General Vortex Incident Discussion

[vladimir]

If there is insufficient evidence to detrermine that the person in question is in the Vortex system, then I think there is no reason to limit the search for him to underwater environments. It would be really great if this turns out to ba a hoax. Better to face the law, dissappointed family, and a disgruntled dive community than scrape limestone while drowning.

Yes, well said, thank you.

 

[Dive-aholic]

Thanks Rob

What happened to his tanks that were in the water? Did anyone analyze them?

Not that I'm aware of. The way it typically works in these cases is we are not allowed to do anything with the tanks other than bring them out of the water. Law enforcement sends them off to be analyzed. If anyone tries to analyze the tanks on scene, that's considered tampering with evidence.

thought I heard 32%

Vortex only plumbs air to the fill station under the lodge. Rumor has it he was topping off his tanks there after hours.

Are we sure he didn't go to the Mill Pond? I've never been asked for a card to get oxygen at any shop in Florida.

Yes, I'm sure he didn't get any O2 fills there. It was already discussed at the shop.


Zinc, AFAIK, there were no regs on the tanks. Maybe he was planning on doing reg swaps underwater.

 

[ianr33]

Zinc, AFAIK, there were no regs on the tanks. Maybe he was planning on doing reg swaps underwater.

That's a great idea.Will save me a fortune on regs!

 

[deepswim]

I'm answering Q on my camera mount. Sorry still do not have video, but it shows with stilts on following video at TimeLine 1:11. Pictures was made by Luke dive-instructor from DiveLocker.
nik
YouTube - Crab cave Luke and Nik

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

EDIT: Asked before, but for someone familar with the area. Are there any nearby (like in walking, floating distance) sinks or holes, sidemount or otherwise, that he might have gone into?

No

What happened to his tanks that were in the water? Did anyone analyze them?

They were analyzed on the scene, atleast the two "deco" bottles; for pressure and O2 content. Cave divers analyzed them with the officers present to record the information. I saw them analyze those two tanks, I did NOT see them analyze the third tank that was staged a bit into the cave(which was the only one with a regulator on it).

From what I understand, Larry Green was out at Vortex last weekend and closed the IUCRR case on this. I wasn't there, nor have I talked to Larry Green, so can't really confirm.

 

[Rick Murchison]

If the young man is tragically stuck in the cave still.....and his newly purchased VR3 batteries are holding out.......his deco time built up shown on his computer in a month's time underwater must be up to YEARS by now.

No, the deco time would simply be the saturation deco time and get no longer. The saturation time on a Haldanean model is reached at six times the longest theoretical tissue compartment time - 6x2=12 hours for the Navy standard air tables. For other algorithms the sat time may be shorter or longer, but in any case the deco obligation peaks at the sat time, whatever it is.
Rick

 

[Cave Diver]

If the young man is tragically stuck in the cave still.....and his newly purchased VR3 batteries are holding out.......his deco time built up shown on his computer in a month's time underwater must be up to YEARS by now.

The way my VR3 eats batteries, I'd bet it shut off long ago.

 

[ucfdiver]

Can we move this away from the cave diving section? It has nothing to do with cave diving at this point...

 

[jrl5549]

Keep this theard alive. It makes good reading. Also has convinced me not to cave dive.

 

[mike_s]

I hate to bring this discussion back to it's original path but has anyone read this?

Experts Don't Believe Missing Diver is Actually in Cave at Vortex Springs




I'll let you all read the rest, it won't copy and paste well.

If you read the comments below the news story, the second to last comment is as follows:

Experts Don't Believe Missing Diver is Actually in Cave at Vortex Springs

Posted by: Shelby McDaniel Location: Collierville, Tn on Sep 13, 2010 at 11:24 PM

"It is apparent to me that reporter, Meagan O'Halloran is being informed by Vortex Management ideas to plant in peoples minds purposely trying to get everyone to thinking the unthinkable and unrealistic notion my son is not even in the cave-----which is absurb and riduculous. The situation whould have been avoided altogether if the employee who opened the gate for Ben as Ben was entering and the employee was exiting if the employee had stopped Ben immediately and escorted him out. And to AL suggesting a stupid Houdini trick, you have a warped sense of humor and you must not care for human life or you must not have kids or you would exhaust every means possibe to recover them. I feel sorry for you."

I feel terrible for the family, but there still seems to be extremely different views of this story. There is implied fault with Vortex Springs employee, and denial of facts concerning tampered gate. Above all is the absolute denial of the expert's opinions concerning missing diver NOT being in the cave. I fear that this is all far from over, that the family will beg to have divers continue into the cave looking for a body, and that they will produce one, in the form of a would be recovery hero.

so I read earlier this guy was parked on Dockery's property and was sneaking in at night (not paying).

we already know he put his own locks on the hinges....

but the family is blaming Vortex dive shop management here for leaving the gate open and for this accident not being prevented? sounds like they are trying to lame blame on others for their own son's stupidity here.