It's amazing how reporters . . . can be so imprecise with terminology and report inaccurate/unverified/misleading details of a story
That's an interesting comment, as I've been thinking the same thing about many of the well-meaning people posting "facts" about the accident in this thread.
Here's what's been "reported" by posters so far:
1. The woman, was 55, 56, or 37.
2. The accident happened at 25 feet, 65 feet, or deeper than 65 feet.
3. The cause of the accident was embolism, heart attack, equipment failure, panic.
4. They were going up, they were going down.
5. It was a Basic Class, it was an Advanced Open Water Class.
6. It was the first dive of the AOW, it was the third or fourth dive of AOW.
As I'm posting this it's not even 36 hours after the accident. The autopsy has yet to be completed. The gear has yet to be tested. The people charged with investigating this are still gathering information and evidence. Yet everyone here has already come up with the answers.
Could I respectfully request we stop the speculation?
Now, there's nothing wrong with stating what you personally observed. There's nothing wrong with steering the discussion into areas like rapid ascents (which is becoming a very good thread elsewhere), instructors controlling/responding to problems, what to do if you feel uncomfortable underwater, etc., etc. These might all be things we can all learn from and a discussion of which posters in this forum can contribute valuable information and insight.
But things like equipment failure, embolism, and heart attack are generally not observable. Though the comments may be well-meaning, they're just guesses and don't provide a clearer pciture of what may have or have not happened. (And just to be clear, "So-and-so told me . . ." isn't good info either because you may just be relaying bad info.)
Also don't lose sight of the fact that friends and family members of those involved, some of whom may not dive, might be reading this. So don't give them bad information or incorrect details. "I don't know at the moment" is many times a perfectly acceptable (and usually correct) answer.
For what it's worth, here are my impressions so far:
1. AOW class.
2. My
GUESS is that it was the second day of training since it was Sunday, but I don't know that for a fact.
3. Diver indicated feeling uncomfortable 10-15 minutes into dive.
4. Was not an out-of-air situation.
5. Instructor was with diver entire time, going up Sujack mooring line.
6. On the ascent, diver got more uncomfortable and signalled so.
7. At some point shortly after that, still on ascent, diver began rapid/panic/bolt to surface.
8. Instructor stayed with diver all the way up.
When you try to understand something like this, the key question - and we may not be able to adequately answer it - is "Why?" Why was the diver uncomfortable? Why did they become more uncomfortable on ascent? Why did they (aka "What happened to cause them to") suddenly take off? If we can answer any or all of the "why" questions, then perhaps we can get some understanding of what happened and learn what we as a community can do to make sure it doesn't happen again.
- Ken
