cozumel accident 9/4/11, THE FACTS

[cicopo]

I believe the time WAS stated in the other A & I topic as having taken place around 10:00 AM to 10:30 AM. I'll see if I can find it again, but with all the other stuff it may take a bit.

From message 557 of the other thread, posted by Nauticab

"also, the time of the day was weird. it was after the normal 8:30-9 leave the dock time, but before the surface interval/2nd tank.
again, i will try to confirm more info tomorrow and post what i can."

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/395698-cozumel-incident-9-4-11-a-56.html

One needs to understand that the majority of dive boats will be well south of the Villablanca Reef, and at that (implied) time of day they will have divers IN THE WATER. The closest popular dive site would be Paradise Reef, but that's usually a second dive in the morning, but even if boats were there with divers in the water they couldn't respond because that site is very close to 2 cruise ship piers & the current takes you in that direction PLUS that's the time of day some arrive. The only other near by area that might have had a boat or 2 in action is the area around Park Royal / El Cid / Casa Del Mar, but if they were on the water they likely had divers or snorkelers in the water too.

 

[Thalassamania]

Hi and thanks for responding to my query. I guess what I'm wondering is, your earlier post made it sound as though their deco (or lack of it) was not that far off what would be necessary (according to Navy tables?), and I think you were using 300' as a max depth. I wondered what those same tables would show for, say, 420' in comparison (i.e. your table at 300' vs. your table at 420').

Thanks,
Blue Sparkle

No comparsion is possible, the Navy tables stop at 300 fsw. If you want to look them over: U.S. Navy Diving Manual, Page 518

 

[Cave Diver]

forward: i hope the web administrator will allow this thread to start fresh as i feel the facts of the situation are getting lost in the 50+ pages of the original. the info below was gathered personally by me from the 2 DMs on board, the captain, and permission from all plus the dive op's brother who is running the show during her sister's absence while she is still in florida undergoing treatment.

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Attention:

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Due to the amount of information provided in this post and the interest that has been generated by this incident, the staff has decided to test a different approach with this thread. The thread has been moved to Mishap Analysis. ALL posts made here must be approved by a moderator before they will appear in the thread. Any posts made that are deemed to be off topic or not directly related to the initial post will be removed. Patience is a must if you want to participate in this thread.

As I have time, some of the deleted posts from here may find their way to one of the other threads and some of the more informative posts from those may be moved here in order to keep this thread streamlined with good information.

 

[Mike]

OK. Let me rephrase my question. After this extreme down-up dive and being bent, what does make more sense:
1. be on a boat, breath o2 and wait (slower off gassing, more pain, but more safe environment)
2. be at 20-30 ft in the water with o2 (faster off gassing, minimising the risk of thrombosis and other epiphenomenons, probably some less pain, but less safe environment)

I think whats not really considered here is that somebody who bounce dives to 300ft with air is of the old school diving mentality, and under water recompression mentality of getting yourself un-bent goes hand in hand together the. I'd have to guess that this wasn't Opals first dive on air to 300ft and it wasn't her first time trying to get un-bent doing UWR. She didn't fall off the boat, she dove back in on purpose. This is typical of those old school divers who do these types of dives, getting yourself un-bent is/was part of the normal mentality.

 

[nauticab]

i just got time info. more or less. the chamber got the call around 9:45am. since the reef is minutes from the pier, it is safe to say they were in the water by 9am. at 9:45am, boat traffic is nil. snorkel boats aren't even doing much at that hour. i swim there many times a week at 9:45ish and am there usually for an hour or more. i can attest to this, that until well after 10:30, narry a boat is to be seen. except for the car ferry.
their physical state: they are all young people (opal and heath heavy smokers, not sure about gabi), in their 30s or so. healthy size, not overweight at all. on the contrary, quite fit. no alcohol in their system.

EDIT: dive started a bit later, but the call was into the chamber around 9:45am. dive was much shorter. safe to guess they left the dock a good bit after 9am. no total bottom time info as of yet.

 

[jar546]

OK, so with the information now provided as being true, (supposedly) I can conclude the following:

1) It had nothing to do with down currents or any current
2) It was a poorly planned dive from the get-go. An unfortunate mistake in judgement

 

[RubberDucky]

The 3rd diver - if that is really him posting on Scubaboard - claimed that there were downcurrents here.

This was the post from the link above:

the three of us were caught in a down current that pushed us down deeper than we had ever planed on going and by the time we recovered we had to buddy breath off of one tank all the way to the surface and were not able to make any stops due to the lack of air.

I had heard something similar shortly after the incident, regarding the currents. Now there's yet another set of events posted by nauticab in this thread (amongst lots of other speculation and discussion across a number of other threads).

By now I think it's pointless to take anything about this incident as gospel from anyone - including those involved. Regardless of the circumstances, I know I've done some really stupid stuff in life that has almost had me removed from the gene pool, and the best we can do is share what we know about our mistakes and experiences, and those of others.

Stay safe.

 

[Zman96]

The 3rd diver - if that is really him posting on Scubaboard - claimed that there were downcurrents here.

This was the post from the link above:





I had heard something similar shortly after the incident, regarding the currents. Now there's yet another set of events posted by nauticab in this thread (amongst lots of other speculation and discussion across a number of other threads).

By now I think it's pointless to take anything about this incident as gospel from anyone - including those involved. Regardless of the circumstances, I know I've done some really stupid stuff in life that has almost had me removed from the gene pool, and the best we can do is share what we know about our mistakes and experiences, and those of others.

Stay safe.

Gabi has posted numerous times via friends on Scubaboard and on Facebook that they were not caught in a down current. They planned to go deep from the get go and it went down hill from there. I was on the island when it happened and almost every person you talked to on the island that would be "in the know" all had the exact same story. Bad plan, deep bounce dive, narced diver, OOA ascent and attempts at in water recompression. Not to speak for Heath, but I would assume he was trying to protect his friends and not let everybody know exactly what happened, that would be what I may have done if I were in his fins.

 

[coco2003]

the owner had 100 tank, ther other two 80s.

Heath had the 100, Opal and Gabi the 80's.

Congratulations on bringing just the facts. That week I was in Cozumel. An instructor friend of mine and also of the divers who visited them daily told me about a couple of issues that you did not mentioned, perhaps it is just speculation.

1- The divers were taking a video of their dive, do you know anything about that?
2- What were they doing prior to the dive? Has anyone informed you about it? I was told something but may be speculation.

Again, thanks for bringing the facts, it is really a sad case in diving history.

 

[Cactus Pete]

Hi all,

Does anyone know the actual max depth reached? I've seen speculation on it, but not the actual number, tho Im sure it's on a computer.

I don't know the folks involved but I've been following this story - what a tragedy. One comment I haven't seen - it seems like the dive and plan almost worked. But for the one diver going deeper, it likely would have. Which suggests that these sorts of excursions may be more common than I'd realized. I doubt I'd do it now myself, but there was s time where I might have.

Thanks for this concise update - I think it's helpful to many to understand, and dispelling the downdraft theory is also useful.