A Keighley woman killed in a caving accident has been named as Caroline Jane Fletcher.

Ms Fletcher, 28, from Riddlesden, and her male companion drowned in an underground cave when they were trapped by rising water.

The man has been named as Stuart John Goodwill, 33, from Darlington, who is believed to have worked as an engineer.

An inquest into the pair's deaths was opened this week for identification. Ms Fletcher's address was not released by the North Yorkshire coroner.

The pair, on a caving expedition in the Yorkshire Dales last Thursday, were caught in a fast-flowing stream swollen by heavy rainfall.

The bodies were found in the early hours of Friday in Lower Long Churn, a cave popular with adventure holiday groups and parties of school children.

The search began for the man after his wife raised the alarm when he failed to return home.

The bodies were found by a 19-strong team from the Cave Rescue Organisation based in Clapham.

Cottingley school teacher Phil Haigh, who led the cave rescue bid, said the pair were found 60 to 70 metres down Lower Long Churn, a passage which connects to the famous Alum Pot cave system.

Mr Haigh, a cave rescuer for more than 25 years, said: "It is a tragic accident that is particularly poignant at this time of the year.

"As cavers ourselves, we have a particular sympathy and empathy with the bereaved families and send our condolences to them."

Mr Haigh said that water could rise in a cave several hours after rain had stopped.

Rae Lonsdale, a duty controller with the Cave Rescue Organisation, said the team was mobilised after police found the man's car at Selside, a hamlet in the parish of Horton-in-Ribblesdale.

Mr Lonsdale, of Langcliffe, near Settle, said the water level in the cave was high after hours of heavy rain.

"It was half an hour after midnight and still raining.

"The water levels were high but if you know the caving system there are ways to keep out of much of it."

He said there is a fast-flowing underground river in the cave but accidents were rare.

"A tremendous number of children from the Bradford area visit this cave for their first experience of wild caving but their leaders would not take young people underground in weather like this," he said.

Steve Pullen, a Bradford councillor who represents Riddlesden, said: "This is a tragedy at any time but especially at Christmas."

Cllr Pullen said the deaths were all the more moving for him because he himself had lost a relative in a caving accident.

In November 2007 Keighley News photographer Bob Smith spent three hours underground exploring the cave where Caroline Fletcher died. He describes the experience below. "Lower Long Churn Cave is part of the system which empties into the 260ft-deep shaft of Alum Pot.

I was among a party of 12 novice cavers taking part in the Try Caving weekend run by the Yorkshire Subterranean Society.

Try Caving enables those who have never ventured underground to get a taste of the world of potholing.

Long Churn is a popular cave for an introduction to caving. The 300m-long Upper and Lower Long Churn Caves are horizontal underground passages carved out by water over thousands of years.

Progress was made by a combination of walking, crouching and crawling on our bellies in freezing cold water.

Ropes were used by leaders at two pitches to safeguard our passage up and down short vertical sections of the system.

We went underground during a particularly wet period and there was a tremendous amount of water in various parts of the system.

But, despite emerging thoroughly soaked, there was no sense for any of us that we were in peril from the gushing underground rivers."