Diver death in Lake Minnewanka, Alberta, Canada

[j.doe]

This is obviously off-topic, but I'd like to utilize the breadth of Alberta diving experience on this thread right now.

About two years ago my dive buddy and I found a weight belt (no diver in it) with a plastic buckle and about 40 lbs of lead fastened shut at about 50 feet in Cameron Bay in Waterton Park, Alberta. This was a surprising amount of weight, and it was also surprising that the buckle was closed and no one was in it.

Can anyone shed some insight into the history of this item? Were there any incidents at Cameron Bay in the past several years?

I have seen this one before. My guess is that someone was using dry suit, and did not fasten the belt tight enough. It falls off the hips and hits the bottom, with the diver unable to go down to retrieve it. I have seen it happen a couple of times now.

Just a guess, but a well educated one though.

 

[stakanak]

I was wondering if there are ways to assimilate whether or not the diver died of drowning or a possible heart attack? I do realize that most diving accidents could be relegated to drowning in general. However, if a diver has a stroke or a heart attack, would said diver inevitably die of drowning?
Sorry if this question is off topic.
My condolences to the family

 

[Slamfire]

I've known more than a few divers go in with less than full tanks (myself included) so it isn't unheard of as mp states. It also doesn't have much to do with the incident either so perhaps it should be split off if people really want to debate the practice.

I echo Pfc's comments too. It seems to me that there has been a rash of divers deaths this last year or two in western canada but no reporting on them collectively. I can think of 4-5 right off the top of my head without checking which seems high for such a safe sport.

Last night I got my digital copy of the quarterly Aviation Safety Letter. All licensed pilots in Canada get this document. Briefly stated, the purpose of this document is to "Learn from the mistakes of others; you'll not live long enough to make them all yourself..."

The document has many sections, but the two sections that IMHO make the meat of the document are the Accident Synopses and the Recently Released TSB Reports.

You will note that the Synopses are all fairly recent incidents, ie within 2010. They are just reports that try to state what happened as factually as possible based on what is known at the time of writing. They do not include an analysis and do not dig very deep into the "why", but mostly stay limited to the "how".

The Recently Released Reports are about incidents that happened earlier in time. By this time, there has already been more exhaustive investigation of the incident. These reports do include Analysis, Findings as to Risk, Findings as to causes and contributing factors, and safety actions taken as a result of said incident.

While I am a firm advocate for keeping scuba activities unregulated by government entities, I think there would a great benefit for keeping records and analysis of incidents. This maybe something to think about and perhaps organize ourselves as an independent entity from government bureaucracies. Maybe I'm too naive and idealistic, but it would be really cool if we could make it happen.

 

[maddog663]

I don't know what training this person had or all the circumstances, but if I was taught you seach for your buddy for 1 minute then surface and meet up. Had to be a medical problem or msomthing of that sort. 34 feet of water and out of air should not have been a problem.

 

[bowlofpetunias]

Over here DAN collects this kind of Data. They request members send information about any diving related incidents that we become aware of with as much information as possible. I believe they interact with relevant authorities to produce statistics about diving deaths and injuries. Does that happen at all there?

 

[scuba nube]

So has anyone heard anymore about this? I have heard he was an advanced diver in training so certified but barely.

 

[DandyDon]

Over here DAN collects this kind of Data. They request members send information about any diving related incidents that we become aware of with as much information as possible. I believe they interact with relevant authorities to produce statistics about diving deaths and injuries. Does that happen at all there?

DAN Americas does produce an annual report. It used to be available only to logged in members (I paid $20 for my first copy as we were all on dial-up then) but now seems to be open. I runs a year or two behind accidents. Divers Alert Network : DAN Medical Center : Annual Diving Report

 

[nadwidny]

So has anyone heard anymore about this? I have heard he was an advanced diver in training so certified but barely.

That's what I have heard as well. I also heard his buddy or someone else in the group had a problem during the dive. After the problem was sorted out they noticed the deceased was missing. Might be true, might not.

Apparently the gear checked out fine.