When an American researcher fell ill as he was leading an expedition into the depths of one of Turkey's longest caves, AP was first to secure video and photos of the man, Mark Dickey, as he waited to be rescued 1,000 meters (more than 3,000 feet) deep into the rock. The bureau staffers’ longtime efforts to cultivate sources paid off when relief agency officials contacted the team offering the first visual material from the cave and expressing the desire for AP to have it exclusively and be first to transmit it to the world. “We trust you,” they said. AP led the story in all formats from the very beginning and was ahead with the alert and urgent and first visuals sent out internationally when Dickey was eventually extracted from the cave.
AP gets first video and photos of the ailing US researcher before he was rescued from one of Turkey’s deepest caves
Members of the CNSAS, Italian alpine and speleological rescuers, carry a stretcher with American researcher Mark Dickey during a rescue operation in the Morca cave, near Anamur, southern Turkey, Monday, Sept. 11, 2023. A rescue operation is underway in Turkey’s Taurus Mountains to bring out an American researcher who fell seriously ill at a depth of some 1,000 meters (3,000 feet) from the entrance of one of world’s deepest caves last week and was unable to climb out himself. Mark Dickey is being assisted by international rescuers who by Monday had brought him up to 300 meters (nearly 1,000 feet).
CNSAS VIA AP