Unknown Coasties searching for missing diver - Pompano Beach, Florida

[christ0phe]

I set up my own gear. If dive staff does it I still do a once over. Every time I don my BCD/tank I check pressure on my computer, backup computer and analog gauge, I breathe off of both air sources, and put a few puffs of air into my BCD before I ever stand up. I stay focused and don't talk to anyone while I'm doing any of it. I really wish people were more thoroughly drilled on the importance of these few things, and focus on it. RIP to the deceased.

Wild that people don’t do this!

 

[Marty_C]

I only know a little from my friend who was on the boat. He said they were a pair of brothers, possibly new divers with rental gear. He said his inflator hose was disconnected, he panicked, and drowned while sinking. The brother surfaced yelling for help. That another experienced diver went looking for him and could not find him.

The mother was at the dock screaming at everyone.

This is from the perspective of someone who probably didn't see it happen since he did a full dive. He most likely learned about it once he got back on the boat and everyone was talking.

Take it for what it is, nothing which can be proven as fact, but from someone who was on the boat that day and this is what they interpreted as the events.

In the sole interest of spreading knowledge that may help stop another tragedy I have more info to relay. A diver that goes on that boat a lot spoke to the crew soon after the incident. The 24 year old had new gear (back plate- no droppable weights)- about 25 dives total- flipped off boat and started to go immediately down- reg came out - he went to bottom- it was not clear but seems that he pulled the reg out of the mouth of his brother (dive buddy(. Brother [probably] panicked. Brother (buddy) went to the surface to get help.- never found him. Only explanation we can come up with is that his tank was never opened, the DM on the boat never checked it before they enter the water and he had no weights to drop to send him back to the surface. Probably in a panic he couldn't get out of his BCD, possibly because it was all new equipment to him. All very sad and preventable.

 

[FreqFlier]

Says USCG suspended search on Sunday - some sort of new info was developing?

 

[MrChen]

In the sole interest of spreading knowledge that may stop another tragedy I have more info to relay. A diver that goes on that boat a lot spoke to the crew soon after the incident. The 24 year old had new gear (back plate- no droppable weights)- about 25 dives total- flipped off boat and started to go immediately down- reg came out - went to bottom- it was not clear but seems that he pulled the reg out of the mouth of his brother (dive buddy(. Brother [probably] panicked. Went to surface to get help.- never found him. Only explanation we can come up with is that his tank was never turned on, the DB on the boat never checked it before they enter the water and he had no weights to drop to send him back to the surface. Probably in a panic he couldn't get out of his BCD, possibly because it was all new equipment to him. All very sad and preventable.

Thanks for the update!

 

[Rupert Maclanahan]

I set up my own gear. If dive staff does it I still do a once over. Every time I don my BCD/tank I check pressure on my computer, backup computer and analog gauge, I breathe off of both air sources, and put a few puffs of air into my BCD before I ever stand up. I stay focused and don't talk to anyone while I'm doing any of it. I really wish people were more thoroughly drilled on the importance of these few things, and focus on it. RIP to the deceased.

This is the way.

 

[Marty_C]

This is the way.

Totally agree but only thing I'd like to add to Steeleye's is that my buddy and I usually look at each other's gear before we go in. Sometimes there are things you can't see on yourself. It might be something simple or, say from distractions, you might have forgotten to secure. Diving is really safe when you follow the rules and training...... complacency kills.

 

[TMurrr]

In the sole interest of spreading knowledge that may stop another tragedy I have more info to relay. A diver that goes on that boat a lot spoke to the crew soon after the incident. The 24 year old had new gear (back plate- no droppable weights)- about 25 dives total- flipped off boat and started to go immediately down- reg came out - went to bottom- it was not clear but seems that he pulled the reg out of the mouth of his brother (dive buddy(. Brother [probably] panicked. Went to surface to get help.- never found him. Only explanation we can come up with is that his tank was never turned on, the DB on the boat never checked it before they enter the water and he had no weights to drop to send him back to the surface. Probably in a panic he couldn't get out of his BCD, possibly because it was all new equipment to him. All very sad and preventable.

So many easily avoidable things going wrong. So sad to hear.

... correct me if I'm wrong, I very rarely dive off charters in lieu of private boats ...

But the one thing most DMs consistently do before they allow a diver to giant stride off the boat is check that the diver's air is turned on... right?

Again, I rarely dive with 'DMs' on board so my buddies and I all just look out for each other.

 

[TMurrr]

I set up my own gear. If dive staff does it I still do a once over. Every time I don my BCD/tank I check pressure on my computer, backup computer and analog gauge, I breathe off of both air sources, and put a few puffs of air into my BCD before I ever stand up. I stay focused and don't talk to anyone while I'm doing any of it. I really wish people were more thoroughly drilled on the importance of these few things, and focus on it. RIP to the deceased.

If the staff asks/tries I politely tell them that setup part of my pre-dive safety checks, I regularly dive at home (if on vacation) and thanks but no thanks, I will be setting up my own gear

 

[johndiver999]

In the sole interest of spreading knowledge that may help stop another tragedy I have more info to relay. A diver that goes on that boat a lot spoke to the crew soon after the incident. The 24 year old had new gear (back plate- no droppable weights)- about 25 dives total- flipped off boat and started to go immediately down- reg came out - he went to bottom- it was not clear but seems that he pulled the reg out of the mouth of his brother (dive buddy(. Brother [probably] panicked. Brother (buddy) went to the surface to get help.- never found him. Only explanation we can come up with is that his tank was never opened, the DM on the boat never checked it before they enter the water and he had no weights to drop to send him back to the surface. Probably in a panic he couldn't get out of his BCD, possibly because it was all new equipment to him. All very sad and preventable.

Somewhere else I read that the inflator hose was not hooked up. But that piece of information seemed strange to me, since it would be hard to detect, unless someone was very close and presumably if they were that close, then they could have recovered him. Plus if someone saw it on the boat, it probably would have been fixed before entry.

Having the tank valve off and the BC not inflating, makes more sense to me.

So brother was with him, saw he was in trouble, victim ripped reg from mouth of brother, he freaks and bails on his brother and then the victim sinks in an over weighted condition, with no ditchable lead? Is that the scenario? That could happen in less than 30 seconds.

I am surprised the boat operator could not mark the position (MOB) to facilitate the recovery divers to find the victim. Surely the diver would be close to where he started his over weighted descent?

Where there DM's in the water? Did the operator begin an underwater search right away or were other divers down already and unaware, so any search would necessarily be delayed?

 

[Marty_C]

Somewhere else I read that the inflator hose was not hooked up. But that piece of information seemed strange to me, since it would be hard to detect, unless someone was very close and presumably if they were that close, then they could have recovered him. Plus if someone saw it on the boat, it probably would have been fixed before entry.

Having the tank valve off and the BC not inflating, makes more sense to me.

So brother was with him, saw he was in trouble, victim ripped reg from mouth of brother, he freaks and bails on his brother and then the victim sinks in an over weighted condition, with no ditchable lead? Is that the scenario? That could happen in less than 30 seconds.

I am surprised the boat operator could not mark the position (MOB) to facilitate the recovery divers to find the victim. Surely the diver would be close to where he started his over weighted descent?

Where there DM's in the water? Did the operator begin an underwater search right away or were other divers down already and unaware, so any search would necessarily be delayed?

I had the same question about not being able to find the diver- obviously he was negatively weighted. A few of the dive operators around here are so lax they are downright dangerous and consistently these boats seem to have the problems of "lost diver" or other even more serious incidents. A dive boat going out in 6-7' seas is a major problem in itself.