4 diveres went missing - Malpelo, Colombia

[Dan]

Still hoping & praying for the rescuers to find them.

One lesson learnt from this unfortunate situation is to let the DM carry one of these handheld emergency VFH marine radio & GPS locators, like Nautilus Lifeline.

What is a Nautilus LifeLine

I'm going to get one for my next liveaboard trip.

 

[KeithG]

i think a plb would be more appropriate in this case. when diving in these conditions providing a plb for each diver should be standard operating procedure.

International Cospas-Sarsat Programme
Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[namerg]

Hello Divers,
between Christmas and New Year 2015 I was on Maria Patricia and Carlos was diving with me arround Gorgona Island. I did find your thread when I was searching for News with Google. My wife is from Cali and she woke me up yesterday (Friday) morning when she received the news via WhatsApp from Cali. Julio Velez, probably the most xperienced Diver for Malpelo and other friends from Carlos did allready charter a plane to also search for Carlos and the girl. His friends are collecting money. My mother in law lives in Cali and allready gave money to Ricardo Rodriguez which she will get back from us to support the search. If you want to help, let us know. I'm trying to load up the bank account information.
I'm not online all the time. Any questions +49160 6924395

Regards from Cologne, Germany,
Robin

I can help spreading the voice through my Instagram account.

 

[Sunn]

i think a plb would be more appropriate in this case. when diving in these conditions providing a plb for each diver should be standard operating procedure.

International Cospas-Sarsat Programme
Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Of course EPIRB / PLB are very usefull.... but in this case it's a lack of information and lack of money (20 x 300 USD, at least, to invest). It's a choice ...

Colombia, tierra de la desidia y del incumplido....

 

[chillyinCanada]

I'm still thinking carrying a dye pack or two is the way to cover yourself when a search is on.

I've still been unsuccessful in my search for such that would be appropriate but I haven't given up.

 

[Dan]

i think a plb would be more appropriate in this case. when diving in these conditions providing a plb for each diver should be standard operating procedure.

International Cospas-Sarsat Programme
Emergency position-indicating radiobeacon station - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Please correct me if I'm wrong here. I've been reading & learning about Nautilus Lifeline (NL) vs. PLB. The reason I choose NL over PLB is because NL has VHF radio that can be used as walkie talkie to talk to the liveaboard captain, which would be within the range of the radio signal once you come to the surface & find yourself out of the visual range of the pickup boat. Time is of the essence & 60 minutes of drift diving should not get you too far off the boat. You can also hit the red emergency button that send the GPS position to channel 16 to all boats.

I can see that once you are out of VFH range, like drifting on the surface for hours (say all night) in the middle of no where with no boat around within 30 miles (50 km), which is the radio distress range of NL, it will be useless compare to PLB that sends distress signal directly to the satellites & back to the receiving stations, which could be more likely in USA or Australia, not in developing country like Indonesia, where I would be more interested in going diving (Komodo, Raja Ampat,etc.)

PLB also is not quite waterproof deep enough for diver. The ACR 2880 ResQLink PLB Personal Locator Beacon The GPS Store is only waterproof to 10'. So you have to put it in another dive canister when you go diving, which can be bulky if you stick the case in your BCD pocket, unlike NL, which is good as is up to 400'.

 

[SCRedWolf]

I'm still thinking carrying a dye pack or two is the way to cover yourself when a search is on.

I've still been unsuccessful in my search for such that would be appropriate but I haven't given up.

Dye packs are for when you can hear or see a search vessel since they dissipate in roughly 30 minutes. Still better than waving your arms and yelling.

Fluorescent Green Sea Dye Survival Marker-Two Pack

 

[Dan]

After reading some more about PLB, I have a second thought. It may be better having both NL & PLB, especially this compact one OCEAN SIGNAL rescueME PLB1 Personal Locator Beacon | West Marine

Each devices would only have 24 hour of battery life for emitting the distress signal. Once the NL battery runs out after day 1, then we can activate the PLB1 distress signal for day 2.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Lesson learned -get a Nautilus Lifeline VHF radio (be sure that your dive skiff/boat tender -whether Liveaboard or Land-based Dive Operations- have Marine VHF Radios to receive your distress call), or at least an emergency PLB stored in a dive canister:
McMurdo Dive Canister - Star Marine Depot

If you are a US Citizen, register your own PLB Beacon with NOAA -US Dept of Commerce:
NOAA - Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking - Register Your Beacon
NOAA - Search and Rescue Satellite Aided Tracking - System Overview

For US Citizens, they will call your designated Emergency Contact Info (Family or Friend that you've told about your traveling/diving overseas, with copies in hand of your passport and itinerary) for assurance that a particular PLB activation is not a false alarm. Then the whole SAR process chain gets started. . .

If you've planned this smartly, your designated Emergency Contact should also be given contingency information to follow-up aggressively by calling the US State Department, and US Embassy 24 hr emergency contact phone numbers of the foreign country that you happen to be in at the time to get rescue efforts going "expeditiously".

Also recommend registering with the US State Dept Smart Traveler Program, and noting that you will have a PLB registered with NOAA. . .
Smart Traveler Enrollment Program
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For a 2010 Wreck Expedition to the WWII Aircraft Carrier HMS Hermes off of east coast Sri Lanka, along with the waist belt mounted McMurdo Fastfind 210 PLB in Dive Canister, I brought a Halcyon Diver's Life Raft folded & stowed in a butt mounted backplate pouch, and a Deep Sea Supply Hydration Pack mounted between the twinset cylinders.

We did a lot of drifting decompression diving, and if the dive skiff (which did not have a VHF radio) lost sight of your SMB, you were essentially adrift in the Indian Ocean -->next land mass to the west being Madagascar some 3000 miles away. . .

 

[Robin D]

I can help spreading the voice through my Instagram account.

This would je great - thanks. We still haVe hope

http://app.eltiempo.com/colombia/cali/busqueda-de-buzos-perdidos-en-malpelo/16692964
At the end of this article shows up the account number for crowdfunding the search.