I have yet to see an accurate account of the scuba fatality that occurred nearly 3 months ago in Fiji and thought it was high time to post an eye witness account. This is a copy of the email I sent to PADI, DAN, and the other divers on the boat on that fateful day once we returned to the U.S. My goal is to hopefully effect a significant change in the personnel, procedures, and equipment so a tragedy like this will never occur again with these or other closely operating diver operators in Fiji. This was a horrible event for all involved and further troubling by a complete lack of accurate reporting following the incident.
Hi All,
I finally have access to a PC in the U.S. I just want to let everyone know how sad this entire experience has been for Angela and I. We do, however, feel very fortunate to have all of you to thank for your extraordinary efforts. Just to let everyone know I began immediate communication with PADI Australia (Richard Evans) notifying PADI of the incident on 30 December by filing an incident report and have been in contact with them trying to halt operations at Beqa Adventure Divers as there have been no meaningful personnel, safety equipment, or procedural changes. One does not continue operations after a fatality, the standard procedure is a full stop. They are continuing business as usual. Angela and I now have copies of incident reports from 7 divers on board as well as 2 official police statements. Below please find my account of what happened on the 29th of December.
My name is Tom Rapko and my wife Angela and I came to Fiji for a brief vacation (5 days) to scuba dive. This is a shared passion of ours, and I enjoy underwater photography in particular. By summary of experience I have been a PADI certified diver since the age of 16, meaning I have been diving continuously for 19 years. I obtained NAUI Master Scuba Diver certification 15 years ago and received my PADI Divemaster certification 10 years ago. I have over 1000 dives on 6 continents and over 30 countries. I am the author of 2 books on scuba diving (one on Baja, California and the other Corcovado, Costa Rica). I have experience in all temperature and conditions--from dry suit diving to wreck diving to deep diving to tropical diving. In summary, I feel I have advanced scuba diving knowledge and ability that I have gained from traveling and diving throughout the world to include the ability to judge personnel, safety equipment, and procedures one encounters on a diving trip.
Angela and I arrived at the shop on 29 Dec 2010 for the morning dive at Beqa Adventure Divers. I had been with them the previous day so I did not need to complete the paperwork or show them my dive card as they had that information from the previous day. Angela went inside the shop and I went to the equipment room to get my gear ready as well as look for good equipment for Angela. This is the first time I met Amy.
Amy was in the gear room trying on a wetsuit. I noticed she was having trouble with it as the suit to me seemed too small, it was a size 10. I found a 12 on the rack and offered it to her but she now was receiving help from one of the staff putting on the 10 and said it would be fine. I continued gathering gear for Angela and made my way over to the boat eventually for the the start of the dive. All of our equipment was assembled on the boat by the crew and we each had a station where our gear was secured to the side of the boat using flexible drawstrings.
Everyone seemed in good spirits and was talkative. We introduced ourselves to several of the new divers on the way to the first dive site, I had already been diving with Nick and Jenn the previous day and we discussed underwater photography. The temperature was moderate, in the 70s, and the water was smoother than the previous day, meaning there was only slight chop rather than moderate seas from the day before when we had several individuals from an earlier dive trip report they had been seasick. Everyone had their wetsuit on up halfway or so except me as I prefer to put my suit on at the site. We arrived at the first site, 7 Sisters, and began getting ourselves together for the upcoming dive. Up to this point I do not remember hearing a safety briefing or dive site briefing save for the name of the site.
Divers that day were: Joao, Roberta, Amy, Ralph, Angela, Nick, Jenn, myself and 2 divemasters and one DM trainee from Beqa entering the water. No buddy teams were assigned. This was not unusual so far as I've seen in the past diving in remote areas, but definitely not the standard procedure for diving in general.
Given the discussions the divers on board had along the way to the dive site, the conditions of the water, and number of divemasters this didn't initially cause me too much concern. The "team diving" approach is sometimes used where the group is marshaled by 2 to more divemasters to a site and then corralled back to the boat. With 11 divers in the water though it is important to keep track of who's with who and associated air consumption, safety stops, and entry back on the boat.
