Always count heads...

[Wookie]

Not to mention that on a busy dive site you may actually confuse boats and then you end up with a diver from another boat, another boat end up with that diver missing and the one in trouble is the one you should be looking for. By the time youve figured out that you left with the wrong diver it may already be too late..

Good point. Any boat is better than no boat, but still. We paint the name Spree on the bottom of the boat. When people ask me about it, I tell them it is so the Coast Guard helicopter can identify us while we're upside down, but we've never really been upside down. It's really so that divers could differentiate between the Spree and the Fling while at the Flower Gardens.

 

[Puffer Fish]

I wonder what really happened during this dive? Whatever it was, I doubt it was as described.

We have:

4 dvers are divng on a deep wreck in the red sea. Not something a new diver would be doing or should be doing.

The problem diver jumps in, over weighted, and for some reason does not know how or cannot inflate his vest (?).

Our Dive master, swims down to him and gives him his pony and the guy rockets to the surface.

How was the problem diver able to rocket to the surface when he was not able to inflate his vest?

Why would giving up your pony bottle cause any major stress?

Why would he have given up his pony in the first place, and why did the other diver loose his regulator? (assuming that is what he lost). If he lost his mask (the only other thing one could have lost)... then what would be the need for the pony?

Sadly, the only person that can provide any detail is the problem diver.

Also, if this happen on the accent, our dive master would have been up in the water column, and finding him days later on the wreck would be extremely unlikely.

My guess would be that the events underwater were much more violent than described and that this may or may not have been a simple heart attack.

 

[GEORGINAALLSEYBROOK]

I agree, roll calls should always be a mandatory thing.
Regarding the Diver David Allseybrook, he was my father and a very capable rebreather diver and had been diving before I was born 19 years ago.
He encourage both me and my mother to become confident and frequent divers and this is something that me and him did most weekends at Stoney Cove in the UK. Regarding his weight being a problem, I understand he was a larger guy but unhealthy he was not, he completed numerous marathons and cycle events.

 

[scubadada]

Counting heads is a crappy way to see if you can move the boat. I like looking each diver in the eye as I call roll and asking them how they feel. The non-verbal response is more telling than the verbal one. Anyone who does less is not doing the minimum required.

The Spree is the safest boat I've dived from. Now, if only I could figure out a way to do that with them in Cuba...

 

[tarponchik]

Counting heads won't save Fox, he was already dead by then. And even if they realized Fox was missing, who could go search for him at 35 m right after the deep dive they just did?

A very strange accident indeed. I would suggest, O'Brien forgot both to open his tank valve and to inflate his BCD; otherwise, there is nothing wrong with fast descend as long as he equalized. To my best knowledge, there is no such thing as recommended speed of descend.

 

[lv2dive]

Thank you for providing your insight.

I agree, roll calls should always be a mandatory thing.
Regarding the Diver David Allseybrook, he was my father and a very capable rebreather diver and had been diving before I was born 19 years ago.
He encourage both me and my mother to become confident and frequent divers and this is something that me and him did most weekends at Stoney Cove in the UK. Regarding his weight being a problem, I understand he was a larger guy but unhealthy he was not, he completed numerous marathons and cycle events.

 

[archer1960]

...

In a previous life, I operated nuclear reactors for the U. S. Navy. We got drilled over and over about how to combat a casualty. We drilled weekly, were evaluated in out drill performance monthly, and were inspected by Naval Reactors cyclically. I can't remember what the cycle was. Drills can imitate real life, but when stuff breaks, and casualties happen for real, it never goes like the drill did. I used to tell the students I taught to stop, think, then act (sound familiar?). If they just couldn't figure out what to do, or couldn't remember the proper steps, go get the book. Following established procedures will never get you in trouble, because you can always blame the guy that wrote the book. Causing a second casualty because you didn't think it through will hang you every time.

Sorry for the long rant.
Frank

Having been a (surface) nuke as well, I'm with you all the way on drilling, and on stop/think/act. My first few dives, I realize now, I was far too complacent. After reading ScubaBoard and DAN's incident reports, I've thoroughly lost that complacency. Now I think through likely problem scenarios while driving to the dive site, while gearing up, and even while swimming. I'm still a newbie diver, but a far more careful one than I was a couple of years ago.

 

[Jan Kruger]

Always tragic when a diver dies- for whatever reason. Condolences to his family & loved ones.
As far as dive operators are concerned -I know it is best to always be prepared for whatever situations arise ...but surely if a situation arises, you have to work it ! Work the problem-stop ,think ,act.

I have to add I am amazed at how negative the comments are towards normal divers - sure some of them are unfit , overweight , unhealthy even- but they are paying for the opportunity to be there , to dive and see the world- they don't get it for free- they pay. I wonder sometimes how fit are the operators with maths , science and exercise of the brain on a regular basis as some of the overweight , unfit , unhealthy divers are? What ...not enough fuel for the second dive on the boat...no count after the dive etc ...

When we climbed Kilimandjaro a few years ago an overweight American was the first to want out of the climb...on the first day already. Sure he was very much overweight and totally out of his depth, but it doesn't give me a right to carry on about how pathetic it was of him to even attempt the climb !

Just my 2 bits on this Friday...

 

[Skulmoski]

Tragic and sad. The dive company in this case was reported to be Orca Dive Club. They list on the web that they have 10 locations. I did 5 dives with Orca Dive Club in Oman (Mirbat) and then quit because I did not think they were safe (e.g. no roll call, 20 second briefings, no orientation to safety or boat procedures, no buddy checks, no requests for air checks underwater, etc). I wanted to complete a total of 10 dives but I cut that chain of potential tragic events early and stopped diving with them midway through our vacation.

The rescue diver course gave me some insight into safety. It gave me the confidence to say "**** this" and quit. While divers are responsible for their own safety, model dive operators go the extra distance to help improve the safety for all by creating and following standardized safety protocols during the dive and as well as practicing those protocols.

With respect

GJS

 

[tarponchik]

no buddy checks, no requests for air checks underwater

Looks like the opposite of Maldives...I'll dive with these guys!