Error Blue hole fatality

[divezonescuba]

According to PADI standards, a PADI technical instructor cannot instruct PADI technical diving courses with students using sidemount, unless they are also either a recreational sidemount instructor or a TEC sidemount instructor.

If the student is diving in a sidemount configuration and the instructor is also a TEC sidemount instructor, the instructor can introduce additional skills pertinent to sidemount diving. The instructor can then simultaneously issue both a TEC certification and a TEC sidemount diver certification.

In 2018 I embarrassed myself while discussing this matter with my TEC sidemount instructor trainer. I forgot that he was the one who actually wrote the manual.

 

[boulderjohn]

We all know the Best Practice of show/read labels, trace hose, manage valves, purge reg. But seems like that didn't happen in this accident.

I don't know what happened in this accident. Do you?

 

[justinthedeeps]

I don't know what happened in this accident. Do you?

Not at all!

A lot of the responses in the thread seem tunnel visioned on one specific drill, which thru various courses and philosophies, has been hammered in as always & completely sufficient.

While it is correct to state that following the specific switch protocol increases safety and could have prevented the accident, I don't find it very interesting to just recite what that protocol is. Did another diver watch this diver's stickers and hose tracing? It does matter. I am guessing that it probably didn't happen(?)

I am a bit more curious about what else was a factor, including: human factors, influence of different configurations, distractions during setup/gear-up, additional checks that might have helped prior to depth.

 

[Jai Bar]

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But as over 200 divers are reputed to have perished there in the last 20 years or so, CDWS has decided to take precautions in the last couple of years. There are many, many memorial plaques on the wall there. I had heard that sometime around the early 2010s that additional plaques were forbidden to be put up. But there are several ones dated since then.

Although lots of divers have perished in the blue hole, the numbers nor the amount of memorial plaques is so high: 200 deaths over 20 years sounds on the highly exaggerated side. I knew some of the divers that died there and used to pay repsect at the small memorial wall since the early 90s.

 

[divezonescuba]

Nobody knows the exact numbers. Divers have been dying there for over 20 years. Yuri Lipski was 25 years ago. There are some deaths that are not even initially recorded, as in the case of the two german divers who were pinned to the roof of the arch. Very few of the divers have plaques and there are a number of plaques. In the old days, it was not unusual for two or three divers to die on some days. The rate has decreased in recent years as a result of measures put in by the CDWS. That is why the ambulance is there now right next to one of the entrances to the water. Yet, divers still die there every year or two. Recently there was this diver, there was the Polish diver with the high pressure leak, and the former head of Ukranian intelligence. Those were just the ones that were publicized.

You might want to read the book A Walk on the Deep Side. The author was an instructor there at that time. Many divers are never recovered. The famous diver Ben Reymenants is the one who coined the term Diver's Cemetery from what he saw on his 200 meter dive there. If you have been to the bottom, you will know how they came to be there.

 

[John the Pom]

View attachment 845765

I came across a post on Chinese social media called 小红书 , but I couldn't find any corresponding reports in English-language news sources. According to the post, it appears that a Tech instructor was leading a group of students on a technical dive to the Dahab blue hole in Egypt. Tragically, during the dive, he mistakenly switched to a 50% oxygen mix at an unknown depth, which led to him experiencing oxygen toxicity and ultimately drowning. However, it is important to note that the details provided in the post were somewhat unclear.

First principle of safety engineering: humans make errors. If your system relies on a human not making a mistake to be safe, then your system is not safe. 100% safety is not achievable, but safe systems are robust against human error.

 

[Jai Bar]

First principle of safety engineering: humans make errors. If your system relies on a human not making a mistake to be safe, then your system is not safe. 100% safety is not achievable, but safe systems are robust against human error.

"A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools."​

Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless​

 

[makar0n]

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

 

[NothingClever]

Why even label the cylinders? Isn't that a crutch too? Don't you know where your deco gas is?

Sigh…

 

[boulderjohn]

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

As I understand this, it means the problem actually took place on the surface, when the victim started breathing from the wrong tank at the very start of the dive.