I remember Jenn had a problem with her weight belt upon entry and at first thought it was lost, but the belt had simply shifted position. It was adjusted and the dive group proceeded to the bottom (around 40 feet.) The group was a loose gaggle with some divers taking photos and others looking around. Eventually we all made it to the wreck (about 80 at the deepest) and spent about 15 or 20 minutes there before turning back. I kept a close eye on Angela for the entire dive as well as taking pictures. We completed our safety stop and returned on the boat. The first dive was almost without any current, the water visibility was in excess of 60 feet, and temperature of the water was 82 degrees.
After all the divers returned to the boat the crew untied us from the mooring and we departed for a surf camp island and moored there for about an hour. Angela and I went ashore to relax on the beach for about 40 minutes or so. I had several cups of tea and many cookies that the crew provided. Amy and Dale were also on the beach near us in a hammock. Jenn and Nick were on the beach then went snorkeling in the water nearby. Ralph, Joao, Roberta, and the crew stayed aboard the boat. After about an hour we got under way to our second dive.
The captain identified the mooring and pulled into Rainbow Reef. There was increased chop in the water and surface visibility (i.e. the ability to see into the water and determine visibility from the surface) had decreased substantially from the first dive. We began to suit up for the second dive and the captain discussed that this would be a current dive. Angela was talking with Amy about using some of her dive equipment and also with Joao. I was assembling my camera and changing out film. The DM in training decided not to do the second dive and stayed on board with the captain.
Amy and Nick entered the water. Amy stood up to follow them and I noticed she didn't have her mask on, so I asked her where her mask was and she put it on. At this point the divemaster in the water told us to descend as soon as we got in the water as the current was very strong. He was in the water already with Nick, Jenn, and Amy. I did a buddy check with Angela to confirm our air was on and equipment was ready to go. Angela entered before me and I directly after she had given me the "OK" signal. I think Ralph followed me and Joao and Roberta were after him. I'm not sure on the final order though, because Angela and I descended immediately after we hit the water. We descended to the bottom.
I activated my camera, by putting on the strobe and adjusted the lens. Angela was right next to me and we set-up our buoyancy for the dive. The visibility was about half as good from the first dive, I'd estimate in the rage of 20-40 feet. By the time we hit bottom, around 50 feet, I no longer saw the divemaster, Nick, Jenn, or Amy. Angela was ahead of me and I assumed we were just following the group from here. Since we were told to swim into the current for the first part of the dive I followed the channel to where I assumed the DM was leading the group. I wasn't concerned at this point, except that we were simply assuming the group was ahead of us and we could catch up.
I stopped to take a couple pictures and Angela was with me. On either side of us great coral columns rose and it was quite beautiful. About 5 minutes into the dive I started to be concerned about the current. From our starting point and now entering this channel it had picked up significantly. I was wondering why we weren't doing a drift dive, i.e. that we would swim WITH the current rather than against it. I stopped any photography at this point and simply tried swimming as hard as I could. Angela was right next to me and gave me a signal we use together meaning this is exhausting.
I consider myself to be an excellent swimmer in good shape and I was straining to get through this channel. At some points I grabbed the bottom just to hold on. We had hit the 15 minute point in our dive and I checked my computer. I had used up half my tank, meaning I had 1500 PSI remaining. At a 50 ft depth a typical dive would be about an hour. I was shocked to realized I had used up so much air so quickly. We finally made it through the channel into an area that bottomed at around 55-60 feet that had no current, it was a classic lull or flat zone. Angela was right by me and I dropped to the bottom and did a full scan of the area. I noticed the 2 Brazilian divers near us, but no one else.
