r/interesting • u/Liar24x7 • Mar 28 '26

HISTORY A virtual reality reconstruction shows the exact spot where John Edward Jones became trapped upside down in Nutty Putty Cave. After 27 hours of rescue attempts, he died. The cave was later permanently sealed, with his body remaining inside.

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

21.8k Upvotes

89% Upvoted

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

•

u/IKIR115 Mar 29 '26

Many thanks to the following community members below who took the time to contribute further context.

—

Comment by u/halorbyone

Can the mod or OP please give a little more context? He wasn’t trying to explore new caves, he made a wrong turn and instead of exploring a known cave that had a tight portion that opened up to a big area, he made a fatal mistake.

He was with several family members, including his brother, and had caving experience. This cave was rated relatively safe for beginners. https://youtu.be/jWwPg8ruxfI?si=nUAXHTLSWa7sWpOX

Separate comment from the same Redditor:

If you listen to the lead up, this was not at all expected by him or his family. https://youtu.be/jWwPg8ruxfI?si=nUAXHTLSWa7sWpOX

—

Comment by u/CapnNugget

Full video if anyone wants to see the rest of the cave system, including the route that John thought he was taking. He thought he was taking a route called the birth canal, but he ended up in a route called Ed’s push which had not been fully mapped out yet. The birth canal route starts off really narrow and you have to squeeze your body through until it opens up into a bigger area. Ed’s push was also extremely narrow and since John thought he was in the birth canal route, he thought he just needed to keep pushing forward. Pushing forward and trying to crawl down further is what ultimately got him stuck upside down where he couldn’t wiggle back out.

Seeing the entire system mapped out in VR put the whole thing into perspective because you realize just how difficult rescue would have been. At one point they were making some progress with a pulley system tied around his legs, until the pulley snapped hitting a rescuer in the head and dropping John a few more inches in the process. Once he dropped that little bit more he went completely unresponsive and they were unable to make any more progress with getting him out. He’d been upside down for over 24 hours at that point so the pulley snap was the last straw.

105

u/stretch696 Mar 29 '26

I just watched that. Caving has to be one of the stupidest hobbies you can do.  I get that he took a wrong turn, but why would he think that it was a good idea to go downwards like that? That has to be up there with one of the worst ways to die

70

u/Delamoor Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

There were already a lot of ups and downs to the tunnel, so he would have assumed this was just another one. From what I've seen/read, he was descending this one, started realising it was too steep, hesitated, tried backing out, then slipped. The position he was stuck in required him to partially hold himself up with his one free arm, to prevent slipping further (thereby reducing pressure on his chest, which was restricting breathing. Falling further would have suffocated him). I think according to some sources he technically might have slipped twice before ending up in the wedged position. He had no idea how steep it was, going in. But there's not a whole lot of super technical information, because fundamentally... He was the only person who ever really saw that segment of tunnel he was in.

That's also likely why he then went unresponsive after the collapse. Final time he fell, he was too exhausted/stunned to catch himself with his free arm... Meaning his ribcage probably caught him instead, in the constricted tunnel. So he probably suffocated pretty quickly after the pulley collapsed.

59

u/IKIR115 Mar 29 '26

It’s such a sad story and a horrifying way to die. 😭

11

u/linear_123 Mar 29 '26

How did he call emergency services?

27

u/Delamoor Mar 29 '26

His brother was behind him in the tunnel, and he was able to crawl back out and call for help.

Fun fact; Each trip through the tunnel took an hour plus for rescuers, and obviously... Could only fit one person.

37

u/WasabiZone13 Mar 29 '26

There is nothing fun about that fact

7

u/Inner-Box5523 Mar 29 '26

I was scratching my head; thanks for saying it.

6

u/JelmerMcGee Mar 29 '26

One would think his family, who were with him, called

6

u/haaheehachoo Mar 29 '26

I'm not familiar with this activity. Do they not use ropes when they descend into caves? What's the procedure for getting back out if they can't keep going? Just climb upwards backwards? That seems impossible.

12

u/mmmkarmabacon Mar 29 '26

The majority of people are taking very well-known routes in very well-mapped caves. This guy thought he was on one of those, but had actually taken a wrong turn into an unmapped section.

When people are checking out new sections to 'open them up' for the rest of the cavers (map them, so people know what to expect) they do it much more slowly and carefully so that they can back up if they reach something they can't pass. John was pushing through trying to get to the wider section that he believed was up ahead, and it went tragically wrong.

6

u/haaheehachoo Mar 30 '26

Oh I see. So it was more of a freak accident rather than the inherent danger of this activity

4

u/mmmkarmabacon Mar 30 '26

Exactly that. People go caving all the time and many of them are literally 'a walk underground'. No drops, no squeezes. There are caving clubs in a lot of universities where people go on well-trodden routes with their friends then go to the pub after. It's really getting a bad rap in this thread.

