It was summer 1955. We decided to meet up again the following Easter at Ingleton. So in 1956, after exploring a few caves around Ingleton and Clapham, we decided to form ourselves into a proper group. It was August-September 1956 we held a meeting in the Wheatsheaf Hotel, Ingleton.

FATAL ACCIDENT IN MOSSDALE CAVERNS 1967 by Len Huff page 2: by permission of UWFRA

Monday, 26th June. 1967.
Owing to the heavy rain during the night, it was found that the dam had been breached in two places, and a five-point plan had to be made before any further search and recovery work could commence.
l. Strengthen the dams
2. Widen the new water course.
3. Build a secondary dam.
4. Establish telephone link with Rough Chamber or Kneewrecker Junction.
5. Rough Chamber to be a point to accumulate men and material and an
advance base for search and recovery teams.

It became obvious that it was necessary to have more expert advice on building dams as it was to be the crux of the operations. Mr. M. H. Long (British Speleological Association) who had had considerable experience on sea wall
construction, undertook the job of strengthening the dam. The County and District Surveyors, Messrs. Fortune and Seddon, were asked to visit the scene and give advice, and supply materials as required. Dr. H. Lord, Safety in Mines Research Establishment, and Derbyshire C.R.0., was sent for to provide better communications with his ‘Inductor’ phones and Search Coils in order to establish the exact whereabouts of the bodies in relation to the surface and give early warning to those beyond Rough Chamber of the onset of bad weather.

The Met. report for the day was "fine and dry until 6 a.m. the following morning, when the weather would deteriorate considerably until the following afternoon -then showers with bright intervals".  By 12.30 hours work underground was going well with D. Birch attempting to establish points 4 and 5 of his plan, when it was noticed that the sky to the North-East began to fill with dark thunder clouds. These dark clouds extended round to South and North-West, and by 14.00 hours it began to rain fast but not heavily.

Des Birch was kept informed every 10 minutes, and when it began to rain he decided to withdraw twenty underground men back to "Blackpool Sands" from Rough Chamber, and on the safe side of deep water. In fact seven men were sent out, leaving fourteen to stay and watch the effects of the storm on the water and find out if it was entering the caves from unknown sources. It rained for two hours then became fair, and work underground recommenced. At 16.30 hours news was flashed that the stream had risen approximately four feet in half an hour.

The underground teams were warned of the danger and requested to evacuate. At this point it was noticed that everyone was working very hard filling sandbags, some people using their bare hands, others running with sandbags as pumps became swamped by the rapidly rising waters. Fifteen minutes later the water was only inches below the top of the dam. Two machines were hurriedly placed against the dam wall, and people continued working chest high in water to recover the pumps.

The cave was cleared of rescuers at 17.10 hours. Some experts were questioned on the chances of the sixth man still being alive. Three of those who know the system well said "1 chance in 200".

With such unpredictable storms it was necessary to build the dam 10 ft high and 15 ft. thick, also to be followed by a secondary dam 6ft. high and 6 ft. Thick from the central buttress to the eastern buttress. This dam would give rescue teams a chance to get out from Blackpool Sands should the first dam become defective. Until these dams had been completed, work underground was suspended. The Settle-Ingleton team arrived and consolidated equipment for a dig from the surface at Black Edge Pot, hoping to reach a high aven shown on the survey near to Rough Chamber.

Tuesday,  27th  June,  1967.
At daybreak the digging party started on their mammoth task at Black Edge Pot and further work on the dam was resumed. All teams were given two hours only beyond Rough Chamber and then to report back and telephone from Rough Chamber. The first underground party on this day was sent in about 13.00 hours and followed by other teams.  At 15.15 hours Dave Brook led the first search party and covered practically the whole of the far reaches of the cave in an unsuccessful attempt to locate the sixth man, then known to be John Ogden. They were also asked to recover loose equipment belonging to the deceased for identification. At 16.30 hours they reached and identified the bodies of William Frakes, Colin Vickers and David Adamson, who were all known to Brook. They went to Far Stream Sink and observed some work which had been done by the deceased and then returned. On their return journey they noticed
the body of Geoff Boireau, who Brook knew, and the body of another man he did not know but thought was Michael Ryan. About 100ft. nearer the cave entrance from the two bodies, he found a potholing lamp with the initials of "C.R.V.” stamped”' on it. Whilst examining the bodies of Frakes, Vickers and Adamson, a neoprene crutch strap had been found hanging from the roof, which did not belong to any of the three bodies, but he omitted to check against Ryan and Boireau.

At 17.15 hours Dr. Hugh Kidd and Ken Pearce of the Derbyshire C.R.O. and experts in their own rights, entered the cave with the specific object to check the crutch strap recovered by Brook against the two remaining bodies, assess the extent of their injuries, the manner in which they met their deaths and the feasibility of recovering the bodies. It was also to incorporate a continued search for the missing man. The first body Dr. Kidd examined was lying on its face in the middle of a 4-5 ft. wide passage. This man was Ryan and had been dead about 72 hours.
Rigor mortis had passed off completely.  Boireau was nearby and both showed external signs of death from asphyxia due to drowning.  About 400 ft. along a constricted difficult Passage to a point marked ‘T Junction‘ on the map, he found three bodies all having been dead some 72 hours and showing external signs of asphyxia due to drowning.  The man with a beard (Adamson) had a deep cut on the left side of his head but he didn't know if this had occurred before or after death. None of the bodies had any sign of major injury. He was also able to establish the crutch strap found by Brook's party did not belong to any of the five bodies. Dr. Kidd and Pearce unanimously agreed that to recover these bodies would be a tremendous physical task, a long one and fraught with dangers to the rescuers. One point between Rough Chamber and Kneewrecker Junction would cause considerable difficulty and probably require blasting.

Brook's party surfaced about 19. 30 hours and Kidd and Pearce surfaced at 21.00 hours. From evidence given by Brook, Dr. Kidd and Pearce, and by plotting on the survey the positions of the recovered equipment, it suggested the deceased were caught by sudden excessive flooding a few hundred feet nearer the cave entrance than where the first bodies were found. It also suggested the bodies of Adamson, Frakes and Vickers had been washed down to the position at ‘T Junction‘; some 500 ft. Furthermore, the crutch piece had now been identified as that being worn by the missing man, John Ogden.

Meanwhile, Alan Fincham organised search parties for different parts of the system with particular emphasis on places where Ogden might be found. A meeting was called by Len Huff to explain to Chief Inspector Scott, Messrs. Fincham, Hainsworth and Long, the advice given by Dr. Kidd and Pearce, to suggest leaving the bodies in the cave. It was an unsatisfactory end to the tremendous efforts but was accepted as the only course of action left open.

The last search party, led by Brian Boardman, entered the cave about 22.00 hours; their specific task being to search Near Kneewrecker and the two loops in Near Marathon Passage. There were six in his party, two for each specified place. Boardman went on to locate the five bodies, and whilst he was investigating the area by the three bodies, he observed a small passage at right angles to the one he was in.  He had to crawl over the bodies to allow investigation. He found the passage too tight to negotiate, but noticed a considerable amount of silting up; he also noticed a boot with tied laces, then another boot, both with socks, and also a white helmet.
All were about 15 ft. away. He knew Ogden was wearing a white helmet and he also knew him personally and thought he would have fought to get into, and up, this small side passage away from the water, which accounts for the position of the body. Confirmation was telephoned by Boardman to Huff at 3.10 hours Wednesday morning, and he was asked to completely evacuate the cave of personnel, but leave in equipment.