Man falls into volcano during honeymoon after rope snaps

Wife has to descend into crater alone to rescue him

A newlywed couple honeymooning in the Caribbean have had to cut short their holiday – after one of the pair fell 50 foot into a volcano.

Clay Chastain, of Indianapolis, Indiana, tumbled into Mount Liamuiga, on St Kitts, as he and wife Acaimie hiked alone at the top of 3,700ft-high peak.

And she had to prove it really was “for better, for worse” by descending into the crater herself to rescue him.

The newly ringed husband fractured his skull, cracked his vertebrae and temporarily lost hearing in his right ear during the fall.

But it seems he may have actually got lucky: he was saved from potentially fatal injuries because the lush plant life, which has grown inside the volcano during its centuries of inactivity, broke his fall.

The incident occurred on 18 July as Mr Chastain used an old trail rope for support while attempting to look inside the phenomenon. The rope is thought to have snapped.

“I was freaking out about what I was going to find at the bottom,” Ms Chastain said of her own descent to find her husband.

When she reached him, the pair struggled out of the crater together – her supporting him – and back down the trail until they had mobile reception to call for help.

“It was a miracle that he was able to support himself for as long as he did with the injuries he had,” Ms Chastain told the Indianapolis Star. “It was just a miracle that he wasn’t injured worse than he was. It was incredible to me that he didn’t have any broken bones.”

Because of the skull fracture, he said, he was unable to fly commercially to return home and, instead, had to be transported by a low flying emergency aircraft that would allow him to avoid high air pressure.