Florida’s Deadly Depths: The Tragic Tale of Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole

Incident Location	Diver Full Name
USA, Florida, Eagle’s Nest	Patrick Peacock, Chris Rittenmeyer

Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole has been known for luring both experienced and inexperienced divers to their deaths. Very poor visibility often affects the diver’s sense of orientation, resulting in difficulties to find their way out. On October 15, 2016, two certified cave divers entered the cave system. After they didn’t return to the agreed location, their friend reported them missing and the search began.

Description of Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole

The Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole, located in the Chassahowitzka Wildlife Management Area, Florida, is a murky, green-looking, and algae-filled pond. From the surface it doesn’t look very fascinating. It looks like it’s filled with alligators, and the swarms of mosquitoes and ticks above the surface can be annoying.

You can barely find any sign that a beautiful world exists within this irritating pond. You can’t judge a book by its cover, and this is indeed true of Eagle’s Nest. If you are to look at the condition surrounding the surface, you will never behold the elegance of nature below it. Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole has no stable visibility, so its visibility is dependent on the present conditions, including the state of the Florida Aquifer and the amount of rainfall received in recent times.

The Wonderland Underwater Cave

For the skilled divers who can do it safely, they’ve reported this cave system to be a wonderland. The underwater cave of Eagle’s Nest is a dazzling, top-class system. While entering, you will find a message board that divers used to note the dive situations within the cave.

That means you have to be very careful diving inside this cave system. Oftentimes, in the Eagle’s Nest cave system, you will find dark waters that were dyed with naturally occurring organic coloring called Tannins. Funny enough, the water can be crystal clear and completely visible in good condition.

It’s just such a magical underwater cave system. Your experience there would seem as if you were in a different world entirely; it’s fascinating, but also dangerous. The Eagle’s Nest Cave System isn’t child’s play and shouldn’t be considered an option for unskilled divers. Only experienced and certified divers should give it a try.

The Challenges of Eagle’s Nest

You can easily get lost within the cave system because there’s no specific place to get directions. It’s an unforgiving cave, so to speak. If you are an experienced and certified diver, your qualifications might not be sufficient for a safe dive into Eagle’s Nest. You will need to become acquainted with the cave, maybe asking questions of the locals or previous divers.

The cave is straitened, having narrow passages and making it difficult for divers to penetrate except if you squeeze yourself into it; you might not be able to enter through the constricted entrances. You might have great difficulty entering the cave with your gear. When you go further into the cave, the cave system leads to large, beautiful rooms in the cave like The Ballroom, The Superroom, & The Pit.

It’s just a dangerous beauty anyway. A beauty that lured many into their untimely deaths. On Saturday morning, October 15, 2016, three divers went to the Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole to experience life in its underwater cave system. Two of these three divers, Patrick Peacock & Chris Rittenmeyer, came from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Experienced Divers

They were both experienced cave divers who had dived in different cave systems in Florida, Mexico, and South America. This wasn’t their first adventure to Eagle’s Nest; they had dived into the cave system in the past. Patrick was a diving instructor. The third diver, Justin Blakely, had no experience diving and had no idea what the cave system looked like.

Dive Commencement

He arrived at the Eagle’s Nest earlier than his two friends, so he waited for them. Patrick, Chris and Justin arrived safely at the Eagle’s Nest Sinkhole, and they started their dive around 2 p.m. on Saturday, October 15, 2016. They all had their scuba gear with them, and they went straight to the entrance of the cave, which was covered with murky and unappealing water.

Different Paths

Patrick and Chris, being experienced divers, went into the dark cave system, exploring some of the rooms within the cave. Justin, who wasn’t that experienced, decided to stay close to the surface. The three divers planned to reassemble at a particular place by 3 p.m., which was just an hour after they started their dive.

A Worrying Wait

Justin, who was diving alone, returned after about half an hour to the agreed location. When he got there, he couldn’t find the other two divers, so he returned to diving again. He spent about thirty minutes again and returned to the same location, yet the two weren’t there. He continued waiting, all to no avail.

Panic Sets In

Justin began to panic when he couldn’t see his friends returning from their dives after some hours. He wasn’t experienced, so searching for them isn’t an option for him. He had to return to the surface to call for help. At about 6 p.m.