At this point I decided to stay with them as I figured one of the DMs would be circling back. There were three options as to where the main group could have gone--to the right was a gradually descending slope that probably went down to about 80 feet, straight ahead was a ridge line that I peered around and had a stiff opposite current, and finally to the sharp left was a silted out area (lots of particles in the water spotting out visibility) that was dark and about 20 feet wide. I decided it would be better to have the 4 of us together. I took a couple pictures, but grew further concerned when no DMs had circled back.
I continued scanning for bubbles, tanks, fins, or other signs of divers beside us. There was only us and the Brazilians. They looked comfortable. Joao was taking pictures and Roberta was hovering neutral nearby. I recognized that they were very experienced divers by the way they were balanced, their equipment, and breathing flow. I felt they were doing quite well. Angela signaled to me that she was low on air (about 1/4 tank remaining.) I was also low. At this point I decided we needed to turn back and surface.
We swam together back into the channel now with the current. It was fast. Our dive was about 25 minutes by now. I was looking for the mooring line because I did not want to do a blue water ascent in this current. I did some quick mental math and figured if we did a free ascent we'd be at least 400 to 600 feet from the boat. I gave up on the idea of finding the mooring line and ascended from 40 feet to 30 to 20 and found a coral bommie that I anchored us to for the safety stop. We were now over 30 minutes into the dive.
The current was ripping and I had Angela's hand, my gauge, and auto inflator. The current was so strong that if you faced it directly it would trigger freeflow in your regulator. I check my gauge and had less than 700 PSI at this point. Angela had a little over 500 PSI. We completed our safety stop and surfaced.
I had 530 PSI and Angela just under 500 PSI. The captain through out the tow line. We fully inflated our BCs. I commented "What the @#$% was that dive?" We struggled against the current to grab the tow line. Nick towed us in to the boat and Jenn and Nick grabbed our gear. Jenn and Nick were aboard the boat and I noticed the 2 DMs on the surface on the port side of the boat. Four divers were still in the water: Joao, Roberta, Amy, and Ralph. We got on the boat and shed our gear.
I immediately got a bad feeling. I suspected any other diver in the water was low on air at this point. Assuming everyone was as exhausted, air remaing couldn't be much more than 15 minutes for anyone. The 2 DMs came on board the boat and swapped new tanks, meaning they were dry (empty.) I stood on the edge of the boat and looked for bubble tracks. I was now very concerned. The captain of the boat was talking in Fijian to the DMs. They each dove back into the water.
One DM out on a beeline to the boat's 7:30 position, the other descended under the boat and followed the mooring line. I continued to scan the water, but in the opposite direction looking in the area where Angela and I just surfaced (boat's 0600 position.) I told Angela "I think we have a rescue on our hands." In the meantime Ralph had boarded the boat. He looked fine, but tired. He began looking for bubble signs. About 2-3 minutes after the DM that went out at the boat's 7:30 popped up and held a limp Amy in his arms.
He was about 40-60 meters away. I could see Amy was limp and foam was in her mouth. I yelled out "We have a rescue, we have a rescue!" I then asked who knew CPR. I asked the captain to call the Coast Guard and an ambulance and to cut the anchor to pick her up. By this point we saw bubbles along the anchor line. I could distinguish 3 sets. I my opinion with the divers on the mooring line and the current pushing the DM and Amy away from us it was imperative to get Amy.
We were still attached to the mooring line, which took about another 1-2 minutes to untie as there didn't seem to be a knife handy. Nick and I tried picking up the ladder but it was stuck. Finally the captain unhooked us from the mooring and we sped over to pick up Amy and the DM. I'd estimate they had surfaced some ~300 feet from the boat and the current was now pushing them further away. I asked who knew CPR and we set up a make-shift landing on the metal boat from towels.
Once again I asked the captain to call to shore for an ambulance. We made it to Amy and the DM. So I'd say it was 3-5 minutes after I first saw them hit the water that we got to them. Amy's weight belt was gone and her mask was off. The DM had been rescue breathing with her. Nick, Ralph, and me pulled Amy on board. The DM threw her equipment up and he got on the boat. We slid her across the deck onto the towel bed and Angela and Jenn immediately began CPR. I was now concerned we had 3 other divers still in the water that I suspected were out of air and we might have another 3 possible incidents.
