Accident at Lake Rawlings Sunday 05/27/2012

[Diveva]

Since this diver was doing her OW dive with a certified instructor, she was diving within her skill level, wasn't she?

No she wasn't, but didn't know it. She was relying on the Instructor to keep her within her skill level. 50 ft in a cold lake, with near zero viz on OWD 3 is not, in my opinion, within the skill level of a student with less than an hour breathing through a regulator.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

How could that be said? If she could not keep up with the group, stay with her buddy, or resist panicking (?) when she got separated she was not diving within her skill level. And when she went missing she was not with the instructor. She was on her own so no she was not diving within her skill level. At her skill level, assuming her training had been even adequate to that point (and the others in the group for that matter) she would have been diving within her supposed skill level if she had been able to stay with her buddy and her buddy with her. She would not have panicked, if indeed she did, and she would still be alive. According to RSTC standards at this point she should have been trained to plan, execute, and safely return from this dive with a buddy of equal skill and training. All the checkouts are for, or are supposed to be for, is to verify that and give her some experience in that environment. Not train her to do do these things, but verify the training has done what is supposed to do. And by dive three this should be evident. If it's not no sense in dive four. They should go back to the pool. And the instructor was supposed to be evaluating this. If he didn't know where she was he could not do that let alone "train" her.

 

[boulderjohn]

Conditions were OK. Visibility was likely 20 feet.

Another issue that troubles me is the reported visibility. Yes, it is a quarry. But, I have been there a number of times in May (and June, July, and August), and 20' seems like rather poor visibility, for that site, at that time of year.

The Instructor took the 6 students to the Memorial Platform (vis 25-30ft) to conduct OWD 3 skills.

This site advertises 30-60 ft viz

50 ft in a cold lake, with near zero viz on OWD 3 is not, in my opinion, within the skill level of a student with less than an hour breathing through a regulator.

Just how close to zero was that viz anyway?

 

[Diveva]

Jim, excellent points as usual..

My point is when the dive began she was diving within her skill level, the dive progressed outside her skill level she didn't realize it, couldn't or wouldn't correct it. She's in training, not diving the buddy team plan, but the instructors plan for open water training dive 3. She would have remained within her skill level if the buddy team had remained at 30ft with decent viz for the tour portion of the dive after completing skills. This wasn't an option on this day. It was a training dive for open water certification, Students must remain under the direct supervision of the Instructor and the Instructor must remain in control of the students. Even if the Instructor briefed the students of his intended dive profile and had the students plan for that profile, the students, with very limited experiance in the water, might question the idea to go to 50ft, but the Instructor said it's not a problem so it must be ok. If the Instructor evaluates the conditions as poor at depth, the instructor must re evaluate and adjust the dive plan, not the 6 students or 3 buddy teams.

---------- Post added ----------

Just how close to zero was that viz anyway?

2nd hand information - one of the divers involved in the search and recovery stated the viz was less than 4ft.
Overheard - Had it not been for the yellow fins, the diver that found the victim would not have seen her.

2nd Hand information - the Viz may have been poor due to the class kicking up silt during the dive.

 

[RonFrank]

If the bottom was muck then the vis likely was near zero if a new group decided to go to the bottom. New divers and bad visibility don't mix well but even new divers can usually get back to the surface. Drop weight or inflate or both will do the trick. I dive lakes with mucky bottoms and you can tun good vis to BAD very quickly. On the platform they may have 20' vis as there is nothing to stir. If they decided to go to depth/the bottom that is a foolish thing to do, especially with new divers.

I am amazed this post is still going....there has been zero new information almost since the beginning....

 

[DandyDon]

I am amazed this post is still going....there has been zero new information almost since the beginning....

Even if true, it'd still be worthy of review and discussion, but new info in dribbling in...

The expulsion was official yesterday.

