Aruba Fatality today 2/26/07

[H2Andy]

Their normal SOP is 40 divers supervised by 2 diver masters. This is just an accident waiting to happen. No wonder the locals call them Dead Sail.

i am curious, what does the size of their boats for fully certified divers have to do with the resort course fatality?

are you saying that the resort course student wasn't properly supervised?

 

[deepstops]

i am curious, what does the size of their boats for fully certified divers have to do with the resort course fatality?

are you saying that the resort course student wasn't properly supervised?

No, I just think Ken has an axe to grind with Red Sail for some reason. I dove with Red Sail in Aruba when my cruise ship stopped there on a Panama Canal cruise in 12/05, we only had three divers plus a DM. After we dove the Antilla, we returned to the dock and picked up TWO Discover Scuba students and their instructor and took them on the Pedernales. It was a fantastic afternoon of diving

 

[drbill]

Agree with H2Andy... too little information and too many assumptions here regarding this. The diver who died was apparently doing an intro dive or first dive of a class. It does not say any of the other divers were involved as intro divers or members of a class. They may well have been independent divers buddied up to do post-certification rec dives.

We have run as many as 35 divers with two DM's (and the captain plus me) here in SoCal, although that is the absolute max. If there is a class on board or an intro, there is an instructor focused specifically on that.

Let's wait til we hear some facts.

 

[Dadvocate]

Forgive my ignorance. What does the acronym SOP stand for exactly?

Cheers!

 

[ArthurGerla]

Standard Operating Procedure?

 

[anzac65]

Agree with H2Andy... too little information and too many assumptions here regarding this. The diver who died was apparently doing an intro dive or first dive of a class. It does not say any of the other divers were involved as intro divers or members of a class. They may well have been independent divers buddied up to do post-certification rec dives.

We have run as many as 35 divers with two DM's (and the captain plus me) here in SoCal, although that is the absolute max. If there is a class on board or an intro, there is an instructor focused specifically on that.

Let's wait til we hear some facts.

I'd like to third that. There's no way Red Sail or anyone else would put people out like that. I trained with them in Grand Cayman and they were thoroughly professional. Sure they have big boats, but plenty of staff and always a DM to guide qualified divers if they should desire a guide.

 

[ebon.hawk]

I'm really curious where the accident happened. Was it on the Pedernalis? If so, thats a really shallow dive.

I'm currently in Aruba, and I heard the accident was on the Antilla.

Andy

 

[deepstops]

I'm currently in Aruba, and I heard the accident was on the Antilla.

Andy

If that's accurate, then this wasn't an accident involving a Discover Scuba/Resort Class diver because they wouldn't have been on the Antilla to begin with.

 

[seussy]

Are you all sure there were 40 people? Their boat doesn't even hold that many people. I dove with Red Sails and they were professional, the groups were kept small (again, when I was there, 1.5 yrs ago), etc. I really really question the 40 people and two dive masters. That is not how they operated when I used them.

 

[seussy]

I agree with deepstops. They do not do discovery dives at the Antilla, too deep.