Fatality Off Miami Beach - Florida

[DandyDon]

From the scant info given, it sounds like she took her BC off in the water, then sank with weight belt on, failing to ditch - yet another case of body found with weights attached...

Woman Dies During Scuba Trip Off Miami Beach « CBS Miami

MIAMI BEACH (CBSMiami) – A deadly day on water off Miami Beach after a missing diver was found dead.
The U.S. Coast Guard said the sent a boat to check out reports of a missing diver aboard a boat operated by RJ Diving Ventures on Miami Beach. They said when their crew arrived the missing had been found and her body was on the boat.
According to one of the divers on the charter trip, who did not wish to be named, there were about 40 divers on the boat and all were paired up before they hit the water.

When they came to the surface, one of the divers reported their ‘buddy’ was missing. Divers on the dive boat were able to locate the woman and brought her body onto the boat. They then headed back to the marina in Miami Beach.
“She sank right to the bottom because she was wearing weights; it’s very difficult to keep yourself up,” Jaclyn Hesse, a diver on board told CBS4’s Summer Knowles. “If she had taken off her weight belts first and then taken off the BCD she would’ve stayed afloat.”
Miami Beach police, Miami-Dade Police, the Coast Guard and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are all involved in the investigation.
Police have not released the woman’s name or speculated as to what may have gone wrong.

 

[Beiji]

Their schedule today according to the Facebook page:
February 24th, Sunday @ 1:00 PM…………….The Belzona Barge (30&#8217 and a reef (30&#8217

It was the 1:00 boat according to the news report.

 

[oly5050user]

Sorry to the family for the loss..

 

[peterbj7]

Oh dear! Another example of basic training being forgotten. Terrible for her and those she leaves behind.

 

[JohnN]

Condolences to the family of the diver.

But, 40 people on a cattle boat + catastrophic task overloading for a novice diver. What could possibly go wrong?

 

[DandyDon]

Condolences to the family of the diver.

But, 40 people on a cattle boat + catastrophic task overloading for a novice diver. What could possibly go wrong?

It's not mentioned that she was a novice. A reasonable guess perhaps, but not confirmed - and the news story itself could include errors, as they often do.

It was mentioned that they did run big boats of 30 or so divers a little over a year ago in this other story: RJ Diving Ventures Leaves Divers In Water | Breaking News | Sports | Entertainment | Celebrity Updates | Business | Travel

 

[JohnN]

Yelp reviews of the dive operator indicates there can be 4+ dive shops sharing the boat, apparently one of the few boats going out of Miami Beach.

Agreed we don't know yet what happened, but with that many different DM's and that many people, confusion is going to be the rule not the exception.

 

[ambam]

She was a Chinese tourists and spoke no English, via the news this morning..... WHy did she take off her bcd

 

[slingshot187]

Panic can cause people to do very dangerous things. I'm a brand new diver and one of the first things the taught was never hold your breath and drop your weights when your in trouble. So sad to see a diver go .

 

[deeper thoughts]

I heard over the Marine radio ch 16 yesterday that a female diver was missing in Key Biscayne