3 Divers lost on the Spiegel Grove

[mdb]

This thread is so long and 90% of it isn't even about the accident.

Could anyone direct me to the posts with some facts? I don't have 2 days to read through 400+ posts.

If you guys want to talk about dive law, why don't you start a thread about that. I want to read about the accident, what went wrong, and what could have been done differently.

Edit: I saw a reference to a friend of one of the divers posting some actual facts. Could anyone direct me to the general area where such facts were posted?

DeepBound: I received this e-mail this morning from a friend. I redacted his contact info since he does not want to be part of this ongoing discussion:


Hey Mike

This is **** . I noticed your post on scuba board and can comment on this incident. I've been living and working here in Key Largo for almost nine years now - where does the time go?

This incident has really shaken everyone up here. I just had breakfast with the owner of Scuba Do and the mate on his boat has been a personal friend since shortly after I came here. Most of those who handled the rescue efforts are also good friends too.

They were providing a ride to the Spiegel Grove to 3 instructors and one certified technical diver. The group had done a previous dive there the day before-without incident and diving the same profile. The group had elected to use single 80's with a 28% mix and had single 80 stage tanks placed 3 levels below the diver's entry point. All 4 diver's entered using strobe lights to mark their way - not reels? They went through the engine room and into the pump room. The pump room got silted up and two of the diver's headed up a narrow chute into a different compartment. The one diver, the one who lived, tried to grab the 3rd diver's hand, but the other diver pulled away and continued to follow the other 2 up the chute. The 4th diver went back out the way he came grabbed his stage bottle and made it back out - very low on air. He went directly to the surface and told the crew what had happened. The crew t! hen placed a call to the USCG and Marine Patrol. Two diver's from another vessel got new tanks and went back down to see if there was anything they could do and this is where they found a diver floating near the bottom out of the ship. These diver's brought the diver to the surface and handed him off to the USCG. The 2 who went in after everyone had then aquired approximately a half an hour of deco time and other boats brought over tanks with regs for them to complete their deco stops.

It sounds as though some of the diver's became very confused after entering the pump out room and went the wrong way. This is a real tragedy for everyone!

 

[Missdirected]

mdb, I am slightly confused as to the question mark here: "All 4 diver's entered using strobe lights to mark their way - not reels?"

Is he not sure or was this an error?

 

[Rick Murchison]

mdb, I am slightly confused as to the question mark here: "All 4 diver's entered using strobe lights to mark their way - not reels?"
Is he not sure or was this an error?

The efficacy of lines vs strobes, progressive penetration etc. has been an ongoing argument in the wreck diving community for some time. This mishap puts the argument to bed. Use lines.
Rick

 

[Rick Inman]

The efficacy of lines vs strobes, progressive penetration etc. has been an ongoing argument in the wreck diving community for some time. This mishap puts the argument to bed. Use lines.
Rick

So, what can we learn from this?

Use lines.

Take all your gas with you.

What else?

 

[Missdirected]

So, what can we learn from this?

Use lines.

Take all your gas with you.

What else?

Perhaps respect the fact places are marked off limits for a reason.

 

[Rick Murchison]

So, what can we learn from this?

Use lines.

Take all your gas with you.

What else?

If you use lines, you can clip your extra gas to the line (hose charged, valve off) so that it cannot be missed on the way out, even in a complete silt-out. This method is acceptable to me as part of the entire gas plan.
But use lines.
Without lines, staged gas can be missed when there is zero vis.
Use lines.

Perhaps respect the fact places are marked off limits for a reason.

That too - although we really don't know whether the victims knew they were in an off-limits area or not. They may have, but maybe not.
Rick

 

[Mike Edmonston]

So, what can we learn from this?

Use lines.

Take all your gas with you.

What else?

3. Bring PLENTY of gas single 80 not enough.
4. Follow rule of thirds and gas matching.
5. BE TRAINED IN OVERHEAD DIVING!
6. Run away from "trust me" penetration dives. (doesn't really apply to this tragedy, but happens all the time)
7. Use redundancy with your gas, reel, team (stages, ponies etc...)
8. No wreck penetration dive is "AN EASY DIVE".
9. Strobes are for radio antennas, not wrecks!
10. Stop, think, act, resolve problem.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are many more.

Mike

 

[diver 85]

wow...what a forum.....
i am not experienced enough to give details on wreck diving.....
however it does seem that the divers did not take all precautions to avoid death....
it seems some divers are quite ego-driven ie deeper, longer, risky environments etc.
they almost think there invincible b/c they have the license....
pity.....
also, is the diveoperator to blame......in my opinion no!
cant go around sueing everybody

The recreational side of this sport has really changed since my family's certification in '85....Some people are obsessed with deeper, longer dives these days & guess what, they are paying for it......As for me, I'm going to keep it on the simple & 'plain' side, IYKWIM, lol......people will learn, it just takes time & some unfortunate accidents.....On the other hand too, some people only learn after graduating from the School of Hard Knocks- that is one hell of a degree.....

 

[ScubaTub]

*** MOD NOTE ***
I have split the legal, financing, disneyfication & similar discussions off to this thread.
Please go there with legal & other similar issues.
Thanks,
Rick
*** MOD NOTE ***​

Thank you for moving the non-diving discussion.

 

[Buoyant1]

So, what can we learn from this?

Use lines.

Take all your gas with you.

What else?

This is similar to what happened to the Rouses...staged their extra gas and didn't get to it...

take your gas with you on wrecks...run lines...or just don't do it.

Like someone else said... 100% preventable.

Rick M, please define "hose charged, valve off" that's new to me, thanks.