| Name | Age | Sex | Injuries | Injured areas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hackett, Mike | Not recorded | Male | Fracture | Arm |
On Sunday morning, March 19, Mike Evans, Mike Hackett, and Paul Locascio entered 23 Dollar Pit on Maxwell Mountain. The cave is a multi- drop affair. At 2 p.m. the group was at the top of the seventh drop preparing to descend to the 532 foot level. As Hackett was checking Locascio's rack, the ledge he was on collapsed and he fell about 24 feet. Locascio rappeled down to Hackett and ascertained his injuries. Evans then started out for help. At the bottom of the first drop Evans met Bill Torode and Lynny Byrd and reported Hackett to have a broken arm, dilating pupils and to be losing consciousness. Torode went down to the victim and the others went for more help. They exited the cave at 4 p.m., proceeded to the nearest phone, and called the Huntsville Grotto Rescue Squad. Driving to Eddy Pit #2, they left a note for a group caving there to come and help. Then they ate supper. The group from Eddy Pit #2 arrived at 6:30 p.m. and was sent to get more of their group from their camp west of Scottsboro. A short time later the rescue squad arrived and a group carrying four ropes, medical kit and a stokes litter hiked to the cave entrance at 8:30. Two, one a paramedic, went into the cave right away to secure the victim's condition.
Meanwhile, Torode had reached the victim, splinted his arm, and since he was feeling OK, started him out. He was pulled up the 24 foot drop with the aid of a rescue pulley. The next drop (6th, 81 feet) was double rigged with Torode rappelling down to fit Hackett with a Mitchell Box system. Torode then worked the top Jumar via a sling from the second rope. On the 5th drop a Bilgeri method was used, as in crevasse rescue, where two ropes are used with a loop tied in the end of each for the victim's feet, one rope at a time being pulled up. At 10 p.m. they were at the bottom of the 4th drop (139 feet) where they met the two advance members of the rescue party. The arm was air splinted and Torode went on out. The victim proceeded using the Mitchell system with a rescuer working the upper Jumar from a second rope. Other rescuers double rigged the pits, then derigged them as the victim made his way up. Hackett was out at midnight.
Analysis: Communications in the cave were difficult because of waterfall noise, but the rescue seems to have proceeded well. The success was aided by intelligent coordination on the surface. It is difficult to know if the victim should have foreseen the crumbling of the ledge. It would be best to be safetied in some way when working around the lip of a pit.