 "Photo: Kim Espinosa")
 "Photo: Kim Espinosa")
Three UT students caving in Airman's Cave in South Austin went missing Saturday night before a team of civilians, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services and firefighters found them Sunday evening.
The students, identified as Jill Baggerman, a religious studies sophomore, Jeff Brown, a biology sophomore, and an anonymous, female third member, entered the narrow cave at about 11 a.m. Saturday and told friends to notify authorities if they did not come out by midnight. At 5 a.m. Sunday morning, friends called 911, firefighters said.
The rescue team located the students, aged 19 to 23, at about 4:45 p.m. They had been sleeping in a side passage called Karen's Cave when they were found. It was more than 32 hours after the students entered the cave. The uninjured and hydrated students exited the cave at 7:40 p.m.
The three, one of whom would not release her name at a press briefing, said they would explore the cave again.
"We did our homework, we were prepared and nothing went wrong except getting lost," one of the female cavers said.
The rescuers found the students after spotting a trail of leaves left by the amateur cavers.
"It was a literal road map to their location - a trail of bread crumbs," said Frank Urias, division commander of Austin-Travis County EMS.
The 12,000 foot cave is located about one mile behind Barton's Lodge apartments at 3816 South Lamar Boulevard along a creek bed in the Greenbelt. It is punctuated with tight areas only passable by people with skinny frames, firefighters said.
"Most places in there you have to crawl on your belly," said Chris Youngblood, one of the first who responded to the cave incident. "[In some places] you can't even get on your hands."
At 5-feet-9-inches, 155 pounds, Youngblood was able to get through the initial bottleneck of the cave but said that anyone bigger would have trouble. He said some passages get as thin as 10 to 14 inches.
"Whoever is small enough, that's how we're picking [rescuers]," said Austin Fire Department spokesman Matthew Cox.
Friends said the three UT students had been in Airman's Cave before and are experienced at spelunking.
Civilian cavers contacted by the Austin Fire Department made up the majority of the rescue team. Some were members of UT Grotto, the Austin chapter of the National Speleological Society, an organization dedicated to studying, exploring and conserving caves.
"We call people either we've caved with or took classes with, then they call their friends," said firefighter Monty Strange.
The rescue team communicated with EMS outside the cave by laying down 5,000 feet of telephone line through the cave to an old-fashioned mobile telephone. The cable stretched less than halfway through the cave which created a multiple-hour communication delay with the rescuers crawling to the back of the cave.
From where the students were found, firefighters said it would take two to four hours to get to the surface. The entire round trip to the back of the cave takes about 16 hours, Strange said.
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