Diver dead at National Diving and Activity Centre - Tidenham, UK

[DandyDon]

Man dies at diving centre

A MAN has died after falling ill at the National Diving and Activity Centre (NDAC) near Chepstow.

An air ambulance was called to the former quarry site in Tidenham on Monday morning around 11.25am, but the victim was later pronounced dead.

It is not known whether the man had been diving or the incident was diving related.

There have been several diving fatalities at the 260-ft deep lake, including one last October when 28-year-old trucker Wlodzimierz Jurasz, from Upminster, died from the bends.

Gloucestershire Police declined to give any details about Monday’s incident, apart from confirming that the man had died.

“We were called at 11.25am today (Monday March 26) following a report that a man had been taken ill at the National Diving Centre in Chepstow," a spokeswoman said.

“We can confirm that the man has since died but no further details are available at this time.”

A spokesman from South West Ambulance Service Foundation Trust added: "We attended an incident at this location with various resources, including three ambulances and a helicopter."

An inquest in Gloucester earlier this month heard that Mr Jurasz had dived solo 100ft deeper than he was qualified to, and ascended in minutes when he should have taken more than an hour.

The NDAC, which has sunken planes, helicopters, buses, armoured vehicles and a cruiser on the bed of the quarry, was the scene of another diver’s death in 2014.

Mary Restell, 54, from Tavistock in Devon was diving at a depth of 197ft with her husband Roy when she became unresponsive and was rushed to the surface.

An inquest later heard how under-performing breathing regulators and a dense gas mix with a high nitrogen content all contributed to her death.

In 2004, three divers died within six weeks of each other in two separate incidents at the site.

 

[KenGordon]

That is a shame.

Just in case any UK divers are put off by the list of fatalities in the post above, NDAC is, in my opinion, the best inland facility in the UK. It has a variety of depth and the layout is such that you can’t accidentally get deep. It can be quite busy and a lot of dives happen there. It is also closed on Mondays at the moment.

Anyone with an interest of the consequences of a fast ascent with a significant deco obligation should read up on how Roy Restell recovered after lifting his wife, he was a poster on TDF (The Dive Forum) and discussed it there.

 

[w3dge]

AS Ken mentioned - NDAC doesn't open on Mondays. Strange, but also very sad!

 

[EmmaDuffy]

British soldier dies in diving accident during final week of training course

Happened on the 26th March with the news about it coming out today. Details surrounding the accident are scant at the moment.

Thoughts are with the family :-(

 

[KenGordon]

admins, I am guessing but you probably want to merge this with the NDAC death thread.

Diver dead at National Diving and Activity Centre - Tidenham, UK

My reasoning is that they are closed to the public Mondays and I have seen military training there first hand when they are closed. In fact the time I was there (they changed the hours after the course was booked) a helicopter had been called and was leaving as we surfaced. To be clear, that was not this occasion.

 

[KenGordon]

Soldier dies in 'tragic diving incident'

 

[DandyDon]

And finally, the Inquest, and it sounds like he dived with used tanks...

Soldier Died After Part Of Training Course 'skipped' | Scuba Diver Mag

An inquest has heard that a 27-year-old soldier died at NDAC in March 2018 after a part of his five-week army diving training course had been skipped.

www.scubadivermag.com

An inquest has heard that a 27-year-old soldier died at NDAC in March 2018 after a part of his five-week army diving training course had been skipped.

Lance Corporal George Partridge, together with 11 fellow soldiers, was four weeks into the course when the tragic incident occurred at the flooded quarry near Chepstow.

The Gloucester inquest, which opened yesterday (Monday 27 June), heard that on the day in question, all the trainees had been scheduled to perform Dive 19 in their course, which involved going down to 21-23m.

However, the decision was made to skip that exercise and move straight on to Dive 20 – which involved dropping down to 26-27m to a submerged helicopter. The dive supervisor, Staff Sergeant Justin Dolly, was questioned about the reason behind the decision not to go ahead with the planned dive, and he initially said it was felt that the dive could be missed because the previous week, the trainees had done two deeper dives – including one to 30m in the Solent – but he also agreed with the assistant Gloucestershire coroner Roland Wooderson, who suggested that that reason for the change was ‘to do something more interesting and recce the helicopter'.

On the fateful dive, Lance Corporal Partridge – who had been rated by the instructors as the top student in his group – descended at 11am with his buddy Stephen Hart, but just minutes later got into trouble and when he was returned to the surface, his mask was hanging off, and his two cylinders were empty.

The inquest continues today and is due to conclude on Thursday.

NDAC (National Diving and Activity Centre) was popular with recreational and technical divers, as well as being used extensively by the military, but it has now closed, and is being used as a ‘research facility'.