[tweet_box design=”default”]Astonishing, mind-blowing account of a team of Finnish divers recovering the bodies of their dead colleagues from an underwater cave in northern Norway. [/tweet_box]
In 2014, a group of diving friends planned a two-handed dive into a deep underwater cave, one group going in from one access point and the second team from another some kilometres away. One from Team One got stuck in a narrow channel and tragically died, another met the obstacle of the dead diver and also died. While all of the others tried to save the men and then recover them they could not and had to make the arduous dive back to the surface, one man doing a gruelling ten hour journey to safety and damaging his spinal cord in the process.
A British rescue team was brought in after the tragedy but felt the dive was too risky and the Norwegian authorities closed the cave to everyone. After some months the traumatised survivors felt they had to try to get their friends’ bodies back and planned a covert operation to go in and retrieve them. The process is detailed meticulously. One of the original men began the dive but, suffering badly from PTSD, could not continue.
While it may sound harrowing, Juan Reina’s light director’s touch and excellent mix of illustration, reconstruction, interview and documentary make an absolutely first class record of the courageous and successful recovery of the Finnish divers’ bodies from a depth of 130 metres. The men and women interviewed are clearly persistent, brave, funny and totally bonkers! Now breathe slowly and deeply….
Mary is a longstanding writer with publications in The Scotsman and a number of independent travel logs and blogs. She has written professionally as part of her 40 year career in education and for pleasure.