Hi All,
I finally have access to a PC in the U.S. I just want to let everyone know how sad this entire experience has been for Angela and I. We do, however, feel very fortunate to have all of you to thank for your extraordinary efforts. Just to let everyone know I began immediate communication with PADI Australia (Richard Evans) notifying PADI of the incident on 30 December by filing an incident report and have been in contact with them trying to halt operations at Beqa Adventure Divers as there have been no meaningful personnel, safety equipment, or procedural changes. One does not continue operations after a fatality, the standard procedure is a full stop. They are continuing business as usual. Angela and I now have copies of incident reports from 7 divers on board as well as 2 official police statements. Below please find my account of what happened on the 29th of December.
My name is Tom Rapko and my wife Angela and I came to Fiji for a brief vacation (5 days) to scuba dive. This is a shared passion of ours, and I enjoy underwater photography in particular. By summary of experience I have been a PADI certified diver since the age of 16, meaning I have been diving continuously for 19 years. I obtained NAUI Master Scuba Diver certification 15 years ago and received my PADI Divemaster certification 10 years ago. I have over 1000 dives on 6 continents and over 30 countries. I am the author of 2 books on scuba diving (one on Baja, California and the other Corcovado, Costa Rica). I have experience in all temperature and conditions--from dry suit diving to wreck diving to deep diving to tropical diving. In summary, I feel I have advanced scuba diving knowledge and ability that I have gained from traveling and diving throughout the world to include the ability to judge personnel, safety equipment, and procedures one encounters on a diving trip.
Angela and I arrived at the shop on 29 Dec 2010 for the morning dive at Beqa Adventure Divers. I had been with them the previous day so I did not need to complete the paperwork or show them my dive card as they had that information from the previous day. Angela went inside the shop and I went to the equipment room to get my gear ready as well as look for good equipment for Angela. This is the first time I met Amy.
Amy was in the gear room trying on a wetsuit. I noticed she was having trouble with it as the suit to me seemed too small, it was a size 10. I found a 12 on the rack and offered it to her but she now was receiving help from one of the staff putting on the 10 and said it would be fine. I continued gathering gear for Angela and made my way over to the boat eventually for the the start of the dive. All of our equipment was assembled on the boat by the crew and we each had a station where our gear was secured to the side of the boat using flexible drawstrings.
Everyone seemed in good spirits and was talkative. We introduced ourselves to several of the new divers on the way to the first dive site, I had already been diving with Nick and Jenn the previous day and we discussed underwater photography. The temperature was moderate, in the 70s, and the water was smoother than the previous day, meaning there was only slight chop rather than moderate seas from the day before when we had several individuals from an earlier dive trip report they had been seasick. Everyone had their wetsuit on up halfway or so except me as I prefer to put my suit on at the site. We arrived at the first site, 7 Sisters, and began getting ourselves together for the upcoming dive. Up to this point I do not remember hearing a safety briefing or dive site briefing save for the name of the site.
Divers that day were: Joao, Roberta, Amy, Ralph, Angela, Nick, Jenn, myself and 2 divemasters and one DM trainee from Beqa entering the water. No buddy teams were assigned. This was not unusual so far as I've seen in the past diving in remote areas, but definitely not the standard procedure for diving in general.
Given the discussions the divers on board had along the way to the dive site, the conditions of the water, and number of divemasters this didn't initially cause me too much concern. The "team diving" approach is sometimes used where the group is marshaled by 2 to more divemasters to a site and then corralled back to the boat. With 11 divers in the water though it is important to keep track of who's with who and associated air consumption, safety stops, and entry back on the boat.
