Arkansas Videographer Drowns in Tank while Filming Turtle

[Okie Mike]

Lots of unanswered questions with this one.

Renowned Local Videographer Drowns While Filming Underwater Documentary | Fort Smith/Fayetteville News | 5newsonline KFSM 5NEWS

POCOLA (KFSM) — A well-known Fort Smith videographer and Emmy-award winning documentarian died over the weekend while filming for a documentary in Pocola.
Robert Champ Williams was diving inside the tank of a 200-pound snapping turtle on Friday (Nov. 6) when he drowned in 2 1/2 feet of water, said one of his family members. The family believes the re-breather on his wetsuit failed, but they are still trying to find out exactly what happened.
They said Williams was inside the 1,000-gallon tank to film the last segment of his next documentary film, “Ozarks Underwater,” which was a four-year-long process.
Williams has spent more than five years as a videographer for University of Arkansas – Fort Smith.
UAFS sent 5NEWS the following statement:

“He was a scholar. He was a great talent with a lot of imagination and someone that’s going to be greatly missed in this community.”
​

Williams posted the following picture to Facebook Friday night, saying, “I’ve got a date with a 200 lb river monster tonight! Just finished prepping and packing the rebreather. Wish me luck!”

Williams was a marine biologist, master diver and an Emmy award winner. His work has appeared on the History Channel and National Geographic.

 

[uwxplorer]

From the link you posted:

His family said they believe something went wrong with his Re-breather.
"He doesn't make mistakes. We don't know if there was a malfunction. Either gasses over took him and he drown or obviously something happened and that's what took his life." Hinton said.

Sigh!

EDIT: the Facebook photo mentioned in the article seems to show a Kiss Orca Spirit Rebreather, which is, unless I am mistaken, a mCCR (with orifice). The Kiss manual says (in bold large font):

The oxygen injector is a convenience. It is not a controller in any way. The only device regulating the oxygen partial pressure is your brain. The automatic oxygen add does not reduce the need to monitor the three partial pressure displays. It only reduces the number of times you have to press the oxygen add button. The displays should be checked constantly duringthe dive. The oxygen regulator can fail and stop delivering 02 or it can fail and increase theflow drastically. The orifice can become plugged and stop delivering oxygen. The add valve O‐rings can fail and increase the amount of 02 being added to the breathing loop. Any of these things can kill you but any of these problems can be overcome if you are aware of the conditions in the breathing loop.

 

[Okie Mike]

I'm guessing he was using the rebreather so that there were no bubbles to scare the turtle. Clearly he is not going to get too high PO2 in 3 feet of water. Something must have put him to sleep. Slow reduction in O2? CO2 build up? I guess he was a little too deep to use a snorkel.

 

[Bob DBF]

Probably a reduction in O2, an increase in CO2 buildup would give a hell of a headache before it kills.



Bob

 

[wgw04024]

Has there been any more info on this?

 

[Chugwhump]

Has there been any more info on this?

Well I think we can rule out the "rebreather on his wetsuit" failing with certainty.

Chug
Very sad to hear of this event.