Death at Dutch Springs

[DiverGirl1972]

So, purely speculation, perhaps the diver was rushing around trying to get squared away before the night dive and forgets his lights. He decides to continue the dive and just stay close to someone with a light. He has some sort of medical emergency (or gets disoriented, panics and does something to cause injury to himself) and gets separated from the group. Maybe they realize at some point he is gone, and just assume that he terminated the dive. It's not until after the dive is done that they realize he has not been seen since.

Given the relatively benign conditions at Dutch and in situations involving somewhat experienced divers, people can become complacent when it comes to a suddenly missing diver. I saw this very situation myself on a recent dive with a small group. It was me and my buddy, an instructor and his buddy (no class, just a fun dive) and a DM candidate who asked us to act as her "students" in a skill demonstration of leading a dive. About 25 minutes into it, I notice the other diver was missing, asked/signaled the guy's buddy where he was and got very little response. I watched the buddy and the DM "looked around" for a minute or so and then continued diving. I saw no indication that they were ending the dive, so I motioned to my buddy and to them that we were thumbing the dive, we did our safety stop and ascended. Sure enough, he got separated, was fine and had called the dive when no one came up looking for him. I was pretty ticked that the missing buddy procedure was actually reviewed as part of her demonstrated "pre-dive briefing" but when it happened, she didn't react. They finally turned around and surfaced a minute or so after we did.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

So he was found at night with no dive light? Or is everything hypothetical? The diver might also have dropped a dive light during a medical emergency and this could have been missed on the recovery in the dark?

 

[DiverGirl1972]

I was basing my suggestion of a possible scenario upon a comment that Racerx9365 made in the very beginning and then deleted...it referenced that there was some rushing around prior to the dive, I believe. Then, S_brown, who seems to have at least a LITTLE knowledge of the situation mentioned that it would be "difficult to stay with your dive buddy in the dark, especially if you don't have a light". Just throwing a theory out there...

 

[S_Brown]

Since we're talking hypothetically, lets say in your haste to get in the water you accidentally strap on a nearly depleted tank and forget to check your pressure. Say the tank has enough air in it for a couple of breaths, but not enough to inflate your bc at depth, and say you were carrying a few extra pounds of equipment....at night....what might happen?

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Well, to me, the options are drop your weights/ditch your gear and do a CESA or panic and drown.

 

[redacted]

Why would you need/want to ditch your gear?

 

[DiverGirl1972]

I wouldn't personally, but who knows what this guy had on for weights and how it was attached. If for some reason he had mostly non-ditchable weight, had no air and was heavy, that is a possible, yet unlikely, solution.

 

[kwinter]

Since we're talking hypothetically, lets say in your haste to get in the water you accidentally strap on a nearly depleted tank and forget to check your pressure. Say the tank has enough air in it for a couple of breaths, but not enough to inflate your bc at depth, and say you were carrying a few extra pounds of equipment....at night....what might happen?

Darwin wins.

 

[RJP]

There's some unfortunate "hypothesizing" going on here:

1.) Those that have no idea what happened, and are hypothesizing.
2.) Those that seem to have some accurate information, but are withholding (or more likely unaware) of other key pieces of information, while saying "hypothetically" in their post for some reason.
3.) Those that are combining/relying on the information provided by those in #1 and #2 above to form hypotheses.

The folks in group #2 typically say "hypothetically" in their post because they don't really know anything other than pieces of rumors they've pieced together, so they try to imply/claim credibility and hide behind the word at the same time. Odd dynamic, that is seen in every accident/incident in which I've been involved.

Hypothetically speaking, if you fall in group 2 you should either say "I heard xxxxxxx is what happened" or say nothing. Either way, hypothetically you shouldn't say "hypothetically" if you're not speaking hypothetically.

 

[DiverGirl1972]

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I have no facts and don't pretend to. I offered up a "possible scenario" and was sure to indicate that's what it was as that is what the special rules of this forum dictate. I guess I fall under #1, but I don't see how that is unfortunate. I see that done all of the time in A&I. Hypothesizing as a whole should not be belittled. Trying to imply that you know more than you do perhaps should.