I remember Jenn had a problem with her weight belt upon entry and at first thought it was lost, but the belt had simply shifted position. It was adjusted and the dive group proceeded to the bottom (around 40 feet.) The group was a loose gaggle with some divers taking photos and others looking around. Eventually we all made it to the wreck (about 80 at the deepest) and spent about 15 or 20 minutes there before turning back. I kept a close eye on Angela for the entire dive as well as taking pictures. We completed our safety stop and returned on the boat. The first dive was almost without any current, the water visibility was in excess of 60 feet, and temperature of the water was 82 degrees.
After all the divers returned to the boat the crew untied us from the mooring and we departed for a surf camp island and moored there for about an hour. Angela and I went ashore to relax on the beach for about 40 minutes or so. I had several cups of tea and many cookies that the crew provided. Amy and Dale were also on the beach near us in a hammock. Jenn and Nick were on the beach then went snorkeling in the water nearby. Ralph, Joao, Roberta, and the crew stayed aboard the boat. After about an hour we got under way to our second dive.
The captain identified the mooring and pulled into Rainbow Reef. There was increased chop in the water and surface visibility (i.e. the ability to see into the water and determine visibility from the surface) had decreased substantially from the first dive. We began to suit up for the second dive and the captain discussed that this would be a current dive. Angela was talking with Amy about using some of her dive equipment and also with Joao. I was assembling my camera and changing out film. The DM in training decided not to do the second dive and stayed on board with the captain.
Amy and Nick entered the water. Amy stood up to follow them and I noticed she didn't have her mask on, so I asked her where her mask was and she put it on. At this point the divemaster in the water told us to descend as soon as we got in the water as the current was very strong. He was in the water already with Nick, Jenn, and Amy. I did a buddy check with Angela to confirm our air was on and equipment was ready to go. Angela entered before me and I directly after she had given me the "OK" signal. I think Ralph followed me and Joao and Roberta were after him. I'm not sure on the final order though, because Angela and I descended immediately after we hit the water. We descended to the bottom.
I activated my camera, by putting on the strobe and adjusted the lens. Angela was right next to me and we set-up our buoyancy for the dive. The visibility was about half as good from the first dive, I'd estimate in the rage of 20-40 feet. By the time we hit bottom, around 50 feet, I no longer saw the divemaster, Nick, Jenn, or Amy. Angela was ahead of me and I assumed we were just following the group from here. Since we were told to swim into the current for the first part of the dive I followed the channel to where I assumed the DM was leading the group. I wasn't concerned at this point, except that we were simply assuming the group was ahead of us and we could catch up.
I stopped to take a couple pictures and Angela was with me. On either side of us great coral columns rose and it was quite beautiful. About 5 minutes into the dive I started to be concerned about the current. From our starting point and now entering this channel it had picked up significantly. I was wondering why we weren't doing a drift dive, i.e. that we would swim WITH the current rather than against it. I stopped any photography at this point and simply tried swimming as hard as I could. Angela was right next to me and gave me a signal we use together meaning this is exhausting.
I consider myself to be an excellent swimmer in good shape and I was straining to get through this channel. At some points I grabbed the bottom just to hold on. We had hit the 15 minute point in our dive and I checked my computer. I had used up half my tank, meaning I had 1500 PSI remaining. At a 50 ft depth a typical dive would be about an hour. I was shocked to realized I had used up so much air so quickly. We finally made it through the channel into an area that bottomed at around 55-60 feet that had no current, it was a classic lull or flat zone. Angela was right by me and I dropped to the bottom and did a full scan of the area. I noticed the 2 Brazilian divers near us, but no one else.
At this point I decided to stay with them as I figured one of the DMs would be circling back. There were three options as to where the main group could have gone--to the right was a gradually descending slope that probably went down to about 80 feet, straight ahead was a ridge line that I peered around and had a stiff opposite current, and finally to the sharp left was a silted out area (lots of particles in the water spotting out visibility) that was dark and about 20 feet wide. I decided it would be better to have the 4 of us together. I took a couple pictures, but grew further concerned when no DMs had circled back.
