The joint cave rescue diving exercise was organized between 23th and 25th February, in cave Potpeć, near city of Užice, Serbia. The event was organised and hosted by the Mountain Rescue Service Serbia, longtime member of the European Cave Rescue Association.
28 cave rescuers (13 cave rescue divers and 15 cavers – support team) from eight countries: Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Bosnia, Turkey and France, attended the exercise.
After the 1st sump, the 13 cave rescue divers carried out an exercise of rescuing the injured diver out of the siphon. After this part, the casualty was handed to the external team, which arranged transfer to the ambulance. All sorts of problems followed the exercise: dry suit failure, technical equipment failure, communication, etc., which teems, needed to overcome in real time, but there was no major complications and evacuation of victims was successful.
There is a real need for more joint exercises in the future in order to know better each other, different system of rescuing and way of planning.
The next exercise will take place in May in Slovenia.
Photos from cave rescue diving exercise
