Canadian woman presumed dead - Roatan, Honduras

[ljpm]

In what way is being gross!y overweighted a necessary element of that scenario?

I only mentioned it because people seemed to have difficulty understanding why the DM couldn't catch her.

 

[redacted]

I only mentioned it because people seemed to have difficulty understanding why the DM couldn't catch her.

Correct weighting with a 5mm suit and enough of a head start could produce the same situation. DM waqs reportedly occupied with anbother diver neqr the surface. Normal compression of a 5mm suit would leave a diver 5 to 7 lb overweighted at 30 ft, 7 to 10 at 60 ft, unless corrected with the BCD. I get the impression she was fairly deep when the problem was first noticed.

 

[tridacna]

14-16 lbs? Does anyone know if they measure weight in kg in Roatan? It's been a couple years since I was there and I'm not sure. Could the DM have put in 16 kg? The US lost a Mars lander for a very similar mistake.

No. They use pounds.

 

[Dan]

I'd be surprised if that was the case. A diver of her experience would have noticed. Further, with no medical issues she wouldn't have blithely ridden them down to the bottom with crossed arms. She'd have been attempting to manage the problem.

How do we know that she hadn't done her check out dive the day before. Have I missed some reported fact in this thread?

That info was on Terry's first post in page 1, as shown, below:

My wife and I met Maurene Lalonde and her husband Pierre, at dinner the night before the accident. They invited us to join them because they liked to meet new people. Maurene and Pierre were on their 1st day of a 5 week trip (they come to Anthony Key numerous times a year). Maurene was set to hit her 700th dive on Tuesday. Pierre is not a diver.

 

[dmaziuk]

Dropping rec. divers in 500ft of water beside a shelf at 30ft sounds unnecessarally risky. Just saying ...

See

The morning of the accident, the resort had all of the boats move to the other side of the island (by the airport) as that side of the island was much calmer.

and

Myself and Clay (1st time meeting him) were in the water 1st. Went down the mooring line and waiting at 30' on the top of the wall. The boat was being pushed over the wall so the initial entry was off the wall.

They were limited in their choice of sites and the entry would've been over 30' if the wind was blowing the other way. (Which is how I remember it -- I don't think we ever splashed on the deep side of a wall on Roatan.) Sounds like several contributing bad luck factors at play.

 

[Terry Harrison]

14-16 lbs? Does anyone know if they measure weight in kg in Roatan? It's been a couple years since I was there and I'm not sure. Could the DM have put in 16 kg? The US lost a Mars lander for a very similar mistake.

Weights are in lbs. In good condition and very easily readable.

 

[Terry Harrison]

If you're an ex-cop (did I see that right) then your brain is likely better trained at observing and remembering accurately then mine. As others pointed out the most likely explanation is victim going unconscious and then one's jaw is supposed to go slack, reg: to fall out, and then no more bubble trail.

In 20/20 hindsight I wish in your situation I'd have a presence of mind to do what you did: no need to add another victim, but people swimming fast deep might well need extra air on the way up, so standing by at safe depth (and stopping other idjits from going down) sounds like the wise thing to do.

Thank you for the report and my sympathy to everyone involved.

(Edited tyop: was supposed to be "your" not "our" obviously)

Yes, retied cop. Also, some people, depending on the type of medical condition do also lock up their muscles. You see this a lot in seizures.

Thank you.

 

[Terry Harrison]

My wife and I stayed at AKR last May. The checkout dive was mandatory and done off the back of the boat in shallow water (~10ft) while docked. A few of the divers on our boat complained but our DM still required them to complete the checkout dive.

Same here. All of us on the boat at the time except Maurene had already done our check out dives at the resort (all of us were there more than a week by this time). Maurene had been to the resort many times and I believe a couple of times within the last year. That's the only reason I can think of that she was not required to do a check out dive. That is just a guess on my part though.

 

[Terry Harrison]

I'd be surprised if that was the case. A diver of her experience would have noticed. Further, with no medical issues she wouldn't have blithely ridden them down to the bottom with crossed arms. She'd have been attempting to manage the problem.

How do we know that she hadn't done her check out dive the day before. Have I missed some reported fact in this thread?

She did not do her check out dive the day before. They came in on a flight in the afternoon and the boats had been moved to the other side of the island. She had no weights for her BCD and would have been given them at the checkout dive.

 

[Scott]

Myself and Clay (1st time meeting him) were in the water 1st. Went down the mooring line and waiting at 30' on the top of the wall. The boat was being pushed over the wall so the initial entry was off the wall. A father/son pair came down and then we were waiting for the last group. We were about 200' from the back of the boat so we could not see when the last ones got in.

Did the DM even check the boats position in relationship to the wall or was it "pools open, see ya on the bottom?"
During the briefing did the DM instruct divers to swim to the bow and descend down the mooring line or did you and Clay make the decision on your own?

I don't recall an operator that I have dived with that did not have some type of hard deck within a safe depth, 60-90 feet.
Not that it would have saved her but nobody would be chasing a diver to 200 plus feet either.