Error Blue hole fatality

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I would like to make an observations about multi-step safety procedures in general, and I would like to start by talking about something not remotely related to scuba.

When I first became involved with scoring student writing assessments, we were given a scoring guide that was incredibly complete and complex. I immediately wondered how it was possible to use something that complex, and I soon realized that it wasn't possible. The people scoring the assessments were doing it more by personal whim than by careful design. I came up with a theory of my own: when a system is too complex to be used as intended, users will ignore it, so an overly complex system is the same as no system. As I moved on to more professional assessment systems, I saw procedures that were far simpler and much more usable.

My earliest technical diving training required us to use a very, very careful and complex system to ensure we made correct gas switches at depth. Following that procedure made it downright impossible to make a mistake. The problem was that it took forever. The initial deep stops are very short, and during a deeper gas switch, we would have to go far, far beyond the deco stop time to complete the process. Once certified and doing dives outside of instruction, I immediately noticed that divers, including my instructor, were very much skipping steps, ignoring that laborious procedure. It was the same as assessing student writing--if you don't follow the approved procedure, than you don't have an approved procedure.

Switching agencies to complete my trimix instruction, I learned a much simpler system, and my years of diving later on showed that pretty much everyone uses that simpler approach. Is it more dangerous? I guess in theory it is, but the reality is that gas switch errors are very rare. As I pointed out earlier n this thread, almost all cases of breathing an incorrect mix at depth, including what we know of this one, did not involve a faulty switch procedure.
 
After watching the linked video (golden boy) I can only share John's assessment of this type of diving.

For me someone who dives for pleasure should be able to move confidently and easily in the water and have plenty of reserves to observe their surroundings and react to any problems that can occure .
But this actually looks more like flying a helicopter .
Well, to each his own fun.
The best thing was that the two divers remain quite calm although Terec Omar was breathing a bit heavily.
He was lucky that no serious problems occurred.
 
The best thing was that the two divers remain quite calm although Terec Omar was breathing a bit heavily.
He was lucky that no serious problems occurred.
In the interests of keeping the thread accurate, the primary diver in the video is NOT Tarek/Tareq Omar. Mr. Omar is actually a trimix technical instructor trainer. He is known as the bone collector and has removed a number of deceased divers off of the bottom of the Blue Hole of Dahab, including the infamous Yuri Lipski. Mr. Omar has also trained a substantial number of technical divers and technical dive instructors in the Dahab area.

It is unfortunate that the incident on the golden boy video occurred. But, since it has many new technical divers can benefit from the mistakes of that particular diver. When the video was originally released, it caused quite the uproar in Dahab.

The identity of the diver in the video is unknown and it is probably better kept that way.
 
Just came back from Dahab and based on what my (Tech/CC) guide said:
-It was a Tech OC dive to 60m
-There was 1 guide (victim) and 9(!) divers
-General setup was twinset (unsure what gas) + 2 stages - 1 with Air, 1 with 50%
-Plan was to descend on the stage with Air, however it seems that instead 50% was used, which has resulted in convulsions (hyperoxia) once he has reached deeper regions
What an odd dive plan. For a dive to only 60m there shouldn't be a need for travel gas (whether it's air or something else). It looks like that site goes deep right away so just descend on back gas. A mix like trimix 15/55 would work fine, and even 18/45 should be adequate for a short dive.

Bringing only nitrox 50 deco gas also doesn't make much sense. It can work for a short dive but if you have a deco stage failure then you don't have a lot of options.

When starting a dive on a stage, whether it's travel gas or extra bottom mix, we always run through the complete gas switch protocol on the surface. I've seen some tech divers get sloppy about that part.
 
Hello Chris

I think it's right and good that you use the video for training purposes.
I also think what you criticize about the equipment is fine.
But I find it very questionable that Tareq Omar is doing this dive with this obviously helpless diver.
If the reality occasionally looks like this video, nobody should be surprised about accidents.
 

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