Diver Abandoned off Newport

[sijtse]

I agree with everyone that this incident should not have happened. But did the diver in question suffer any long-term injuries? He was lucky to be picked up, but still, he was picked up and maybe just a little shaken up - hopefully a little more alert because of it. It is not a perfect world and these things happen.

I've only done one "solo" dive off a dive boat (my buddy was too cold) and still - I hooked up with another group and we kept tabs on each other throughout the dive and back to the surface until we were all on the boat. It seems obvious that this guy should have made a similar connection and this probably wouldn't have happened.

I just don't have a lot of sympathy for these types of lawsuits - it makes it tough to have a small business and ultimately drives good people out of the market. He should be thankful to be alive. Now he should be ashamed of himself.

 

[opiniongirl]

hmmm....

lets see how you would feel after being left out in the open ocean after 4 hours.

If a $4 million dollar lawsuit is what's needed to impress upon these "good people" to do a head count, I'm all for it.

Our industry survives on the reputation that diving is safe and professional. And an incident like this, especially following a movie like "open water", hurts everyone else, who are intelligent enough to follow common sense procedures not to leave anyone behind, and not realize it for 4 hours.

There is no excuse for leaving someone behind.

 

[Robert Phillips]

hmmm....

lets see how you would feel after being left out in the open ocean after 4 hours.

If a $4 million dollar lawsuit is what's needed to impress upon these "good people" to do a head count, I'm all for it.

Our industry survives on the reputation that diving is safe and professional. And an incident like this, especially following a movie like "open water", hurts everyone else, who are intelligent enough to follow common sense procedures not to leave anyone behind, and not realize it for 4 hours.

There is no excuse for leaving someone behind.

No one is condoning the fact that he got left behind. What we are discussing is the chain of responsibility for the incident. As far as the Capt. and the clueless DM knew, Dan was at the second site in the water. The search was initiated at the 'last known location.'
If the DM had done an accurate account, he still would have been missing, but the search would have been conducted at the location he was actually missing from. Regardless, he was the major factor in this incident. The dive should have been called before he got in the water.

 

[scubasean]

If the DM had done an accurate account, he still would have been missing, but the search would have been conducted at the location he was actually missing from. Regardless, he was the major factor in this incident. The dive should have been called before he got in the water.

If the count had been done correctly and accurately, the lawsuit wouldn't exist, and neither would this thread...Or so I presume.

 

[cdiver2]

The dive should have been called before he got in the water.

Why should the dive have been called before he got in the water and by whom.

 

[MaxBottomtime]

Why should the dive have been called before he got in the water and by whom.

Dan was not experienced enough to make an advanced dive like this. He also hadn't been diving recently. The rigs in question are ten miles offshore in 300-700 feet of water. It was also a very foggy day. He was tagging along in a loose buddy team. He was not qualified to attempt a dive like this, but there's no law to stop people from doing stupid things. He couldn't equalize, but instead of surfacing, he remained underwater for 10-20 minutes, even though he lost sight of the rigs. He saw the boat when he surfaced, but instead of swimming to it, he decided to wait for them to come to him. There were many other divers in the water, so expecting the boat to come after him was out of the question. Every dive trip that goes to these includes a briefing. Because it is a live boat dive (no anchoring allowed) all divers are to descend/ascend at a given point, usually the leg of the rigs furthest up current. Obviously, nobody onboard saw Dan surface, yet he was not willing to swim toward the boat.
Yes, as has been stated many times already, the DM screwed up, twice! The captain is ultimately responsible for the actions taken on the boat, but even if there had been a perfect roll call, Dan would still be drifting in the fog because of his own mistakes. He was not prepared to make this dive nor the second dive at the Ace One wreck, which is six miles offshore and 125 feet deep. He should have gone on a Catalina charter instead until he was qualified to make an advanced dive.

 

[cdiver2]

Dan was not experienced enough to make an advanced dive like this. He also hadn't been diving recently. The rigs in question are ten miles offshore in 300-700 feet of water. It was also a very foggy day. He was tagging along in a loose buddy team. He was not qualified to attempt a dive like this, but there's no law to stop people from doing stupid things. He couldn't equalize, but instead of surfacing, he remained underwater for 10-20 minutes, even though he lost sight of the rigs. He saw the boat when he surfaced, but instead of swimming to it, he decided to wait for them to come to him. There were many other divers in the water, so expecting the boat to come after him was out of the question. Every dive trip that goes to these includes a briefing. Because it is a live boat dive (no anchoring allowed) all divers are to descend/ascend at a given point, usually the leg of the rigs furthest up current. Obviously, nobody inboard saw Dan surface, yet he was not willing to swim toward the boat.
Yes, as has been stated many times already, the DM screwed up, twice! The captain is ultimately responsible for the actions taken on the boat, but even if there had been a perfect roll call, Dan would still be drifting in the fog because of his own mistakes. He was not prepared to make this dive nor the second dive at the Ace One wreck, which is six miles offshore and 125 feet deep. He should have gone on a Catalina charter instead until he was qualified to make an advanced dive.

not knowing Dans experience I can not comment on that, however from my reading this was a dive trip organized by a LDS (correct me if I am wrong) providing there own DM. Now did the LDS/DM check Dans cert card & log book and tell Dan when he booked with them that this dive was beyond his experience?.

The DM what kind of DM was he? got his cert and did DM for the shop now and again or did he work a boat in those waters regularly?, did the Capt and DM know each other?.

Not willing to swim back to the boat or felt he was unable to swim back?, current to strong maybe?. You stated "no one saw him surface but he was unwilling to swim back to the boat" how do you know he was unwilling?. And again the bottom line is if he was unable or unwilling it is still no reason to leave a diver in the water.

 

[Charlie99]

Dan was not experienced enough to make an advanced dive like this. He also hadn't been diving recently. The rigs in question are ten miles offshore in 300-700 feet of water. It was also a very foggy day. He was tagging along in a loose buddy team. He was not qualified to attempt a dive like this, but there's no law to stop people from doing stupid things. ..........even if there had been a perfect roll call, Dan would still be drifting in the fog because of his own mistakes. He was not prepared to make this dive nor the second dive at the Ace One wreck, which is six miles offshore and 125 feet deep. He should have gone on a Catalina charter instead until he was qualified to make an advanced dive.

You and Robert Phillips seem to be very knowledgeable about the dive shop that chartered the boat. Do they do any sort of checking of qualifications?

 

[MaxBottomtime]

You and Robert Phillips seem to be very knowledgeable about the dive shop that chartered the boat. Do they do any sort of checking of qualifications?

Zac Araneta is a staff instructor at the shop.

http://www.oceanadventuresdiveco.com/about_us_staff.htm

The shop charted the Sundiver for the day and supplied Araneta as the Divemaster. I seriously doubt they could have expected things to go wrong. I don't know if someone else answered for Dan during the first roll call, but Araneta logged him back into the water at the second site, whic is unforgivable.

 

[jbd]

Not willing to swim back to the boat or felt he was unable to swim back?, current to strong maybe?. You stated "no one saw him surface but he was unwilling to swim back to the boat" how do you know he was unwilling?.

From the Readers Digest article, "Surely, he thought, when the crew took a head count, they'd realize he was missing and come looking for him."

The only indication of any action he took, while supposedly able to see the boat, was blowing a whistle which was apparently drowned out by the fog horn on the oil rig. There is no indication that he tried to swim to the boat at all. Just drift in the water thinking surely they'll come find me. At 10:28 he takes two picures of his watch and two pictures of himself and writes the time on his dive slate.