Bahamas: Missing Female Diver

[MEG DIVER]

Scubafanatic,RichnLenny,

Hang in here for a minute,I need your help.Heres what I saw happen on the dive.I will keep this as short and as factful as my memory will serve.

When I speak of Mrs Wood, shes the missing diver. Mr Wood is her husband. There is another couple I will speak of also. I will refer to them as "Another couple".




We all got our briefing,the plan was that we would dive out to the edge of the wall. Comfortable (experienced) divers and their dive buddy could dive past the edge or drop off. Mrs.Wood was to dive with her assigned DM.

The group descended to the bottom. At this point we were ALL moving along the bottom toward the wall.At this point I didnt know who was who except who my partner was and the instructor. The instructor was leading. The total distance from were we touched the bottom to the edge of the ledge was about 100 feet. The depth at this time, about 72 feet. The group went out to the edge of the ledge and turned right and followed the edge 100 to 200 feet and turned toward the boat and started a slow shallow incline ascent. I was the first one on the line.(stern line with a weight to do a safety stop at). Another couple was hanging not on the line but near me at the stop. I got out,and on the boat. I was removing my gear and another couple and the DM getting on the boat. I got out of my gear and was walking over to another couple and asked how they liked the dive. The guy from the other couple was shaking his head and told me the DM lost her partner. He turned to the DM and asked where her partner was. The DM walked to the bow alone and sat down with her back to the cabin and stared texting a message.(she was very upset and wipping her eyes.) About 5 minutes or so later the Instructor and the group returned on board. The man from another couple told the instructor that the DM was missing her partner. The instrutor rushed to the bow and had a very brief talk with the DM. The instrutor then came to the dive deck and geared back up. Him and a diver entered the water to search for Mrs.Wood. There were 4 other divers snorkeling and searching. After what seemed like thirty minutes or more we pulled anchor and picked up the instructor and other diver. As they were boarding our boat another boat from SC arrived with two more search divers. Mr. Wood and his friend then boarded that boat that was going to search again.

We left the area and meet another boat from SC and the DM boarded this boat and they went in,to the Dive center. The rest of us went and did a dive on the James Bond site and went in. I was not questioned by anyone. This is all I can tell you about what happened. I have tried to give the best account I can with facts and not blame or theories. It leaves as big of a question mark in my mind as it does everyone elses.

 

[DandyDon]

When the DM got out the Instructor was still diving with the rest of the group,he got on 6 to 8 minutes behine her, thats when he learn we were missing a diver, he then gears back up an returns to the water,at this point I dont think that MRS.WOOD would have had any air left ,being on this dive has made me lose alot of sleep there is still a key missing .

If anyone sees this that was on this boat that day with me contack me trought this therad

Meg, I guess maybe you're not accustomed to communicating on a message board like this. You seem to be having some difficulities conveying your thoughts; please accept our thanks for coming on to give us the info you can give as well as we're are trying to understand but struggling a bit here - yet we don't mean to be rough on you. We appreciate your patience with our desires to know more, as well as you explaining as best you can.

I can understand why you're bothered but this awful loss, but please do accept that it's nothing for you to feel at all responsible about. Sad that you had to witness, and the feelings of helplessness are understandable, but that's about it. Really, talking it over is generally helpful; if you feel pressured on this thread, you are welcome to talk about your feelings on another thread, ok?

I am curious what you meant by "...there is still a key missing."

Another question please: When the DM boarded the boat, turned away and started texting, was they any other crew members on the boat? Perhaps the texting was an alert, but I would think a radio alert should have been sounded then.

Doesn't that denote a degree of responsibility?

A degree?! The DM was hired to dive as Mrs. Woods personal buddy. The DM is welcome to post here too, but it sounds like a big professional failure to me. If the DM was hired to dive as Mrs.W's buddy, the DM should have been right with Mrs.W, watching closely, etc - not have to have someone else point out that Mrs.W was going down, and continued to try to assist Mrs.W further than just 100 ft!

Has the way this is being taught changed?

When I took rescue (admittedly many years ago now) we were taught to inflate the vitims BC and use it for bouyancy while maintaining contact with them. We only used our BC to contol inflation if theirs was inoperative for some reason.

Yeah, or you can't get to theirs. If there is a struggle as we think we have read about earlier here, from narcosis or whatever - you do your best.

