Dave Shaw died Jan, 2005 diving 271 meters deep in the Boesmansgat Cave in S. Africa, attempting to recover the body of another cave diver that died 10 years earlier. Dave had a video cam attached and was backed up by 11 support divers.
Dave Shaw took only 10 minutes to descend 271 metres to the bottom of the Boesmansgat Cave, half the time planned, to Deon Dreyer's skeleton.
Video footage shot by Mr Shaw indicates that about 25 minutes after the world-record diver entered the freshwater cave last Sunday to recover the decade-old remains of Mr Dreyer, 20, Mr Shaw also was dead.
In a bizarre twist, the Australian airline pilot's body was unexpectedly pulled to the surface on Thursday attached to Mr Dreyer's. Mr Shaw had became tangled in the nylon line he had attached to Mr Dreyer's remains.
Divers retrieving equipment left behind by Mr Shaw found the bodies 20 metres beneath the surface. When the line attached to Mr Dreyer was pulled, both bodies came up.
While an autopsy has yet to be completed, the video camera specially designed for the recovery mission, and worn on Mr Shaw's helmet, has provided a record of his last minutes alive.
Boesmansgat Cave, in South Africa's Northern Cape province, is the world's third-deepest freshwater cave. In October, Mr Shaw, 50, a Hong Kong-based pilot, became the only person to have dived 271 metres with the help of rebreather apparatus, which enables divers to recycle air. Cave diving is not for Big p**sy's.
