Cave Diver mishap Ginnie Springs 04SEP09

[Rick Murchison]

The difference between "paranoid" and "careful" can only be determined in hindsight.

Terry

I've been described as "pretty careful" by other (more adventurous but kind) cavers more than once
Rick

 

[Juno]

The difference between "paranoid" and "careful" can only be determined in hindsight.

Terry

" and experience is what you gain right after you need it the most"

 

[jeandiver]

I knew Bruce quite well from getting fills at CEE and also meeting/seeing him at Ginnie. I am still kind of in shock. (CRY)

One thing about Harry's Crack: (I have never gone in it , I have seen BOTH ends of the tunnel though)
There have a couple of times we were diving Ginnie and were around Park Bench , and heading thru the Corn-Flakes/Keyhole.
A couple of divers were in Harry's Crack and I couldn't believe the SILT/CLAY that was pouring up thru the Keyhole Bypass (and in that area) and heading for the exit (thru the Lips and into the Gallery). I mean the viz wasn't quite zero but maybe 5 feet or so.
Now if we would have been just downstream of the Hill-400 jump where Harry's crack comes out , I am sure the viz would have been close to zero.

I am not speculating on ANYTHING that happened , and of course , NEVER having dove the tunnel personally , but I am just commenting on the amount of clay/silt that got blown out of that tunnel into the main passage or passages. It made the area between the Keyhole and the Lips almost like dark water.

I have also been saying many prayers for Bruce's family and friends and dive buddies. And of course for the dive buddy that was on the dive.

Bruce was a Wonderful person , and a wonderful cave diver. We would talk and chat sometimes about what dives we WOULD do , and what dives we would NOT do.

I WILL MISS HIM SO !!!

Jean
Fort White , Florida

 

[Paladin]

QUOTE=Cave Bum:

After my first cave dive, I quit my high paying aerospace engineering job, sold my house in Colorado and moved to North Central Florida so I could work as a tank monkey and dive the caves!


Farewell, Bruce.

 

[Divesherpa]

Alan, I'm sorry for your loss.

The discussion is very interesting. Good luck in analyzing this one.

Solo diving with another person has always and will always be a deadly game to play.

 

[bsee65]

From threads in several places, here is what I believe to be a likely scenario (but may not even be close, so don't put a lot of stock in it):
The dive team entered Devil's Ear and headed up the main line to the Hill 400 jump point, which is pretty much the Harry's Crack jump point too, with Hill 400 to the left and Harry's Crack to the right.
The mishap diver made a visual jump and entered Harry's Crack (red line on the map). The buddy started to follow but decided against it when the passage silted out; the buddy went around to the other end of Harry's crack (whether he waited a while before doing this or not I can't guess), expecting to meet the mishap diver on the way. When the mishap diver didn't appear the buddy then went back around the circuit (green line on the map) to the entrance to Harry's Crack... at this point the buddy probably figured the mishap diver had either gotten stuck in the crack or (especially if there was silt in the main passage) had already come back out; either way it was time to exit the cave to either find his buddy waiting for him on the surface or to get help finding him.
In the meantime, the mishap diver turned around somewhere in Harry's crack and came back out, silting out the main tunnel in the process. Since he'd made a visual jump, he had no line to follow back to the main line, and in his search for it he missed it, finding instead the Hill 400 line on the other side of the main line from the Harry's Crack entrance. I'm speculating that he'd had a rough time getting out of Harry's Crack, had gotten stuck at least once, was excited in the extreme - that is, he had the dragon all the way up his back - and probably a little low on gas. Whatever the reason, he swam nearly 400' up the Hill 400 line and passed at least three arrows pointing in the other direction before running out of gas.

(Note: this map was originally posted in the Cave Diver's Forum by James Garrett)
Rick

The bolded part of Rick's post seems to represent the known facts of the incident up to the last point where the victim was seen. Anything after that is speculation. The first thought I had in reading this and the end result was that Bruce was expecting his buddy to be following him through the crack. That seemed, from the description, to be the plan until the buddy balked because of conditions. Bruce may have thought his buddy was lost, possibly stuck in the crack, and backtracked to locate him/her. Upon returning to the main line without finding a buddy, he may have believed the buddy took the wrong turn and continued the search up the hill 400 line without realizing his gas situation was as dire as it was at the time.

Is this a possibility that fits the known facts, or have I misinterpreted something?

 

[Cave Diver]

The bolded part of Rick's post seems to represent the known facts of the incident up to the last point where the victim was seen. Anything after that is speculation. The first thought I had in reading this and the end result was that Bruce was expecting his buddy to be following him through the crack. That seemed, from the description, to be the plan until the buddy balked because of conditions. Bruce may have thought his buddy was lost, possibly stuck in the crack, and backtracked to locate him/her. Upon returning to the main line without finding a buddy, he may have believed the buddy took the wrong turn and continued the search up the hill 400 line without realizing his gas situation was as dire as it was at the time.

Is this a possibility that fits the known facts, or have I misinterpreted something?

Can't speak for the victim, but most cave divers I know mark major transitions by monitoring gas supply. i.e. whenever they make a jump, go through a restriction have a significant depth change, etc. checking gauges is an automatic response. If he was aware that the buddy was missing and returned to the mainline to search, I'd find it suspect that he'd head up the hill 400 line without checking gas supply.

 

[Meng_Tze]

Can't speak for the victim, but most cave divers I know mark major transitions by monitoring gas supply. i.e. whenever they make a jump, go through a restriction have a significant depth change, etc. checking gauges is an automatic response. If he was aware that the buddy was missing and returned to the mainline to search, I'd find it suspect that he'd head up the hill 400 line without checking gas supply.

