On July 8, 2023, Dr. B.I., 73, was hiking in the Pilis with his wife and friends near Dobogókő on the Thirring trail. Shortly after 16.00 h, he stepped into a pit on the hiking trail and twisted his ankle, hurt himself and could not stand.

His family members alerted the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service (BMSz) on the basis of an alert sticker seen on Dobogókő. One group of our cave rescuers went from the warehouse with rescue equipment to the scene, another group went straight to Dobogókő.

AFrom the car park, it is possible to reach the site, which is located at the foot of the Thirring cliffs, under vertical walls, by walking a kilometre through the forest, descending 100 metres in the meantime.

The first team with the BMSz doctor arrived at the site shortly after 18h00 and started treating the injured.

The injured limb was secured and the man was placed in a special cave rescue stretcher - a suitable way to transport the patient in difficult terrain. While the injured man was being treated, the rest of the rescue team started to set up the ropeways for the transport.

At 19:09, the transport of the casualty began, with the decision of the team leader to use rope techniques to transport the casualty over the steep, forest terrain between large rocks. After overcoming a 100-metre difference in elevation, the stretcher was transported on the tourist road on the upper, almost horizontal section to the car park.

On April 3, 2022, Márton Mede has not returned from the end of his cave exploration work at the endpoint at Siphon three of the Kossuth Cave in Jósvafő, Hungary at a depth of -48 meters. His disappearance marked the beginning of Hungary's longest-ever week-long complex diving and cave rescue operation, which unfortunately only managed to bring the diver's body to the surface. As far as we know, at the moment, the tragedy was caused by an underwater collapse, during which the diver died immediately or very quickly. During the week of the rescue, a total of 20 organisations and more than 250 people were involved in the operation. The underwater part of the rescue was carried out by the Amphora diving club, the dry part of the cave was managed by the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, the Association of Cave Rescuers of Northern Hungary, the Bakony Cave Rescue Service and the cave rescuers of Speleo Roznava, the surface management and logistics were carried out by the Pest County Search and Rescue Service, the Counter-Terrorism Centre, the Civil Protection, the Aggtelek National Park Directorate (ANPI) and the Municipality of Jósvafő. Several other organisations also provided assistance on the spot, which are reported in the article.

The author of this article is András Hegedűs (Juju), Head of training and development, Rescue Operation Leader at the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service. The detailed summary is published one year after the rescue.

Day one - we have a problem...

Sunday, early afternoon. I'm at work. Ricsi (Richárd Horváth, head of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service - BMSz) calls me on the phone: the lead diver in Kossuth cave hasn’t come up at the given time, then the backup diver went searching after him... Who is it, do we know?...

The Erosion-team caving group conducted a weekend cave exploration near the "Vörös-út"just above Klastrompuszta. A young man turned to them for help, stating that his grandfather had fallen ill on the upper section of the " Vörös-út", he could not continue the hike, because he had become so weak that he had to lie down on the snow covered road.

Members of the cave exploration group, who are also the members of the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service, immediately set out to help the man. At the site, the elderly man was examined, given first aid and protection from the cold with insulation blankets. The emergency services were also notified.

The location was not accessible by normal civilian car, and the ambulance could not reach the site either, so the rescuers carried the elderly man and his son down to Klastrompuszta in an four-wheel–drive car, where they were handed him over to the ambulance. The whole operation from the start to the handing over to the ambulance took only 40 minutes.
Four cave team members and two cave explorers took part in the rescue.

We wish the elderly man a quick recovery!

Az idős úrnak mielőbbi felépülést kívánunk!

Fotó: Turi Zoltán

On the 6 th of February 2023, unusually strong earthquakes shook the region around the Eastern Anatolian fault system. The 7.8-magnitude earthquake in the morning was followed by several equally devastating aftershocks.

The epicentre of the earthquakes was near Kahramanmaras in Turkey. The natural disaster also affected densely populated areas and large cities both in Syrian and in Turkey.

The rescue operations have not yet been completed, but the authorities coordinating the rescue have reported more than 30,000 deaths in addition to hundreds of thousands of injured.

Countries of the World immediately responded to the news of the earthquake, countless countries sent their special technical-rescue units, urban research-rescue teams, and medical units experienced in disaster management.

Many civilian and several state organizations set off from Hungary to participate in the rescue operations with their experience and knowledge, with specially trained dogs, and tools to help find the survivors trapped under the ruins of collapsed buildings and to help with their rescue and medical care.

On January 21, 2023, an extraordinary incident occurred during the "caver style" tour of the Mátyás-Hegyi cave: one of the participants (a man of about 50 years old, of average build) became ill at the "Wild Waters Path" section of the cave and it became obvious that he could not continue the hike. There it was discovered that the problem was due to insulin resistance.

In such cases, the guide will reverse the tour and escort the group of 9 out of the cave, or in more serious cases, alert the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service. This would have poiled the tour for the rest of the group, if they had to turn back. Fortunately, the tour leader knew that the Rescue Team was practicing in the cave, so he exploited the situation and asked them directly for help. Two minutes later, a small cave rescue team was right beside him, two of whom escorted the stranded hiker out of the cave.

If the Rescue Team had not been nearby, the guide would have been forced to interrupt the hike, either to escort the man out with the help of his fellow hikers and continue he hike (if the others had not given up), or, in a more serious case, to "sound the alarm" and wait for the Rescue Team to arrive.

The team members were happy with the quick help of the Rescue Service, as they were able to continue the tour with the others in a good mood.

Photo by Márton Kovács

On January 6, 2023, a group of cavers in the Mátyás Cave did not come out of the cave at the scheduled time, so the Hungarian Cave Rescue Service was alerted by the cavers' surface dispatchers.

The first group of the Rescue Service arrived at the cave in about half an hour, just as the caving group surfaced, safe and unharmed. They reported that they had had to take extra rests due to exhaustion and fatigue, and then proceeded slowly outwards, which meant that they did not surface at the previously agreed time. 

Following the above, we moved back to base. All cave tours have surface assistance as there is no cell phone service in the cave. It is the job of the surface attendants to alert the rescue service if the group does not arrive on time. 

The Hungarian Cave Rescue Service will continue to be on standby 24 hours a day and will be on the spot if an alarm is received. It does all this as a voluntary organisation, without any compensation.

Photo by András Hegedűs (Mátyás Cave, Giant's Passage)