 

[DandyDon]

I am currently on vacation in the Bahamas and only joined this site after reading the posts. I am the primary witness to the dive incident involving Mrs Wood. I will post my account of what happened once I get back to NY and once the Forensic Dive Investigation team has had a chance to talk with all the people involved. I would like to say that prior to talking with the Dive Investigator I had similar views to the posts above. However what we are all missing is the DM's account of what happened. After talking with both the DM and the FDI I now have a clearer understanding of what transpired that morning.

Would you like to post more now...?

 

[Jim Lapenta]

Thanks MegDiver. I know that this is a very stressful time for you. Having made use of such things in the past if you are having real difficulties with this situation it may be beneficial to speak with someone who deals in post traumatic stress. While many of us can speak with you here and via PM's it is not the same thing and unless one of us is a psychologist or therapist we cannot give you the same degree of expertise in dealing with this. I think I speak for more than myself when I say that we appreciate your effort.

I am somewhat dismayed as well by the DM's actions. Especially in that she was hired to specifically be the missing diver's buddy. This is, on the surface of it, a negligent act in that she not only got seperated but made no effort to notify someone as soon as she got on board. I don't know what the operators policy is for accidents but to not raise a general alarm is stupid at the least. Even if there were new divers on the boat the Dm is trained, or should be, to make use of all resources available. Screw shop policy. If I have a missing diver I may not send new OW divers down to look for a victim but I will have them looking for bubbles or in snorkel gear with no weights to insure they stay on the surface to assist in locating the diver. I would also not be texting anyone but on the radio balling out a general distress call to all boats in the area.

If a shop would fire me for alarming guests in this manner I'd give em the one finger salute before punching the owner in the face on the way out. That the DM did not raise a general alarm is reason enough for me to see their card pulled at the least. Maybe the victim did push her away or get beyond her limit for rescue. That is no excuse to not make every effort to get as much help in the area as soon as possible. Could she have been in shock as well? Possibly, but you would still expect her to get back on the boat and get rescue efforts in motion if she was nay kind of professional. Except maybe that nutball who was the subject of a thread several weeks ago. She seemed like the type who would be expected to not act in a rational way.

I also do not understand the op taking you to another site to dive. They should have put you all back on shore and used the boat with experienced divers for the search effort. Bonehead move there as well. I'd like to ask the idiot who made that call what their rationale was.

In any case please keep us informed as best you can on this. And do not hesitate to get assistance with this should it prove necessary. Asking for help in this situation is a sign that you are a responsible person who recognizes their limitations and that you are someone I'd be happy to dive with. PM if you feel like it. Jim

 

[vladimir]

At the risk of belaboring the point, we have in this thread three people with first-hand knowledge of the incident (danclem, onlyhalcyon, meg diver); that is more first-hand information than we get in the overwhelming majority of the incidents posted here. Nevertheless, we are far from the certainty that many posters here crave regarding the facts. Hopefully onlyhalcyon will clear things up when he posts again, but whether he does or not, this thread should make it apparent that we will always be dealing with a great deal of uncertainty regarding the circumstances of incidents posted here. Consequently, the discussion will always be somewhat speculative. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, as long as everybody recognizes and acknowledges it.

 

[DandyDon]

I also do not understand the op taking you to another site to dive. They should have put you all back on shore and used the boat with experienced divers for the search effort. Bonehead move there as well. I'd like to ask the idiot who made that call what their rationale was.

Yeah, that one bothered me. I thot it was cavalier at least, and the chances of another injury great increased. Searching for the diver? Boy, I don't know? I guess so, but from the Instructor's report, didn't seem like much to search for by then.

 

[promocop]

who was the DM texting? ugh!

 

[diver 85]

what is going on with this thread? its all over the shop! Meg I cant understand your posts at all! Seems something very fishy amongst all this like a piece of the story missing it just doesnt add up!

yea, aren't they a hoot-------like reading Chinese upside down, @ times.....

 

[scubafanatic]

...thanks for the 'clarification' Meg Diver ! I can imagine that was a very upsetting episode to experience.....as has already been noted, for once we appear not only to have on Scubaboard 3 immediate witnesses, but 3 people who witnessed an accident and all thought to even post on Scubaboard....small world ! ...that in itself has to be some sort of record for 'us' on Scubaboard...maybe for a change we'll actually get a reasonably accurate accident report, and within a reasonable timeframe.

 

[DocIndyDiver]

I've dove with SC a couple of years ago. I wasn't very impressed. It seemed like a DM/Instructor factory. Was this female DM fully certified or in training?