A Norfolk Southern spokesperson said Saturday that it’s uncertain whether two cavers who were rescued early Wednesday in a cave on private railroad property near the base of Lookout Mountain in Chattanooga, Tennessee, will face trespassing charges.
Norfolk Southern (NYSE: NSC) suspended train traffic for 12 hours to assist in the search for Gabriel Vaughn, 21, and Robby Dobos, 23, who was discovered alive in a remote cave accessed through an active rail tunnel owned by the company, according to Connor Spielmaker, media relations manager for NS.
“Our personnel used hi-rail vehicles to transport search and rescue teams back and forth to the region,” Spielmaker explained.
The NS crew also sent in heavy machinery to “widen the entrance to the cave to facilitate better access for first responders and their equipment,” he added.
NS supported the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue Service, as well as the Chattanooga Fire Department and Chattanooga Police Department, in their rescue attempts. Vaughn and Dobos were last seen around 8 p.m. local time on Monday before heading to the base of Lookout Mountain to explore a cave.
“We’re immensely proud of our team members who worked alongside first responders all night to achieve this result,” NS stated in a statement. “We’d like to echo the first responders in saying that this cave is not open to the public.” Aside from the dangers of the cave, the region where this cave was reached is an active railroad tunnel with trains passing through at all hours of the day.”
Brad Tipton, deputy chief of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Rescue Service, said in a statement on the recovery efforts that teams “maneuvered through tough areas throughout the cave rescue, including narrow, crawls filled with water and low airspace.”
He stated that one of the CHCRS teams was outfitted with wetsuits to search the cave’s underwater areas.
“CHCRS members promptly discovered the party beyond the low airspace crawl and swiftly equipped the party for travel under their own power,” Tipton stated in a social media statement.
He went on to say that Vaughn and Dobos were “able to follow rescuers out of the cave without issue.”
NS, according to Spielmaker, “will be re-sealing the spot that was used to enter this cave.”
This is an ongoing story.
