Harrowing story of Mallorca diver trapped in underwater cave for 60 hours with dwindling oxygen supply and no food
Xisco Gràcia, 54, kept his knife handy so he could 'die quickly' rather than slowly as he ran out of oxygen
A DIVER who was trapped in an underwater cave for 60 hours has revealed he considered knifing himself to death to end his terrifying ordeal.
Xisco Gràcia, 54, said he began hallucinating from carbon dioxide poisoning and kept his knife handy so he could "die quickly" rather than slowly when he finally ran out of oxygen.
The experienced cave diver told how he faced his darkest moment after two days sitting alone in the dark, breathing an air pocket at the top of a submerged rock chamber.
He : "I have two children, a son of 15 and a daughter of nine. I thought about how they were too young to lose their father and what would happen to them.
"I thought about how I could die in the way divers most fear - without food or air.
"My light was almost spent and I knew I wouldn't be able to climb down to get water in the dark.
"I decided to swim across to where I left my gear and get a knife. I wanted to have it as a last resort if I needed to choose whether to die quickly or slowly."
Xisco, a geology teacher of Mallorca, spends most weekends exploring and mapping the labyrinth of underwater caves on the Spanish island.
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On April 15 he and his diving buddy Guillem Mascaró went to explore the Sa Piqueta system and swam underwater for an hour to reach a network of caves more than half a mile from the entrance.
Xisco spent time collecting rock samples, while Mascaró swam off to chart a nearby chamber.
It was as they headed for home that several things went wrong at once.
Xisco met Guillem by chance at a junction, and they stirred up silt from the ground - turning the water into "cocoa" so it was impossible to see.
They then realised that their guideline - a nylon wire leading back to the entrance - had either broken or slipped.
They spent a "precious" hour searching for it before heading to a nearby air pocket, by which time they had used up their oxygen tanks and most of their emergency supply.
The pair now faced an agonising choice as they knew they did not have enough air for both of them to make it out.
Xisco recalls three months after his ordeal: "We decided I would stay and Guillem would go for help. He was skinnier than me and needed less air for breathing.
"I was also more experienced at breathing cave air, which has higher carbon dioxide levels.
"Guillem was reluctant to leave me on my own but we knew it was our only chance."
Guillem headed for the exit - without a guideline - while his mate settled down to rest on a flat rock above the surface of the water.
The chamber was about 260ft long and 65ft wide, with 40ft between the water and the ceiling.
Xisco awaited rescue sitting in complete darkness. Two of his torches no longer worked and he turned the third off to save the battery.
He said: "I asked myself why this had happened to me now after so many years of diving.
"But I was hopeful during the first seven or eight hours as I thought Guillem would make it out.
"As time passed, though, I started to lose hope. I thought, 'Guillem has got lost and died and no one knows I am down here'."
He also began experiencing the effects of breathing in high levels of carbon dioxide - around a hundred times higher than above ground.
He said: "I had a headache and although I was exhausted through lack of oxygen it was impossible to sleep. My brain was whirring.
"I got the feeling there were lights in the lake and I heard the sound of bubbles of a diver emerging.
"But when I turned my head I saw nothing. It was a hallucination."
After what felt like days he heard a loud noise above him and realised his buddy must have made it out.
He said: "I thought at first I could hear the sound of tanks being filled with air for the rescue team. Later I realised they must be trying to drill through the rock.
"I was really happy as I realised they were looking for me."
But the noises stopped and Xisco faced his darkest hour when he considered turning his knife on himself.
Later he heard the sound of bubbles again. He recalls: "I looked and saw a diver's light that seemed to be getting brighter and brighter.
"I thought it was another hallucination but then I realised it was real and I saw a helmet emerging."
Rescuers had been stopped from swimming to him by poor visibility, and had instead tried to drill a hole to pass down food and oxygen but without success.
The first rescuer to reach Xisco was his old friend Bernat Clamor.
He said: "I jumped into the water and embraced him. He was asking me how I was, and telling me that he had been afraid I had died."
But his ordeal was still not over as Bernat had to leave to contact the rescue team.
He said: "It would take eight more hours to get me out of that cave, but they were eight happy hours."
He was given air enriched with oxygen to breathe and slowly guided to the entrance.
He emerged late on the third day, 60 hours after he went in.
Guillem Mascaró was there to meet him. Xisco said: "We embraced but didn't have time to speak as they took me off in an ambulance."
His body temperature was 32C - close to hypothermia - and he was given pure oxygen to breathe overnight.
He had remained calm but burst into tears when he saw TV coverage of the rescue the next day.
But amazingly he returned to the Sa Piqueta caves a month after his narrow escape and will continue his hobby.
He said: "My children don't like it much but they don't tell me not to do it.
"I have spent 24 years exploring underground. It's in my blood."
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