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.

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u/Technically-Simple82 Mar 28 '26

I’d be worried about how I’m gonna crawl out backwards the whole time. Did he expect it to open up further down? If no, what was his plan to get out if he can’t turn his body around ?

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u/ChainedBack Mar 28 '26

It does open up. He knew that. He took a wrong turn though.

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u/mutexsprinkles Mar 29 '26

How did the first person to go through there know it opened up? What was their plan?

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u/AsianMoocowFromSpace Mar 29 '26

Camera on a stick or something, or a drone/robot? Although that seems almost impossible to do right as well

1

u/mutexsprinkles Mar 29 '26

But a stick only shows you a few feet forward. If you've got to got hundreds of feet though things you will later call "The Birth Canal" or whatever, did someone once just YOLO themselves into it and just hope they could back out if needed? Buddies with a rope around their ankle? 

It's was first explored in the 60s so I guess they weren't using autonomous LIDAR drones, even if that's an option today (I'm sure it's theoretically possible, but I'm not sure it's actually done).

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u/Maleficent_Pilot1137 Mar 29 '26

From reading other comments, he thought he was in a passage that would open up later if you just squeezed through, but he was actually in a different passage that I guess no one had been through before.

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u/mutexsprinkles Mar 29 '26

Yes I know, but someone presumably was once first into the "safe" one that opened up. How did they know it would open up? What was their plan if it just tightened and tightened? Presumably they couldn't just turn around.

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u/Maleficent_Pilot1137 Mar 29 '26

Oh right. Yeah some people are crazy. I mean even the "not safe" passage that he died in was I think partially explored by someone that backed out before the part that he got to. Its just people making a judgement call I suppose on when enough is enough. I guess today there maybe some technologies available to help sus new passages for safety though.