Rescue
International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery
An all-volunteer, Florida-registered not-for-profit, established in 1999, whose experienced cave-diver members support public safety agencies with rescues and, far more often, body recoveries in caves, caverns and flooded mines, and contribute to accident analysis.
IUCRR describes itself as an all-volunteer public service and educational organisation, registered as a not-for-profit in Florida and established in 1999, that supports public safety agencies with rescue and recovery of divers in underwater overhead environments such as caves, caverns and mine shafts [1]. Its stated mission has two parts: rescue and recovery support within a law enforcement agency's Incident Command System, and accident analysis to educate the cave diving community [1]. Members are experienced cave divers vetted by Regional Coordinators and must complete its Rescue/Recovery Surface Operations Management (RRSOM) training before joining the call-out list; the site cites a presence in 18 or more countries [1]. Its emergency page asks people reporting a diver overdue or missing in a cave, cavern or mine to email the organisation and contact the relevant Regional Coordinator [2].
A 2017 paper in Forensic Science International, co-written with an IUCRR member, notes that on average three divers die inside flooded caves in the USA each year, describes the standard recovery procedures IUCRR has developed since 1999, and strongly recommends that local dive teams do not attempt to recover bodies from within flooded caves [3].
Further reading
Emergency resources and their limits
Training, conservation and decision-making
What accident analyses have found
International Underwater Cave Rescue and Recovery (IUCRR) ↗
IUCRR incident reports ↗
NSS-CDS Accident Analysis ↗
Recovery of deceased scuba divers from within flooded subterranean caves ↗
Recovery of deceased scuba divers from within flooded subterranean caves ↗
Every fact on this page, with its source (5)
| Fact | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| IUCRR was established in 1999 and is a Florida-registered not-for-profit run entirely by volunteers. | Verified | [1] [3] |
| IUCRR supports public safety agencies with rescue and recovery in underwater overhead environments and carries out accident analysis to educate cave divers. | Verified | [1] |
| IUCRR's site cites a presence in 18 or more countries.The countries are not listed on the home page. | Verified | [1] |
| Members are experienced cave divers who complete RRSOM training before joining the call-out list. | Verified | [1] |
| A 2017 peer-reviewed paper strongly recommends that local dive teams do not attempt to recover bodies from within flooded caves.Abstract retrieved via PubMed. | Verified | [3] |
Verified: stated by an official or primary source we opened. Reported: from a secondary source only. Sources conflict: the note gives both versions. May be out of date: the newest source we found is old.
Written in our own words from the sources above. Report a correction