Cave fatality - La Mescla, France

[DandyDon]

From the Facebook group Scuba Accidents and Risk Management Techniques for Divers

Cave diver died in a fatal accident in the System of La Mescla, north of Nice, France.

On Friday 12th July a cave diver suffered a fatal accident in the Réseau de la Mescla in Malaussène, Vallée du Var, just north of the town of Nice in the Alpes Maritimes.
The cave diver was part of a party of three when the accident happened and the rescue organisations were allerted on Friday at 17.30 hrs. As the body of the deceased was left behind in a difficult part of the cave, the french Spéléo Secours started an operation on Saturday with about 15 cavers and 4 cave divers to bring the body to the surface. This will be an operation that takes an estimated 8 hours.

And A dead man in a speleology accident in the Alpes-Maritimes
Google translation...

An investigation was opened by the gendarmerie of the Alpes-Maritimes, led by the nautical brigade and the company of Puget-Théniers, to understand what happened this Friday in the Mescla in the town of Malaussène , in the Var valley .

An investigation to understand how a speleology practitioner died. The alert was given at the end of the day around 17:30 by the two people who accompanied the victim. They first tried, in vain, to rescue their comrade, before launching the alert.

Relief dispatched to the site encountered difficulties to raise the body blocked in a cave. He still was not at the beginning of the evening. New operations are planned this Saturday to reach the body of the victim, in an area very difficult to access . The Nice public prosecutor's office was seized.

 

[michael-fisch]

Unfortunately, another of these extremely deep caves with restrictions.
I'd be interested in the nationalities of the group since eastern europeans have over the last 10-15 years done a disproportunate number of dives that were worth dieing for.
My condolences to the family of the deceased.

Michael

 

[DandyDon]

Unfortunately, another of these extremely deep caves with restrictions.
I'd be interested in the nationalities of the group since eastern europeans have over the last 10-15 years done a disproportunate number of dives that were worth dieing for.
My condolences to the family of the deceased.

Michael

I don't think that any dive is worth dying for, but maybe English is not your native language and you meant that differently. I misstate myself at times and it's my only language.

Are you suggesting that eastern Europeans are generally willing to take more risks in diving? I guess there could be differences in cultural attitudes, maybe even in training.

 

[michael-fisch]

I don't think that any dive is worth dying for, but maybe English is not your native language and you meant that differently. I misstate myself at times and it's my only language.

Are you suggesting that eastern Europeans are generally willing to take more risks in diving? I guess there could be differences in cultural attitudes, maybe even in training.

You got that exactly right.

Eastern Europeans have demonstrated over the last 10-15 years a willingness to perform dives that others were not willing to do because of the risks involved. Sometimes it gets their name in the record books, more often it gets their name on gravestones. I really don't understand how their desire to be heros can be strong enough to accept the very real risk of becoming dead heros, but in the last 15 years enough of them have died doing very extreme dives.
Sure some of the best dive gear in existance now comes from eastern europe, my light/heating battery tank comes from Poland, 2 of my rebreathers come from the Czech Republic and a 3rd rebreather was made in the USSR. My lights are made in Finland, which although not actually being eastern europe (ex communist block) shares a border with Russia and has lost several gifted tech divers in the last 5 years.
I just wish that they could learn to think "Is this dive so important that I'm willing to take the very real risk of dieing in order to be the first to have done it?"

Michael

 

[dmaziuk]

Russians tend to be somewhat more fatalistic about their own mortality in general, so our risk assessments may differ. (And I'm saying "ours" because judging by some stuff I read on SB I must be a crazy reckless suicidal maniac myself.) Dunno how much of that is true of other "eastern europeans".

Point being, it's not necessarily the desire to be heroes, it's just doing a more challenging dive. It may kill you, but so can a stroke or a drunk driver, so... "волков бояться: в лес не ходить" (if you're afraid of the wolves: stay away from the forest).

 

[rjack321]

You got that exactly right.

Eastern Europeans have demonstrated over the last 10-15 years a willingness to perform dives that others were not willing to do because of the risks involved. Sometimes it gets their name in the record books, more often it gets their name on gravestones. I really don't understand how their desire to be heros can be strong enough to accept the very real risk of becoming dead heros, but in the last 15 years enough of them have died doing very extreme dives.
Sure some of the best dive gear in existance now comes from eastern europe, my light/heating battery tank comes from Poland, 2 of my rebreathers come from the Czech Republic and a 3rd rebreather was made in the USSR. My lights are made in Finland, which although not actually being eastern europe (ex communist block) shares a border with Russia and has lost several gifted tech divers in the last 5 years.
I just wish that they could learn to think "Is this dive so important that I'm willing to take the very real risk of dieing in order to be the first to have done it?"

Michael

I agree, there are quite a few eastern Europeans that have a different barometer of risk than me.
Like the 2 Finns who perished in Plura. Another extremely deep cave with serious restrictions at depth
The Finns' fateful cave dive in Norway was a ghastly struggle

 

[Esprise Me]

The phrase "there's nothing down there worth dying for" has never really resonated with me. I'm risk-averse, but (or because of that?) I see risk on a continuum rather than a binary. Recreational divers by definition don't need to be underwater at all, and every year a nonzero number of us die from things that wouldn't have killed us on land. Some types of dives are more dangerous, and while training and experience can mitigate those dangers, it can't eliminate them. Of course, we all have to draw a line in terms of our own personal safety, but it seems a little presumptuous to speak as though your line is the only right line.

Dork that I am, I brought my tank into the office today because I had it in my trunk for a night dive but had to park in the sun. That got me into conversations with all kinds of people who think I'm crazy to swim with sharks. Yes, they're probably overestimating that particular risk, but who's to say their personal lack of tolerance for that risk isn't valid? I deliberately seek out shark-infested waters because I think sharks are cool, but if I got bitten and bled out underwater, would my last thought be "yup, worth it!"?

 

[rjack321]

Of course, we all have to draw a line in terms of our own personal safety, but it seems a little presumptuous to speak as though your line is the only right line.

I deliberately seek out shark-infested waters because I think sharks are cool, but if I got bitten and bled out underwater, would my last thought be "yup, worth it!"?

Nobody said the first
And I am confident you wont say the second - the brain in survival mode doesnt work that way

 

[Esprise Me]

Er, what? You're saying the only reason a dying diver wouldn't conclude the risk was worth it is because their brain would be otherwise preoccupied?

 

[Turtle78]

Unfortunately, another of these extremely deep caves with restrictions.
I'd be interested in the nationalities of the group since eastern europeans have over the last 10-15 years done a disproportunate number of dives that were worth dieing for.
My condolences to the family of the deceased.

Michael

I used to work as a guide in the Red Sea. We were always a bit nervous when we had Russian or Eastern European divers on the boat, because they had a tendency to get themselves into trouble due to a more risk friendly and macho attitude (e.g. very deep air diving). And spending some time around Dahab's Blue Hole, there was a disproportionate amount of technical diving (and single tank deep air) fatalities involving Eastern Europeans. Several of these accidents never even made it into the news. Of course it would be unfair to say that the risk taking readiness applies to all Eastern Euopeans, but there does seem to be a tendency.