Chalk Lake fatality - Hemmoor, Germany

[DandyDon]

I believe that the Kreidesee or Chalk Lake is a former chalk quarry west of Hamburg and close to the North Sea. I do not know why divers would prefer it to the nearby ocean, but it seems to be popular.

Taucher stirbt bei tragischem Unglücksfall im Kreidesee Hemmoor

HEMMOOR. Bei einem tragischen Unglück im Kreidesee Hemmoor ist am Sonntagnachmittag ein Taucher ums Leben gekommen. Ein Großaufgebot an Helfern hatte nach dem Mann gesucht.

www.cnv-medien.de

Google translation...

Diver dies in tragic accident in chalk lake Hemmoor​

07/10/2022

HEMMOOR. A diver died in a tragic accident in the chalk lake Hemmoor on Sunday afternoon. A large contingent of helpers had searched for the man.​

Around 3:40 p.m., the emergency services sounded the alarm. A diver has been missing for more than half an hour. Diving friends were already searching in the water. After the alarm was raised, 70 emergency services from the Althemmoor fire brigade, Osten by boat, Burweg by boat, the deputy municipal fire chief Malte Schimmelpfennig, an ambulance from the DRK rescue station Hemmoor, an emergency doctor from the east, the DLRG diving group from Platoon 1 of the Stade fire brigade, DLRG Stade and Cuxhaven with divers and the Hemmoor police to the scene.
Diver from Wilhelmshaven dies
A male diver, 50 years old from Wilhelmshaven, was on a dive with his wife and another diver. Suddenly the wife had lost sight of her husband when she appeared. She surfaced and alerted the divers still in the water, who immediately went in search. A short time later, an emergency call was made to the control center in Bremerhaven, which immediately set the rescue chain in motion. Immediately after arrival, the fire brigades also went on land to search for the missing person.
diver was found
A boat from the Kreidesee and the lifeboat of the Osten fire brigade were also involved in the search. The boat from Burweg stayed ashore on standby. The wife was cared for by the emergency doctor and rescue service in the ambulance. A rescue helicopter approaching was able to abort its mission. After an hour's search by firefighters, the diver was found and brought ashore by the east lifeboat. Unfortunately, any help came too late for him. The police seized the diving apparatus to investigate the cause of the accident. The divers who were still there and had participated in the search were very concerned. The site was handed over to the police at around 5:15 p.m. and the emergency services were able to leave the site. (jl)

 

[AJ]

Hemmoor is a deep (55 meters) fresh water lake with a beautiful surrounding. Lot's of interesting stuff left behind from the former quarry. There are not much sites in the northern part of Germany where you can dive this deep with very clear water (10 to 15 meters sight is not uncommon, sometimes more). It's a common site for deep and tech trimix courses with good facilities like filling station, etc. .

In my opinion thie benign conditions also makes divers easy go beyond their personal limits and has caused quite some dive accidents and deaths. It's seems easy to go deep here, but it is not. It's cold (4 to 5 degrees celcius and you can get narced easily because of the cold and not being used to deep diving .

Btw, diving in the North Sea is really different than diving this lake (boat diving, weather conditions, bad visibility, etc.).

 

[undrwater]

Hemmoor is a deep (55 meters) fresh water lake with a beautiful surrounding. Lot's of interesting stuff left behind from the former quarry. There are not much sites in the northern part of Germany where you can dive this deep with very clear water (10 to 15 meters sight is not uncommon, sometimes more). It's a common site for deep and tech trimix courses with good facilities like filling station, etc. .

In my opinion thie benign conditions also makes divers easy go beyond their personal limits and has caused quite some dive accidents and deaths. It's seems easy to go deep here, but it is not. It's cold (4 to 5 degrees celcius and you can get narced easily because of the cold and not being used to deep diving .

Btw, diving in the North Sea is really different than diving this lake (boat diving, weather conditions, bad visibility, etc.).

Thank you for this info