Editorial

Dear Readers,

I am pleased to announce the publication of the fourth issue of the scientific and professional journal SWARM – Safety, Work And Rescue Magazine.

As we were finalizing this issue, we were saddened by the tragic accident of Enčí – Jan Enčev at the Hranice Abyss. In the aftermath, the media described him as “a member of the Central Fire Station in Kladno, an elite SAR operator, a firefighter and an experienced cave diver.” He undoubtedly was all of these, but he was much more.

He was a rope-access technician as well as a commercial diver. He was also a creator of funny scribbles and “rough, approximate quick sketches” of newly explored spaces, accompanied by the note that “anything could have been missed anywhere.” He would then turn these sketches into complete maps of the explored areas on his computer, often including 3D models. In more than one flooded mine, he discovered spaces that were not even shown on the mine maps.

He was a tireless explorer for whom obstacles along the way were never the final stop, but merely an incentive to change his strategy for overcoming them. The video of his diving exploration of the Ponikelská Cave is, after all, clear evidence of this. In addition, he created a “photo comic” about this expedition, which was “removed from the website by the censors for being inappropriate.” An extraordinary person, a joker and a friend has left us, and I would like to dedicate this issue of SWARM to his memory.

The SWARM journal is freely available in electronic form at swarm.craa.cz.

If you have any suggestions or comments, I would be happy to hear from you via email at swarmcraa.cz.

For now, I wish you a pleasant reading.

Michal Kantor

Chairman of the Editorial Board