Diver Dead in South Florida

[Manatee Diver]

Not in the news yet, but on Facebook I'm hearing reports of a diver dead here in South Florida. Apparently she got backed into the props.

03/31/2020 Edit:
So the information I am seeing. During recovery of divers the lady was injured by the props, she was alive for a brief period after recovery. They then rushed back to the inlet. The remaining two divers of the six pack surfaced to find no dive boat. They flagged down a passing boat who radioed someone after which the dive boat who returned to pick them up.

 

[swimlikethefish]

Charter or private vessel?

 

[Zoogrl29]

Supposedly, it’s a charter called “Florida Scuba Charters”. Allegedly, they left the divers (a couple) behind, then when they came back (after being notified by another boat) they hit a female diver and she died instantly (cut her femoral artery).

 

[Leighen]

I have dived with this Dive Operation many times. Captain Dustin McCabe just started running his new boat this past week, taking divers out despite the COVID lockdown, saying he was not restricted because he had some sort of FSL license for commercial fishing.

He left 2 divers in the water in his haste to get the woman with the severed artery in her leg back to the dock, she is now an official confirmed fatality.

It's reasonable to suggest that his lack of familiarity operating this new, much larger vessel, contributed to the accident.

 

[Leighen]

This is from a YELP review posted a short time ago. I include the entire text because I suspect it will be deleted due to what will be an ongoing investigation.

Davey J.'s review of Florida Scuba Charters Inc

Today this boat owner/captain of "Southern Comfort" left two scuba divers out at sea. The husband & wife dive couple notice their dive boat with the US Coast Guard, then they noticed that the captain Dustin McCabe & boat was being escorted by the US Coast Guards back to the direction to the inlet. The captain did not do a head count of divers on the boat and did not notify coast guards that he still had divers in the water. The husband & wife couple had to wave down another boat & they were able to call the coast guard to let the know they were left at sea and picked up. The worst a diver could ever ask for unless you are the young couple and your girlfriend gets ran over by this dive boat, which happened & this is why the coast guard was escorting the boat back to the marina. Dustin McCabe was backing his boat in the water to pick up divers & this young female diver he ran over her leg KILLING THIS DIVER instantly. Her femoral artery was cut by the moving props and this killed her instantly. Coast Guards handed over this investigation to FWC and their procedures will take place from here. I was at the marina and spoke to two divers on Dustin's boat regarding this unfortunate event. Deep condolence to the woman's family that arrived dead at the dock and kept on boat for hrs while questioning was conducted with the people on the boat. Dustin McCabe quotes on his FB social media pages "I'm not a medical professional or a scientist but I am certain you CANNOT get the virus while underwater!!!
Dive Dive Dive!!" This captain took paying divers out for a dive charter yesterday & today while knowing that the Coronavirus mandate order was in place and dive charters were not to be taken place. He lied to the customers & told them he had case by case permission. When will this charter company Florida Scuba Charters be shut down? After more divers left at sea or another death? Please take this review seriously and follow the outcome of today deadly outcome on the local news sources.

 

[txgoose]

Are there general/best practice "lock-out" procedures for commercial dive boats? For moored boats, some sort of no keys in ignition with divers in the water type thing. I have less idea how the drift charters generally work. Which is likely the more applicable scenario to discuss, due to what sounds like a moving boat. My one drift dive involved the boat being about thirty yards down current from us when we surfaced and so we had an easy surface swim to catch the boat. They had the engine off before our heads broke the surface.

 

[Leighen]

Dustin has/had a unique style of picking up divers. Rather than coming at them head on and slowing down and stopping with the transom next to them, or circling around them and coming to a slow stop, he'd swing the boat around and back up directly towards the diver, hitting the forward gear to stop the reversing which put the transom very close to the diver. Seemed pretty slick to me, but other divers have said it made them nervous. Little to no margin for error. Add to that his brand new boat, over 20' larger than the one he was used to, on his first weekend of taking divers out, and it's a recipe for disaster.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

Bad news. I heard of this earlier today because the operator who bought FSC's previous boat, the Sea Scout, had gotten so many calls about this he felt the need to clarify neither he nor the renamed Sea Scout were involved. Another friend was on the water yesterday and heard the notification about the drifting divers, but didn't find out about the fatality until later. My guess is the news hasn't picked it up due to the pandemic occupying their attention.

Atop everything else, I would guess questions will be asked about using a commercial license to run recreational dive trips in the present situation. That's the first recreational charter I've heard of in the area still going out since Palm Beach County clarified their marina closure order a week ago.

 

[HalcyonDaze]

I think it took a day or two for the word to get out, but the only people I've seen going out since about last Wednesday are commercial spearfishers.

 

[Altamira]

It truly astounds me that a boat Captain would put a boat in reverse, and back toward a group of people in the water. I am not a Captain, but have owned recreational boats for the past 34 years, and that was one of the first things I learned not to do--ever.