The speleologist stuck in the cave in Sardinia was extracted alive

For 27 hours he remained trapped inside a cave, ten meters deep, buried by a landslide, in the belly of the Supramonte of Baunei, in central-eastern Sardinia. Luca Olmetto, a 31-year-old speleologist from Codrongianos, was saved just before 6pm today by a small army of rescuers and transported to hospital. Injured, but alive and conscious. About a hundred operators from the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps and firefighters worked incessantly from the moment the alarm was raised (2.30pm on Sunday), manually clearing the entrance to the cavity from the boulders and then up to the tunnel where it had been blocked. A high-risk job, with the danger that at any moment there would be a new collapse, in a ravine with a work space of approximately 1.5 meters by 1.5 metres, characterized by highly unstable conditions. Proceeding with the excavation and removal of the material, the rescuers had to consolidate the walls by positioning containment boards, to avoid further subsidence and allow advancement in safer conditions.

Luca Olmetto entered the Gorropeddu cave, in the Urzulei area, on Sunday to explore the cave. With him was his girlfriend who miraculously managed to escape the landslide and raised the alarm. The specialists of the National Alpine and Speleological Rescue Corps and the firefighters arrived on site, with the team from the Tortolì detachment, the Alpine River Speleo teams (Saf) of the Nuoro command and 16 USAR Medium units transported to Gorropeddu by the Decimomannu Air Force.

An advanced command post has also been set up nearby for the coordination of operations. In the evening the rescuers managed to establish communication with the 31-year-old, breathing a sigh of relief: he was alive and alert. Throughout the night and throughout the day on Monday, the complex manual removal operations of the debris continued until the tunnel where Olmetto was trapped was reached. He was then freed from the debris that was keeping him blocked, under the constant health monitoring of the CNSAS doctors. Once the unblocking operations were completed, the medics stabilized the injured person and prepared him for evacuation from the cavity. Olmetto was then extracted from the cave and entrusted to the health teams present outside. Once the necessary stabilization operations were completed, he was transferred by Areus helicopter to hospital for checks and treatment.