I would like to believe too that he, as any cave diver, was aware of his gas situation. If not, then this was probably a long time coming. That I find disturbing.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

The bolded part of Rick's post seems to represent the known facts of the incident up to the last point where the victim was seen. Anything after that is speculation. The first thought I had in reading this and the end result was that Bruce was expecting his buddy to be following him through the crack. That seemed, from the description, to be the plan until the buddy balked because of conditions. Bruce may have thought his buddy was lost, possibly stuck in the crack, and backtracked to locate him/her. Upon returning to the main line without finding a buddy, he may have believed the buddy took the wrong turn and continued the search up the hill 400 line without realizing his gas situation was as dire as it was at the time.

Is this a possibility that fits the known facts, or have I misinterpreted something?

In addtion to checking time and gas at key points, another common safe practice is to ok the jump (or any navigational decision) with the team mate(s) prior to making the jump - even if it's visual - so that there is agreement that 1) we are going the right way, 2) we really want to go there, 3) confirming with everyone that we all have enough gas to make the transition and 4) to ensure that everyone recognizes "hey, we are making a jump here" so that everyone is up to speed and does not miss the jump and incorrectly assume we are on the original line.

You can cut corners and make assumptions on all that to save time and make a few more feet of distance in the cave, but it is one of those short cuts that can lead to a separation and eventually bite you.

AFAIK, it is not clear whether Gary decided not to enter Harry's crack before Bruce entered or after. I have heard conflicting reports. One suggested it was pre-arranged with some sort of communication pre-dive or during the dive to the effect Gary would re-join on the expressway side and another suggests it was a spur of the moment change in plan after Gary had second thoughts.

The difference would be on what Bruce expected and on what the range of options would have been presented with in the crack or on the other side when Gary was not following. Even if Bruce thought Gary was supposed to follow, Bruce would have been more or less committed until half way through the crack before being able to turn around if he had noticed Gary was not following. At that point he could have assumed or been worried that Gary was stuck and went back - consequently exiting on the Hill 400 side and still not finding Gary if Gary had gone around to the other side. The same possibility exists if Bruce had gone all the way through and Gary had not yet swam the long way around yet. Bruce could have gone back through looking for Gary if he assumed he was stuck, or went around one of the other two ways if he thought Gary was holding on the Hill 400 side.

If I were going around from the Hill 400 side, I'd go back with the flow to the park bench then around. If I were going around from the expressway side, I'd take a left and go to the mainline and come down with the flow to the Hill 400 jump. So it is very reasonable to assume that both Gary and Bruce in the interest of getting to where they thought the other would be holding in a minimum amount of time, would take different routes.

If Bruce arrived back at Hill 400 - either through the crack or back down the mainline and Gary was not there, that would then create a situation where Bruce may have assumed Gary was up Hill 400. But frankly I really doubt Bruce would have assumed Gary could have gotten lost on the hill 400 line.

So these scenarios have a few potential issues. Which one may have occurred depends on what the plan was and or what was communicated. If there was a plan for both to go through the crack, (that can be resolved by Gary), it assumes Bruce would first assume Gary was stuck first in the crack (likely) and go back throrugh the crack (with Gary swimming around the outside route(s), then next assuming Gary was lost on the Hill 400 line in good viz (not likely), and it then assumes Bruce not checking his gas at each navigational decision (also unlikely). That's a lot of loose ends.

If there was a plan to separate, then a delay by Bruce getting through the crack and or gettign stuck and/or turned around and exiting on the Hill 400 side, could have resulted in Gary going around, not finding Bruce and going back around by 1 of 2 routes. (Gary can shed light on that as well.)

If the plan was for both to go through and Gary thumbed that idea, Gary holding on the Hill 400 side would have gave Bruce a much higher probability of reconnecting with Gary, even if it may have taken a bit longer than the best case scenario of Gary going around to the expressway side. If the plan was to separate and go around to the express way side, a route should have been agreed upon so that both parties would know where to back track to find the other. And obviously any plan to separate introduces more possibilities if someone does not arrive on time.

-----

None of this speculation tells us anything about what really happened, but the scenarios do highlight the importance of proper communication and agreement at each navigational decison to limit the possibilities that have to be explored if a separation occurs later.

It also points out the importance of having a plan and if lost, hold on the planned route when someone goes missing, so that both parties do not end up chasing each other around and through multiple routes.

This is particularly true in areas with multiple routes where a separation and then a failure of someone to arrive on time begins to introduce exponential growth in the possible locations of various people at various times. In the event that occurs, pick a likely spot and just hold there - the Hill 400 jump in this case, and the last place you saw each other in general. At a minimum, before you go looking, leave a cookie and a wet note advising where you plan to go and run times of when you plan to be there.

 

[ROMO DIVER]

In keeping with the last post I would like to float another possible explanation. From everything I have heard about Bruce he appears to be one heck of a guy. Is it possible that he began a search for his buddy for any number of the reasons listed in the previous post and pushed his gas reserves too far out of concern for his friend? I know that the first thing that they teach you in any rescue type course and my cave instructor taught me was that "one person drowning is a tragedy, two drowning is stupidity". However, marines are not known for leaving people behind and while it might have been ill advised and have lead to tragedy I believe that it is a possibility. I know that if I had a friend I was concerned about in a cave, I would have a very hard time leaving. I have a wife and young kids at home so I would probably leave at the last possible minute, but if it were not for them and a close friend was lost it would be hard to leave. Remember this: "Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend"