CARLSBAD, N.M. — How do you remove a piece of heavy machinery from a deep underground hole? Very carefully, said a U.S. Bureau of Land Management official who is trying to do just that.
Crews continued efforts Friday to recover a front-end loader that fell into a 55-foot hole when a cave collapsed under a gravel pit earlier this week.
The operator, Burnell Booker, was unharmed other than cuts and bruises.
The 41-year-old Carlsbad man recalled what happened when the loader went into the pit Wednesday, dropping into a void that opened in the earth.
“As I was going down, it wasn’t like my life flashed before my eyes,” he said. “It felt like a ride that drops you down in just a few seconds.”
Booker said he feels fortunate to be alive after the accident.
“As I was going down, I held on,” he said. “I didn’t know how far down I was going to go until I hit bottom. It was really quick.”
Dave Evans, associate manager for the BLM’s Carlsbad field office, said the depth of the hole was measured at 55 feet, shallower than initial estimates by rescuers that it was 125 feet deep.
“They were out there doing extraction of the operator,” Evans said, explaining the difference. “It was a difficult situation for them.”
Evans said recovery crews plan to build a ramp by digging a wide trench into the pit, then tow the loader out, perhaps as early as Monday.
The effort requires soil analysis to ensure that the trench will be safe. Evans said it’s a complex site because the surface hole, which is about 8 feet by 20 feet, opens to a larger void below.
“It is a small opening at the surface, going into a bell shape below,” he said.
Crews also performed geophysical tests to make sure there were no additional “subsurface anomalies” such as the one that caused the collapse.
Evans said the area, near Carlsbad Caverns National Park, is known for an abundance of cave and karst features.
Booker was trapped in the hole for more than two hours before help arrived. “There was no cellphone service down there,” he said.
