeiro, the public prosecutor in Cahors, confirmed the discovery.
Rice, from Stroud in Gloucestershire, was an experienced technical diver who dived on a closed-circuit rebreather. This unit recycles the diver’s exhaled gas instead of releasing it as bubbles. Divernet reports that he was making his 1,000th dive.
A Two-Day Search
Rice was on the fifth day of an expedition with a group of eight British cave divers. He entered the resurgence at about 3.30pm on Friday 18 September with two other divers. A resurgence is the point where an underground river returns to the surface. At Saint-Sauveur, that river is the Ouysse.
Both of his companions returned to the group however Rice did not. The surface team raised the alarm at about 8pm.
French authorities said he carried enough gas for eight hours and a reserve cylinder staged in the cave was found unused.
The Lot prefecture activated ORSEC, France’s framework for major civil emergencies. Cave-rescue divers from Spéléo Secours Français (SSF) led the search. Gendarmes from the Marseillan nautical brigade and local fire crews supported them.
Early hopes rested on La Cloche, an air bell deep in the system. On Saturday, Calès mayor Jean-François Poncelet said Rice might have reached it however Rescue divers searched the chamber that evening and it was empty.
On Sunday, teams pushed further in. They found Rice in a narrow flooded passage, entangled in the guideline and disturbed clay had reduced the visibility.
| Date and time | Event |
|---|---|
| Friday 18 September, about 3.30pm | Rice enters the resurgence with two other divers |
| Friday 18 September, about 8pm | Surface team raises the alarm and the search begins |
| Saturday 19 September | Search expands and La Cloche is found empty |
| Sunday 20 September, evening | Body found at 88m (289ft) |
| Tuesday 22 September | Rice named in UK press reports |
Recovery and Investigation
The prosecutor said the layout of the cave had prevented rescuers from bringing Rice to the surface. She said they would make a new attempt in the coming days. French regional press reported that more SSF teams would return early this week with heavier equipment.
No recovery had been confirmed at the time of publishing.
The prosecutor has assigned the gendarmerie at Gramat to investigate. The cause of death has not been established.
Andy Rice
Rice was a chef by trade, according to Divernet. He began diving in 2010 and guided recreational divers while living abroad. He then moved into technical and rebreather diving.
A former potholer, he turned to flooded caves after a mine-diving course in Britain. He was a member of the Cave Diving Group. At InDepth Dive Club he was deputy training officer and an open-water instructor.
He posted videos of his dives on Facebook. On 9 September he wrote that he was heading back to France, a year after his last trip, to finish what he had started. In the days before his death, he logged a dive that reached about 1,130m (3,707ft) from the entrance, at depths to 90m (295ft).
On the morning of 18 September, he posted that a final shakedown dive had left him confident with a needle valve fitted some months earlier. A shakedown dive is a short test of new or changed kit. A needle valve feeds a small, steady flow of oxygen into a rebreather’s breathing loop. He ended the post, quoted by The Independent: “Ready for the Big one Today Dive #1000.”
Fellow divers have paid tribute to him as a skilled and meticulous diver.
The Gouffre de Saint-Sauveur
The resurgence lies near Calès and is one of the best-known deep cave dives in Europe. It sits in karst, limestone ground that water has hollowed into caves, and draws experienced cave divers from across the world.
Divers enter from an open pool at the surface. The first 180m (591ft) of passage slopes down at a shallow angle to about 30m (98ft). The main tunnel then drops into a flooded canyon at 40–50m (131–164ft). Further in, it levels out at 50–55m (164–180ft), then falls past a restriction to more than 100m (328ft).
The flow changes with the seasons. After heavy rain, water can pour out of the cave with force. In dry spells it runs clear. Fine clay lies on the ledges, and once disturbed it hangs in the water and blocks the view.
DeeperBlue.com extends its condolences to Andy Rice’s family, friends and dive team.
