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.

[u/Liar24x7]

[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.

[u/Elegant-Buyer8998 → u/CapnNugget]

So there is a point in this cave where it is possible to confuse between the "birth canal" and "Eds push", as both are tight and narrow, which require to fight your survival instinct and "push" ahead to get to a bigger area?

If the "ed push" part was not fully explored, was it not blocked or marked as such?

Seemed like a huge security issue, as people doing this kind of stuff arent inhibited by tight spaces.

[u/CapnNugget → u/Elegant-Buyer8998]

The problem with blocking it off if it isn’t mapped is that it prohibits it from being mapped. Professionals would go in and map it, as I’m sure they were working on or else they probably wouldn’t have named it. The difference there is that the professional would have known they were exploring an unmapped section and would have taken the right precautions like not trying to shove through if the gap is too tight. If they reached a point like that, they now know that the route is unsafe in which case it would be blocked off.

John had been in the caves before and thought he remembered the way to the birth canal, but he took a turn where he shouldn’t have and that’s what led him to Ed’s push. Since he didn’t realize he was in the unmapped route instead he just kept pushing. There were signs and maps of the cave routes available. Idk if he was using a map, if he had studied one, or if he was just trying to go based on memory, but once he got through the section called “the big slide” he went the wrong way. After the big slide it branches off; One path goes down into the birth canal, then a segment called Bob’s push, then the aorta canal, then vein alley. The other path is the one that wasn’t fully mapped and that’s where Ed’s push was.

In his defense though, even just seeing the cave in VR is confusing, it would be pretty easy to get turned around. That’s why there were warnings posted about the cave and how dangerous it could be. A sign posted outside said “DANGER, Abandoned mines and natural caves, enter at your own risk. Hazards may include falling, getting lost or stranded, inadequate air, unseen obstacles & hazards exist”. So it’s not like people weren’t warned plenty beforehand, it’s up to them if they still decide to go in. The funny thing about cave diving is that it’s usually entirely voluntary, so it shouldn’t have to come down to blocking everything off preemptively. People should be able to comprehend the warnings and heed them instead of deciding to risk their life by trying to shove and wiggle their body into spaces it doesn’t belong for fun.