Bad breathing gas on liveaboard trip

[rddvet]

Well written letter. Sadly you will likely get a no response and definitely won’t get a refund.

As Doby said, I would never go out of the country without my analyzer

 

[John C. Ratliff]

DrWilliams,

If you don’t get a response in a reasonable amount of time, I’d like to see further action taken with whatever regulatory authority the Boat is under by forewarding that letter to the authority, and asking for action.

SeaRat
NAUI Instructor #2710
John C. Ratliff, CSP(Retired), CIH(2006-2017),* MSPH
Phone: (503) 707-2568
*CSP = Certified Safety Professional; CIH = Certified Industrial Hygienist

 

[Etmutt]

the fact that they crew left it up to each diver to dive or not is unforgivable. no one should have been allowed in the water until they could absolutely rule out gas contamination.

the fact that the crew had no way to test for CO is also unforgivable. there should be a monito on the gas supply at all times imho. and if not, at the very least, they should have an analyser avail for testing.

nothing short of a full refund should be given. they are lucky no one was injured or killed. i would not accept anything less unless you had almost zero costs getting to and from the departure / arrival location. (if you live there for example)

i would hold off on disclosing any company names etc until you are satified (or not) with the outcome.

Do we know for a fact that the crew couldn't test co?

 

[DrWilliam]

Do we know for a fact that the crew couldn't test co?

No I do not know if they tested or not. They specifically did not tell us they did. They just reassured that the filters had been changed.

 

[nadwidny]

Personally, I would not go on any remote vacation/liveaboard without my O2 analyzer and my CO analyzer. It is called cheap insurance.

Neither of which would pick up VNMH contamination (volatile non-methane hydrocarbons).

 

[Telvar]

It's a pity that such a company has such a shocking disregard for diving rules, safety and service. Frankly I'm not surprised by their lack of reaction but that's my cynicism.

Two possible lessons (maybe) from this case:
1. All divers on the trip should have immediately ceased all diving as a group. Not only from a safety perspective, but i think it would have greatly improved the chances of refunds. Difficult though as you cannot decide what others should do.
2. The letter to the CEO should have included a copy to PADI or whatever other organization. This should be an issue for them as well and could improve liability if this were to go really wrong with Agressor the coming time. Instructors/dive masters who do not collectively end planned dives with bad air have no business being professional divers as far as I'm concerned.

My own takeaway here is to be 'strict' when this would ever happen to me and to relay this story to all my diving acquaintances planning to book liveaboards. I for one will never book with this organization anymore. Ever. that's the only thing i can do to address this kind of toxic corporate behaviour.

 

[Scared Silly]

Overall a good letter. I just wrote a similar letter to the CEO of a major telecom company after my property was damaged by their contractors. Unlike the Aggressor fleet I did get a nudge of response.

As for the Aggressor cabal, one will have more luck pissing into the wind and not get wet than getting a reply. They just do not care. That has been their attitude time in and time again.

 

[Doby45]

Neither of which would pick up VNMH contamination (volatile non-methane hydrocarbons).

I would still be able to check for the other items. I guess if I can't check for VNMH, I should really check for nothing. I have heard of far more issues with O2 being off and CO being found than I have heard of VNMH.

 

[nadwidny]

I would still be able to check for the other items. I guess if I can't check for VNMH, I should really check for nothing. I have heard of far more issues with O2 being off and CO being found than I have heard of VNMH.

True enough. CO and O2 can be good indicators. I found that if the VNMH is high then the O2 is going to be lower. Same with CO and CO2 contamination.
With the odour in the OPs post I would definitely suspect that something is going on with something other than CO. But I suppose it doesn't matter since odour alone is a failure point.

 

[SlugLife]

I would ask for a full refund initially with the expectation of negotiation. I'd hope for 30-50% refund (or credit towards a future trip).

I would expect at least a partial refund. Something like 1/2 of whatever % of dives you missed. Missed 50% of dives, 25% refund. Or maybe voucher for 50% off next booking.

IMO, both of you are going WAY too easy on them. Anything less than a full refund (and no voucher-nonsense), would net them an instant and very nasty 1-star review for business-practices alone and ignoring the whole potentially dying problem.

To be honest, a full refund wouldn't even compensate for such an experience, just based on lost vacation/weekend time. Add the massive risk-factors of bad air and...

It's almost like they were just going to let everyone keep rolling the dice until someone died.

...this is my take. Are they trying to kill me? I don't exactly take the prospect of dying lightly. It's irrelevant why they're having that problem. Even with a full refund, they'd probably get a nasty 1-star review, maybe 2-star if they're really lucky.