 

[TechDeep]

I was in that exact spot the day before this happened. I was both at the platform, and dropped to the bottom. At that spot there is an old boat that they likely swam to. Frankly I've been surprised at the comments on viz. I found it to be at least 30 at the platform, maybe dropping to 20 plus at the boat. I thought it was good enough to have not been a factor that would cause panic, but certainly easy enough to get separated.

Of course I wasn't there while all the students were there, and I have seen the divers that recovered her. If they did in fact say it was 4 feet, then I believe them. I've just got to say that Lake Rawlings has the best viz of any inalnd water I've ever been in. I know this is straying somewhat off topic, I just thought it needed to be said.

And I have forund the information that has been revealed in this thread to be very useful, as I know divers and potential new divers who happen to live in the DC area. It's good information to share with them.

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Jim, excellent points as usual..

My point is when the dive began she was diving within her skill level, the dive progressed outside her skill level she didn't realize it, couldn't or wouldn't correct it. She's in training, not diving the buddy team plan, but the instructors plan for open water training dive 3. She would have remained within her skill level if the buddy team had remained at 30ft with decent viz for the tour portion of the dive after completing skills. This wasn't an option on this day. It was a training dive for open water certification, Students must remain under the direct supervision of the Instructor and the Instructor must remain in control of the students. Even if the Instructor briefed the students of his intended dive profile and had the students plan for that profile, the students, with very limited experiance in the water, might question the idea to go to 50ft, but the Instructor said it's not a problem so it must be ok. If the Instructor evaluates the conditions as poor at depth, the instructor must re evaluate and adjust the dive plan, not the 6 students or 3 buddy teams.

---------- Post added ----------



2nd hand information - one of the divers involved in the search and recovery stated the viz was less than 4ft.
Overheard - Had it not been for the yellow fins, the diver that found the victim would not have seen her.

2nd Hand information - the Viz may have been poor due to the class kicking up silt during the dive.

But it does not relieve the instructor of the obligation to include the students in the planning process. And if they had been properly instructed in buddy procedures any plan that called for a single file swim trying to keep up with the instructor would have resulted in serious discussion. Or should if the students have been properly trained. They would know that it is a bad idea, that it should not be done, and a new plan developed and agreed upon. In this case get em in get em done seems to have been the plan.

Sent from my DROID X2 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Sorrows]

At her skill level, assuming her training had been even adequate to that point (and the others in the group for that matter) she would have been diving within her supposed skill level if she had been able to stay with her buddy and her buddy with her. She would not have panicked, if indeed she did, and she would still be alive. According to RSTC standards at this point she should have been trained to plan, execute, and safely return from this dive with a buddy of equal skill and training. All the checkouts are for, or are supposed to be for, is to verify that and give her some experience in that environment. Not train her to do do these things, but verify the training has done what is supposed to do. And by dive three this should be evident. If it's not no sense in dive four. They should go back to the pool. And the instructor was supposed to be evaluating this. If he didn't know where she was he could not do that let alone "train" her.

Was this her third dive in the quarry? I missed that. Is there any info on how she did in the earlier dives--and how the instructor did? Perhaps this give us a clue as to what the "truly egregious" behavior was that merited such a quick expulsion. Had she been exhibiting fear, stress, problems, etc during the previous three dives, I wonder, and what was his reaction?

 

[ScubaTodd77]

I've not read every response to this post, but when I did my open water pool work, and check out dives, there was about 6 of us in the class. The instructor was always in front of us and we had several "assistant instructors" behind us, just to keep tabs and watch us. I assumed this was standard practice. In the pool they would sneak up and give an out of air signal or turn our air off from behind etc. They were just always there and we knew it. So when we were doing check outs in open water we stayed as a group, and had eyes watching from behind while all of us faced our instructor. This was a 6 week class and we all kinda stuck together. Is it normal for just one instructor to do check out dives for a class? I find that very dangerous. I still remember doing mask removal in the gulf and feeling safe because I knew there were divers right behind me watching every move I made. I thought this was standard routine among check out dives until reading this post.