Search and Rescue Efforts Begin

Justin was able to get through to the police, and many people came to the scene when the report was sent abroad. Search teams were set to start their operations. The first search team, Jon Bernot & Charlie Roberson commenced their dive at around 11:00 p.m.; they were searching the upstream passages. The dive plan was reported by the third diver, Justin, to be along that upstream.

The Search Inside the Cave

When the first search team entered, they started observing the decompression habitat and discovered three bottles marked “O2” at 20 ft (6 m). At about 70 ft (21 m), four bottles were staged. Also, they saw two bottles that were marked 120, staged downstream from the guideline at about 120 ft (37 m) into the cave.

But they went upstream according to the missing divers’ dive plan. They did a comprehensive search throughout all the tunnels on the upstream side but couldn’t find the two divers. Then, they returned to the entrance room, and from there, they searched through the tunnels downstream, together with the Lockwood Tunnel.

No Traces Found

There were no traces of the missing divers there. After a futile effort, the first search team returned to the surface at about 3:30 a.m. the following morning. The second search team, Ted McCoy & AJ Gonzales started their dive around 3:45 a.m. They started with the downstream tunnels. Not long after their search began, they found the two bodies at an exit side of the Pit, one of the largest rooms of the cave system.

Details of the Tragedy

The second search team documented the details of the scene where the bodies were found, spending about 45 minutes doing that. From their observations, they discovered that one of the divers was still wearing his closed-circuit rebreather, but his bailouts were already displaced. Bailouts are underwater bottles used as an emergency gas supply in case the primary gas supply fails.

They saw an empty gas cylinder beside him attached to his rig, and a long hose was also attached to it and was set up. His loop was out of his mouth and left open, and the hose that was on the inhale side was squeezed. Onboard O2 had 300 psi left, but the onboard diluent bottle was empty. He did not have a primary light head, and the backup lights were not well positioned.

The scooter they found wasn’t close to him, but it was unclipped and turned off. The second missing diver, whose body was found in almost the same place, had a dry suit on him along with his mask and fins. He had a backup light fixed off and dangling from his pocket. He was positively buoyant. He had no other bottles close to him.

There was a full gas cylinder staged on the exit side of the pit confinement, though it was difficult to know if something was there. They saw that the missing primary light head was found in the same place. They found another full cylinder downstream of the jump to the Lockwood Tunnel. Two of the four side-mounted bailouts were found downstream of the Pit constraint but were empty.

Recovery and Investigation

The second search team returned to the surface since their tasks were just to locate and document the details of the place the bodies were found. The following afternoon, which was Sunday, October 16, 2016, a team of two divers, Eric Deister & Colt Smith, went into the cave system with the details they’d gotten from the second search team to recover the body.

They brought the two bodies out from around the Pit exit side to the top of the Ballroom. There were two other divers, Ken Sallot and another diver, who were both waiting for the first recovery team. When they brought the bodies to them, they brought them to the surface. Another team went to the scene on Monday, October 17, 2016, in the morning to recover every other piece of equipment that was left in the cave system.

Jon Bernot, the diver from the first search team, and James Draker were the team members that went for this equipment recovery. They found two scooters, the second missing diver’s rebreather, and a bailout bottle at the gold line outside the constraint that was leading to Revelation Space. His closed-circuit rebreather loop was closed but seems to be fully operational.

They removed all these and handed them over to the authorities for evidence and proper analysis. Patrick and Chris’s deaths became a topic for debate for several years among divers. No documented analysis of the cause of Patrick and Chris’ deaths is available for the public. However, Chuck Walls, a diving expert, speculated that the unfortunate incident was the result of nitrogen narcosis.

The Cause of the Tragedy

Patrick and Chris were both found in the most dangerous and complex area of the cave, at a depth of 260 ft (79 m), suggesting that nitrogen narcosis could have been the cause of their deaths. Nitrogen narcosis tends to occur when divers reach depths of about 100 ft (30 m). It results in loss of consciousness, caused by the tranquilizing effect of some gases at high pressure.

Anyone suffering from narcosis is not able to make the right judgment about his environment and will become confused. This oftentimes causes the divers to drown if they are not immediately able to surface or are not rescued. They considered Eagle’s Nest to be a disastrous cave system that must be prohibited for further diving adventures since several divers have been lost in this dangerous cave.

Previous Incidents and Conclusion

The entrance to the cave had earlier been banned by the state in 1999 but was opened again in 2003. This was a result of the pressure mounted upon the state authorities by the National Association for Cave Divers and the National Speleological Society Cave Diving Section.

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