Overview
- Kowallis, the last rescuer to reach John Jones in 2009, has published a detailed recollection of the failed confined‑space rescue.
- Jones became lodged upside down in the cave’s narrow “birth canal” after a wrong turn during a family outing.
- The rescuer says lifting was limited by webbing anchored at Jones’s knees, his feet would have hit the ceiling, and there was no way to rotate him horizontal.
- Teams weighed using heavy tools to widen the passage, which Kowallis estimated could have taken three to seven days and risked severe injuries.
- Jones was pronounced dead at about 11:52 p.m. from cardiac arrest and suffocation, leaving his wife Emily, daughter Lizzie, and a son born later who was named John.