Bahamas: Missing Female Diver

[Dantheengineer]

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?

Can you please explain further? I know they dont qualify their own instructors and that they dont much care to even qualify DM's.
I had a real job convincing Alvin the dock manager to sanction my own course through most of last year.
Since then a "batch" of DM's has gone through training there. Under a PADI pro who's tutorledge is absolutely beyond reproach. (not wanting to post names, so i shan't. A great many of you would recognize her tho!).

Almost all of the dive pro's there are pretty much hand picked from around the world so will have been certed elsewhere and have prior experience as a prerequisite of employment. Certainly this is, i believe, the case in this instance.

And yes the DM in question is fully qual'd.

As far as the boat not remaining with the search goes, the dock is five minutes away, there would have been at least three or more of the companies boats that could have supported a S&R Op. It doesn't sound to me like a recovery was expected.
The instructor (it's generally agreed in and out of the thread) descended to 170' odd, with 100' ish Viz and a bubble stream visibly beneath him he'd have been placing himself in harms way to go deeper, may be get eyes on and then be left with a difficult decision to attempt recovery over 1.6ppO2.
There's no trimix on New Providence and rebreather technology is only in private use. A reasonable S&R operation would involve importing someone like Brian Kakuk of underground bahamas fame from Abacco. This would take a good 12hrs even if you chartered a plane. I dont believe even the nearby Defence force base would be able to supply any assistance at these depths. (i could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time......)
My simple point is once the initial rush to assist was past......there was no longer a rush.
Who was she texting? well if it was me i'd prolly be looking for some sort of sympathetic human contact. Through my own negligence or not, i have after all just watched someone die and i expect i'm suffering from shock too!

Meg i'm so sorry for your loss thanks for having the courage to post here and talk with us.

 

[MEG DIVER]

Thanks to each of you I only wish I knew more

 

[Thalassamania]

And yes the DM in question is fully qual'd.

From what I've read so far, certified ... perhaps; qualified ... doubtful.

As far as the boat not remaining with the search goes, the dock is five minutes away, there would have been at least three or more of the companies boats that could have supported a S&R Op. It doesn't sound to me like a recovery was expected.

Once its gone that far there's no rush.

The instructor (it's generally agreed in and out of the thread) descended to 170' odd, with 100' ish Viz and a bubble stream visibly beneath him he'd have been placing himself in harms way to go deeper, may be get eyes on and then be left with a difficult decision to attempt recovery over 1.6ppO2.

1.6 for a short period of time is not a big deal.

There's no trimix on New Providence and rebreather technology is only in private use. A reasonable S&R operation would involve importing someone like Brian Kakuk of underground bahamas fame from Abacco. This would take a good 12hrs even if you chartered a plane. I dont believe even the nearby Defence force base would be able to supply any assistance at these depths. (i could be wrong, wouldn't be the first time......)
My simple point is once the initial rush to assist was past......there was no longer a rush. It's just a recovery, no sense getting anyone hurt over that.

You're right it's not rush at that point. The real question though is what kind of CF created the situation in the first place?

 

[UnderwaterBumbleBee]

I hate reading this thread, just makes me feel sick. A year and a half ago I was on a liveaboard when someone went missing and never returned during a night dive we were on. It's such a helpless feeling. This week we leave for our 2nd liveaboard in the Bahamas of all places, this post is a sad reminder of that trip. Meg's account of the divemaster is perplexing and it was a very poor decision to take them on a second dive following this incident. Would like to hear if/when ANY of the divers noticed she went missing during the dive, not just on the boat. Hope we learn more about the details.

 

[ZenDiver.3D]

Not to hijack the thread, but I was reading a book about diving accidents the other day, and it was saying how dive professionals can go for years without seeing an accident, and so when the time comes their skills are often very rusty and they can get flustered (generalising here, of course).

I remember thinking to myself, if I am an insurance underwriter for a dive company, I think I want to write into their contract that they take all staff out "on maneuvres" at least once a year to practice rescue drills and really have the DMs put through their paces. When the time comes, somebody's life (lives?) are on the line, so let's prepare like that is what is at stake.

I wonder if many dive ops do things like that? It would be hard given the shoe-string budget that many operations are forced to run on.

We do. Once a month, the instructors, DM,s and any Rescue divers on board our boats are invited to take part in a rescue scenario.
We run it with the customers and tell them what is happening, We tell them that they may one day be asked to look or move gear in a real life rescue and this is good for them They are always thrilled to take part as spotters and such, as they would be instructed to do in a real situation. They think it's cool treat and my people get a monthly practice.

To make our PADI Rescue class more fun, my LDS conducts bi-annual Rescue Days, where all Rescue students, DMCs, DMs, and Instructors head to a remote beach to run scenarios (remote so that passers-by don't call 911 when they see us dragging someone out of the water). It ends up being a good get-together and brushes everyone up on basic rescue skills. It may not be as thorough as instructor-level risk management procedures, but the Rescue class is the foundation for those skills.

Good job. It really keeps people thinking and is good for all.

And if you don't practice, it means that you lack that ability to react in the split second that you may have to affect a rescue.

 

[deepstops]

The real question though is what kind of CF created the situation in the first place?

You're free to keep blaming the operation (you're rather good at it) but if it was my intent to harm myself by going over that wall into the abyss, I'm pretty sure there's no single person who would be able stop me.

 

[Riger]

... if it was my intent to harm myself by going over that wall into the abyss, I'm pretty sure there's no single person who would be able stop me.

......... however, would you employ a Private DM to dive with you for your "big event" and if so, what would the purpose be other than to provide a smoke-screen for insurance claims?

Best Regards
Richard

 

[deepstops]

......... however, would you employ a Private DM to dive with you for your "big event" and if so, what would the purpose be other than to provide a smoke-screen for insurance claims?

Best Regards
Richard

Bingo, we have a winner.

 

[pilot fish]

oops, wrong thread. Duhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thanks

 

[Riger]

oops, wrong thread. Duhhhhhhhhhhhh

Thanks