A caver suffered an agonising death after becoming trapped upside down for more than 24 hours.
Experienced spelunker and medical student John Edward Jones was exploring Nutty Putty Cave in Utah with friends over Thanksgiving on November 24 2009 when tragedy struck.
Following the dad-of-one's death, the natural attraction was soon declared a hazard and filled in with concrete - with his body still inside.
The 26-year-old made the fatal mistake of believing he could squeeze into the same spaces he was able to as a child, as he inched his way into the so-called Birth Canal of the cave.
The trainee doctor was able to wriggle his way forward using his hips, stomach and fingers before making the horror realisation that he was stuck, the Daily Star reports.
His only option was to keep moving forward, and exhaled the air from his chest so he could fit through the "L-shaped pinpoint" which was just 10 inches across and 18 inches high.
But when John breathed in again, his chest expanded and he was wedged inside for good.
John's brother Josh was the first to find him, and tried pulling at his calves but was unsuccessful.
Terrifyingly John then slid even further down into the passage and was trapped with his arms pinned under his chest.
Josh had no choice but to leave his brother and work his way out of the cave, where he called for help.
Rescuers from the Utah County Sheriff's Office arrived and began a complicated extraction attempt, made worse by the fact that John was in "absolutely the worst spot in the cave".
"It's very narrow, very awkward, and it's difficult to get rescuers down there," rescuer Shawn Roundy told media at the time.
"It's a really tight spot, but we've been able to get around him. We were able to hold his hand at some point."
They were eventually able to partially free him using a rope-pulley system.
By that point John had been hanging upside down for more than eight hours. He was given an IV drip and some food and water, and was even able to speak to his wife over a police radio.
Everyone was relieved — but then there was a heartbreaking twist.
An equipment failure caused the rope system to plunge John right back into the same gap he'd been trapped in previously, and the rescue operation was back to square one.
"He's not in great shape physically, there's a lot of pressure on his upper body and back — but he's been amazingly resilient and he has incredibly high spirits under the circumstances," Sgt Spencer Cannon said at the time.
Rescuers began a different approach, using air-powered tools to chip away at some of the rock surrounding John.
But after more than 24 hours trapped upside down, the pressure and stress on his body became too much. After struggling to breathe for several hours, John became unresponsive shortly before midnight.
"He's not in great shape physically, there's a lot of pressure on his upper body and back — but he's been amazingly resilient and he has incredibly high spirits under the circumstances," Sgt Spencer Cannon said at the time.
Rescuers began a different approach, using air-powered tools to chip away at some of the rock surrounding John.
But after more than 24 hours trapped upside down, the pressure and stress on his body became too much. After struggling to breathe for several hours, John became unresponsive shortly before midnight.
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