Cruise Ship Passenger Dies in St.Maarten

[7milehi]

I dove with Dive Safaris a few years ago and all seemed fine . Another diver I was talking with the other day said Dive Safaris had another diving fatality last December involving a cruise passenger. I did a search here but came up with nothing. Has anyone else heard of another dive accident with DS ?

 

[Zingtea]

The victim's vomiting might have been caused by contaminated air; maybe he was breathing it way too long.

 

[DandyDon]

The victim's vomiting might have been caused by contaminated air; maybe he was breathing it way too long.

In that were the case, I would think others on the boat would have had problems. His tank might have come from another batch, but we have seen nothing to suggest this.

 

[Web Monkey]

I dove with Dive Safaris a few years ago and all seemed fine . Another diver I was talking with the other day said Dive Safaris had another diving fatality last December involving a cruise passenger. I did a search here but came up with nothing. Has anyone else heard of another dive accident with DS ?

I used them once on a cruise.

They're the absolute definition of "cattle boat". The boat holds at least two dozen people, but probably a lot more (I don't remember how many, but the stern of the boat was a long way off from where I was sitting, and it was benches all the way on both sides) Their idea of "buddy system" is if there's an even number of people on the boat.

The dive is like running a race track. They run the divers though the dive as fast as possible, and nobody gets to just hang out and watch the fish. They break up the divers into groups and each group gets a DM. They don't care how many dives you have or how long you can get out of an 80 cu ft tank. It's around the track and back on the boat.

The divers really don't have buddies unless you happen to make your own arrangements with someone on the boat.

That said, one of the reasons they're so busy is that they'll aparently take pretty much anybody. A lot of the people on the boat shouldn't have been there. If I had to guess, I'd say that at least 1/4 of the people on the boat needed either more pool time (for the freshly minted OW students) or should have had at least a refresher course (for the once-a-year divers) before being dropped into the ocean.

Note that this was a couple of years ago, it may or may not be like that now, and Your Mileage May Vary.

Terry

PS. I got a little sidetracked here. Re: "Accidents", there was a "near miss" where the DM left a brand-new diver hanging on a line until she ran out of air and surfaced, and another guy tore up his leg on a a coral swim-though in heavy surge that nobody should have been on.

However, as bad as the operation is, I don't really blame them for anything, except maybe not being selectinve enough about the skil-level of their customers. The divers should be getting out of their OW classes knowing enough to not get hurt (ie, don't follow the DM into the meat-shredder, don't hang on a line until you're OOA, etc., don't do "trust me" dives, don't leave your buddy, etc.)

 

[RiverRat]

I did my Discover Scuba with them. Yeah it was a really big Moo operation. I got lucky and was buddied with several "leftovers" and we really had an awesome first dive with our DM. He was very thorough and relaxed. The other groups were fairly large. I do remember the chaos with the other groups and the dozens of newbies floating around. I would think as they are a large cattle op that their chance of having accidents is better than most ops due to large numbers of inexperienced divers and a large diver to DM ratio.

 

[Trwmodela]

Yes, a female diver from the cruise ship Caribbean Princess died last December. Rescue Boats responded including one from the Princess. She made it to the surface and then disappeared. Her body was found on the bottom within a short time. It's time to take this sport SERIOUS and our BUDDIES! Even on guided dives you need to BUDDY with someone that can save your life! Also always decend and ascend with your buddy.

 

[lamont]

A skipped SS with no symptoms, tho, is no bubbles yet. Then, some suggest descending for the SS + 50% more time. Last I heard, Padi didn't, but why not try it in safe conditions? I saw a lady hit the inflator by mistake and turn into a human float bobbing on the surface with a large group off of Utila. The lead Inst sent her back to 15 where I was hanging on a mooring line accompanied by a DM.

This is actually what worries me about this practice:

Got a close up pic, all bug eyed.

I'd rather have a freaked out diver on the surface with a very mildly enhanced case of Type I DCS than a freaked out diver under water with a slightly reduced chance of DCS over the surface. I'm less worried about DCS than I am about the diver freaking out about DCS/rapid ascent. Plus what do you do if they *do* take a type 2 hit and go unconscious right when they start descending?

Either the DCS risk is going to be mild, in which case continuing the dive (or dropping back down to stop depth) will depend on the mental state of the diver, or else where the DCS is really concerning (blowing from 100 fsw or something) you should probably get them onto O2...

 

[lamont]

I have seen students in OW classes panic and try to shoot for the surface. If the instructor is not already holding on to the student, or ready to grab the student, it is nearly impossible to catch them. From my experience, it would be nearly impossible for a dive budy, without warning, on a typical dive, to be able to stop their dive partner from bolting to the surface. By the time the brain processes what is happening, the buddy is already out of reach.

i've caught divers that have lost buoyancy control upwards and dragged them back down (and I've started at a disadvantage since I was below them at the time I registered that they had lost control)...

in the case where your buddy hits their inflator the long "pssssssshhhhhtttttttt" as air goes into the bladder should alert you to the coming rapid accelleration...

its is possible that in the event of an actual *bolt* to the surface that you might not be able to catch someone, but those are going to be rarer than just loss of buoyancy control...

 

[Santa]

THere's definitely times when you can't get them. I get a lot of divers who trained tropically and then go diving shallow in cold water with 1-3 metre viz.

When I'm guiding, very often I can only see the team right behind or to the side of me. That's the conditions. Pretty hard to navigate, trail the buoy and look behind every 10 secs (and it takes only 3 to runaway)

The bulky suits and added lead and overall confusion leads to a good deal of runaways. Especially when at the end of the dive they've forgotten all about air expanding upon ascent.

I get most of them but sure you can miss a runaway diver.

 

[lns92]

Very sad event. I agree yous tart the dive with a buddy you end the dive with a buddy. Not long ago we had a diver drown on my dive boat. He too went diving with his brother, which in many cases is not really agood thing to do. The first thing you learn is if you loose your buddy search for a minute and then surface. My heart goes out to the family. LNS92