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Dr. Konstantinos Meredissianos and hairdresser Yiannis Kofinas badociate them with a common pbadion. Caving Exploring caves is a way of life for them and their experience counts for decades.
That's why the two Greek speleologists traveled back in time, 16 years ago, when they saw the pictures of the 12 students and their coach trapped in the cave system of Tam Louang in Thailand.
The images were not at all unknown because they had both participated in a shocking rescue operation in Crete with the same characteristics.
Present at the rescue operation, Archbishop Stefanos Kolokouris, now commander of the first ECAM, and the fireman Georgios Kafkas
All four with breathtaking testimonies in front of the camera tell the journalist ANA- MPE George Kouvaras what it means to save the earth. Whatever we are looking at in Thailand.
TV Research includes in the video and rare audiovisual material of the time
Sunday noon, November 10, 2002, Meredithianos and Kofinas were informed by telephone that in the underground cave of Sarhos village in Heraklion of Crete, three known speleologists were trapped
Methodios Psomas, Chrysa Mavrokosta and Russian student Victoria Dukmasova
Originally, the speleologists were 20 years old, but the last 13, observing the change of weather, felt more cautious to postpone their mission. Instead, the three speleologists had already entered the cave the day before to map an unexplored part.
But suddenly a long storm burst, causing the flood of a narrow pbadage of the cave (siphon), 800 meters from the entrance, blocking the pbadage for the exit. They were trapped in the depths of the earth, in one of the great tentacles of the cave, but probably still alive
"We did not know if they were alive," said the commander of the EMAK, Stefanos Kolokouris. And this, he adds, "is the element that differentiates the rescue in Crete from what we saw in Thailand."
"The agony had reached its peak, and we rushed as fast as possible, there are already EMMA forces, too many ambulances, too many firefighting cars, men Submarines, frogmen, but they could not intervene because they were not spelunkers, they just helped us advance concessions in the depths of the cave, the first purpose was originally to see if she was in these people's lives, and be able to go out, "recalls today President of the Greek Speleological Society K. Merdenisianos.
suddenly the weather can change and what happened suddenly in the cave that could not be predicted, we ask Yannis Kofinas who is the founder of the Taygetos Cayman Poseidon Group
"Gather the Psiloritis too much" 39 waters, tells us, from the immaculate trees already, and pa the cave, in the dust, creates dust, creates sand, so it comes with water together in a siphon that went up and down, collected this little water, we talk for a few cubic meters, then the sand worked s at the bottom of the siphon and became compact and closed. "
The most difficult case of the Sahra of Thailand
For the commander of the 1st EMAK Mr. Kolokouris the situation in the cave La Crete was more complicated than that of Thailand
"At first we were higher up in the cave when you entered, there were narrow pbadages and our body had to take the form of the pbadage, turn several times to enter, and you feel that the earth is stretching out, that you are in the pangs of the earth, then went too low, it was steeply inclined, and on the second and third levels and the fourth, the slope was steep. with a river, an underground river, underground streams – as in Thailand – that is, a cave full of water that ended up in a siphon that was the last level for us. "
To deal with all this effectively, Georgios Kafkas, one in mpier, could not do otherwise, and he is currently in the first EMMA,
"We have cooperated stressed many services, OTE, the army, PPC we tried to have in the cave and lighting to communicate with the wireless phones of the army, we were pulling cables, we were pulling electricity, light generators. It was a case involving more than 180 people. "
Generally speaking, the size of this rescue operation, because of its peculiarity, was unprecedented for Greek times.But the most important of all was the removal of sludge and sludge. Sand of the cave block A superhuman effort made by rotation by all the volunteers of the cavalry, mostly with the hands
With great emotion, Stefanos Kolokouris will be mentioned at the time when the speleologists have managed to ensure that the captured were alive, "I can not describe the emotion of each of us," said the commander of EMMA.
As noted the sageologist K. Meredissianos: "After three days of atrocious efforts, our research was finally justified when, around 2 am to midnight, the pbadage was blocked and speleologists lost their lives."
The new was transmitted by the underground telephone line to the outside world causing unbridled celebrations. "As they told us later, the bells of the village began to leap for joy, while the various television networks with their correspondents wait patiently in front of the cave, they broadcast in newsletters the event was pleasant, it was something upsetting, I would say, that it justified the reputation of the Greeks on the issues of solidarity and social sensitivity, "says Meredissianos
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The physical condition of the three cavers, despite their physical and mental exhaustion, proved to be much better than what they expected
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The history of rescue in Crete was finally the occasion of a special training for rescue in the caves, which is not easy at all. Mr. Kolokouris describes how dangerous it is in ur someone to sneak into the narrow pbadages while describing how difficult it is for someone to spend so many hours in the dark
There is, says the commander EMAK and the psychological piece. "It can easily panic, because a natural phenomenon such as an earthquake, for example, can at this point encroach you into more difficult places."
However, cavers and EMAK members point out that emotions are mixed today
It is an experience we would never want to see again. Despite the difficulties and the danger, Greek speleologists believe that Greece offers for a theme the caving tourism and they do not hesitate to appeal to its development
See the research video:
George Kouvaras's window for the REA-MPE
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