At the foot of the largest Balearic island, an actually experienced diver got lost in one of the underwater caves at the weekend. The diver survives seven hours, although his oxygen supply should have been exhausted long ago. But a lucky circumstance helps him.
A missing diver has been saved from asphyxiation in a dramatic race against time in Mallorca. The 50-year-old was found and recovered around 11 p.m. on Sunday night in the Cova de sa Gleda underwater cave in Manacor, around 60 kilometers west of Palma, the media reported, citing the authorities of the Spanish Mediterranean island. The newspaper "Diario de Mallorca" spoke of a "miraculous rescue".
The contents of the professional diver's diving tank would therefore only have lasted until 5 p.m. However, the man discovered a small air chamber and was able to survive there for seven hours before being rescued, it said. The Cova de sa Gleda is the largest underwater cave discovered in Europe to date.
The complex system of flooded cavities runs almost parallel to the southeast coast of Mallorca at a depth of up to 24 meters and is 13.5 kilometers long. Perelló was there on Sunday with two other experienced fellow divers and cave specialists when he apparently got lost. At around 4:30 p.m., colleagues reported him missing.
According to the information, several expert teams from the police and fire brigade took part in the search operation, which was initiated immediately. A special team from the Guardia Civil police unit even set out from Madrid, but did not have to intervene in the end. One of the companions of the missing person was a professional diver, for whom Mallorca feared for two days in April 2017 when he was reported missing in the same area and rescued from an air chamber in the Cova de sa Piqueta underwater cave.
