News / Brecon Beacons
Man trapped in cave for two days will volunteer for the team that rescued him
A man who was trapped in a cave for two days and suffered brutal injuries as a result has signed up to volunteer for the rescue team that saved him.
George Linnane, 38, plunged down a shaft in the Brecon Beacons when a boulder became dislodged last year.
“One second I was caving, the next minute, the world went mad”, he said, reliving the experience that began during a group excursion one Saturday in November.
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“And then it all went black. And then two minutes later, I woke up in a very different state.”
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Linnane admitted he thought he “might never come out” after what was supposed to be a six-hour trip evolved into a terrifying two-day ordeal.
After an instantaneous fall, the engineer from Bradley Stoke was lodged upside down on a slope with his legs above his head 275 metres below ground.
When Linnane regained consciousness in the deep cave system near Penwyllt, the experienced caver realised he could not move.
The operation to free him took 54 hours to complete – one of the longest rescue missions in UK history.
Around 300 volunteers came to his aid, descending into the underground network to prise Linnane free of the narrow passages and bring him to ground level.
Although the experience was “a bit of a blur”, Linnane recalled recognising his rescuers who came from the Forest of Dean, Mendips and Yorkshire.
Linnane was rescued by a team of 300 volunteers – photo: South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team
Two and a half months later, Linnane wants to follow in their footsteps and give back by becoming a rescuer himself.
He said he thankful for the “single bloody-mindedness” of his rescuers and realised that “there is only one way out” from underground.
With this in mind, Linnane is now part of the South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team who rescued him, a voluntary organisation providing assistance to people and animals in need underground.
Now, he hopes he can help “the next poor soul who finds themselves in that situation”.
“This is one of the things that I love most about caving is the sort of camaraderie in the sense of community that we have, this distinctive thing that we do,” Linnane said.
“It creates a really sort of tight-knit bond between cavers.”
Despite the ordeal, which saw him suffer three broken ribs, a dislocated clavicle, a lacerated spleen, a collapsed lung and a broken scaphoid, Linnane is keen to return to caving.
He said: “I’m a caver and I’m a diver. It’s what I do and what makes me happy. And I know that whilst something bad did happen to me, the chances of it happening again is very, very low.
Main photo by South and Mid Wales Cave Rescue Team
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