A search and rescue operation was launched in Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula last week when a solo cave-diver went missing in one of the cenotes, Dzonbakal.
The diver was found dead with two empty gas tanks at a depth of 25-28m almost exactly two days after entering the cenote, on 6 October, according to local press reports, which described him as having been found trapped inside a cavity. A third tank appeared to be missing.
Argentinian diver Roberto Omar Alejandro Gandini Buix, 51, was reported to be a professional diver who worked off the Yucatan coast, and to have had experience as a cave-diver.
His dive began at around 11am on 4 October at the site in San Antonio Mulix, Umán, 50km south of the city of Merida. The cenote, which has a 25 x 15m entrance pond accessible by ladder, extends to a maximum depth of about 30m. Gandini Buix had told relatives that he would report back by 2pm.
The diver was said by family-members to normally dive with his children but had decided on this occasion to explore an unfamiliar part of the system and to do so alone.
When he failed to surface within the three hours he had allocated, relatives called San Antonio Mulix police, and its officers carried out an initial search.
They were followed up by a rescue team consisting of some 20 divers from the Yucatán Sports Technical Divers Association and fire department personnel, who cordoned off the cenote while the search was carried out.
Gandini Buiz’s body was extracted and a post mortem examination was being carried out by state police and the Forensic Medical Service (SEMEFO) as an inquiry into the fatality got underway.
Also on Divernet: Hell’s bells and other Yucatan cave specials, Diving into Mexico’s seductive underworld, On the road in Yucatan, BE THE CHAMP! – Cenotes and Caverns
25 x 15cm entrance pond is that a miss print?
Yes, it was, apologies!
Thank goodness for that!