I continued scanning for bubbles, tanks, fins, or other signs of divers beside us. There was only us and the Brazilians. They looked comfortable. Joao was taking pictures and Roberta was hovering neutral nearby. I recognized that they were very experienced divers by the way they were balanced, their equipment, and breathing flow. I felt they were doing quite well. Angela signaled to me that she was low on air (about 1/4 tank remaining.) I was also low. At this point I decided we needed to turn back and surface.
We swam together back into the channel now with the current. It was fast. Our dive was about 25 minutes by now. I was looking for the mooring line because I did not want to do a blue water ascent in this current. I did some quick mental math and figured if we did a free ascent we'd be at least 400 to 600 feet from the boat. I gave up on the idea of finding the mooring line and ascended from 40 feet to 30 to 20 and found a coral bommie that I anchored us to for the safety stop. We were now over 30 minutes into the dive.
The current was ripping and I had Angela's hand, my gauge, and auto inflator. The current was so strong that if you faced it directly it would trigger freeflow in your regulator. I check my gauge and had less than 700 PSI at this point. Angela had a little over 500 PSI. We completed our safety stop and surfaced.
I had 530 PSI and Angela just under 500 PSI. The captain through out the tow line. We fully inflated our BCs. I commented "What the @#$% was that dive?" We struggled against the current to grab the tow line. Nick towed us in to the boat and Jenn and Nick grabbed our gear. Jenn and Nick were aboard the boat and I noticed the 2 DMs on the surface on the port side of the boat. Four divers were still in the water: Joao, Roberta, Amy, and Ralph. We got on the boat and shed our gear.
I immediately got a bad feeling. I suspected any other diver in the water was low on air at this point. Assuming everyone was as exhausted, air remaing couldn't be much more than 15 minutes for anyone. The 2 DMs came on board the boat and swapped new tanks, meaning they were dry (empty.) I stood on the edge of the boat and looked for bubble tracks. I was now very concerned. The captain of the boat was talking in Fijian to the DMs. They each dove back into the water.
One DM out on a beeline to the boat's 7:30 position, the other descended under the boat and followed the mooring line. I continued to scan the water, but in the opposite direction looking in the area where Angela and I just surfaced (boat's 0600 position.) I told Angela "I think we have a rescue on our hands." In the meantime Ralph had boarded the boat. He looked fine, but tired. He began looking for bubble signs. About 2-3 minutes after the DM that went out at the boat's 7:30 popped up and held a limp Amy in his arms.
He was about 40-60 meters away. I could see Amy was limp and foam was in her mouth. I yelled out "We have a rescue, we have a rescue!" I then asked who knew CPR. I asked the captain to call the Coast Guard and an ambulance and to cut the anchor to pick her up. By this point we saw bubbles along the anchor line. I could distinguish 3 sets. I my opinion with the divers on the mooring line and the current pushing the DM and Amy away from us it was imperative to get Amy.
We were still attached to the mooring line, which took about another 1-2 minutes to untie as there didn't seem to be a knife handy. Nick and I tried picking up the ladder but it was stuck. Finally the captain unhooked us from the mooring and we sped over to pick up Amy and the DM. I'd estimate they had surfaced some ~300 feet from the boat and the current was now pushing them further away. I asked who knew CPR and we set up a make-shift landing on the metal boat from towels.
Once again I asked the captain to call to shore for an ambulance. We made it to Amy and the DM. So I'd say it was 3-5 minutes after I first saw them hit the water that we got to them. Amy's weight belt was gone and her mask was off. The DM had been rescue breathing with her. Nick, Ralph, and me pulled Amy on board. The DM threw her equipment up and he got on the boat. We slid her across the deck onto the towel bed and Angela and Jenn immediately began CPR. I was now concerned we had 3 other divers still in the water that I suspected were out of air and we might have another 3 possible incidents.
I am so sorry this happened. I could imagine I would be devistated from this event.