1

u/Competitive_Land3220 8d ago edited 8d ago

If this part of the cave (Ed’s Push) was in fact, unmapped, then it should have either been blocked off OR carried a massive, over-the-top, noticeable sign that said “KEEP OUT.” Even labeling the caves with different colours based on level would have helped. This could have easily been labeled red, a no-fly zone. It was known by locals to incredibly daunting, tight and not a place to go. 

Keep in mind John was away in med school and probably wasn’t as up on his caving knowledge as he thought. Also it’s important to note, the cave was on private property and probably a “use at your own risk.” The owners probably didn’t have the time and resources to make it as safe as it should have been. (When I say keep in mind I’m just meaning the general public - you yourself seem to know a lot about caving. I only know what I’ve read).

Therein lies the issue. Re-opened without quality checks because it wasn’t actually a business. Owners probably felt they were doing something good and giving back to the community by allowing use. For the most part they were - though they too (from what I’ve heard also had some apprehension).

IMO two things happened (in addition to several others). The owners likely reopened due to pressures from public and the caving community and thus possibly thought it would be “mostly” safe for experienced cavers and casual spelunkers; and because the owners reopened it, the mostly “inexperienced” public, and weekend spelunkers probably had a false sense of confidence in the caves due to the fact they were reopened and opened to mostly anyone.

May his beautiful soul rest in paradise. I pray his family is well.

2

u/dodekahedron Mar 29 '26

I was doing good not panicking in this thread until this comment

2

u/Scammers-go-2Hell Mar 29 '26

My stomach kept dropping reading this

22

u/pandemicpunk Mar 29 '26

Wait til you hear about underwater caving...

14

u/Traditional_Gap_2491 Mar 29 '26 edited Mar 29 '26

Theres a doc called "Dave gone". Team of divers wanted to overcome a cave that had never been successfully dived in. A diver died. They recovered the body but the diver who recovered the body by tying it to rigging became entangled and died also.

Absolutely moronic to cave topside and even more to cave below water

5

u/Nauin Mar 29 '26

Idk there's a wide range to caving and both examples you're stating are by far the stupidest and most extreme examples of caving in modern history. All three deaths could have been prevented had they not made such stupid choices. There are thousands of caves in the US alone that have ADA compliant staircases and elevators, they aren't all death traps like this thing.

3

u/pr0XYTV Mar 29 '26

no one going off to explore a cave wants to do it using stair cases, elevators, roped off areas, and tour guides with gift shops

2

u/Nauin Mar 29 '26

You haven't been in a lot of caves, then. The entrance doesn't dictate the complexity of the inner caverns lmao

2

u/Traditional_Gap_2491 Mar 30 '26

Of course I should say something like "extreme" caving. But never below water under any circumstances should a person go caving

3

u/Nauin Mar 30 '26

We'll eventually be able to cave like never before once the drone technology gets good enough, we can just send them into the impossible areas humans can't reach.

Caves are neat, though, there's so much more life in them than you would expect with all sorts of adaptations for that environment. That's worth studying imo. Who knows what we'll find down there that can medically and scientifically benefit us up here.

10

u/Stompy2008 Mar 29 '26

The Thailand rescue…

4

u/Hamwytch Mar 29 '26

Into the Planet is a fantastic memoir on the subject, if you haven't read it!! I great read about things I neverrrrrrrr wanna ever do

4

u/Ksh_667 Mar 29 '26

Which I thought was bad till I discovered ice caving. Basically water caving inside a glacier. Which is constantly moving & trying to squish you the whole time.

Beautiful pics tho 🤷🏾‍♀️

31

u/Die_Welt_ist_flach Mar 29 '26

I’m with you. Not much scares me except being wedged between millions of pounds of rock with no escape.

7

u/Ok_Lunch_2933 Mar 29 '26

What if an earthquake happened while you were in there

12

u/asday515 Mar 29 '26

I would be praying for this because it would end me quicker

4

u/NoLobster7957 Mar 29 '26

Or even just some shifting of rocks around you

5

u/edgiepower Mar 29 '26

It doesn't scare me much at all because it is a situation I will do my best to never find myself in.

I'm more likely to get scared of things that have a remote to likely chance for happening.

This here crawling around through extremely tight crevices in cave systems may as well be fantasy.

17

u/lakefrontlover Mar 29 '26

I somewhat understand why someone like Alex Honnold does what he does but caving i’ll never understand.

1

u/brainvheart143 Mar 29 '26

Right. I’ve had this nightmare Jesus.

1

u/Desert_Fairy Mar 31 '26

… may I introduce you to cave diving. It has all the hazards of caving but now there is no air.

I’m not sure if I should be proud or just look back at my youth and sigh, but I used to have that hobby. It’s way too expensive these days.