Diver death in Mabini Batangas Philippines

[Shaun Delport]

Bryan, it takes a lot to report as you have without emotion, about someone you were close to, kudos.

Do not rule out narcosis, my experience below:

I have had one case where I was safety diver on a wreck dive. I always dive at the rear of the group and sweep as it were. A customer freaked out at 30m after 7mins. She just took off. No indication of discomfort or disorientation. Managed to get to her 15m before surface. She calmed down almost immediately.
On the boat I asked her what happened. She said she could not remember but once I grabbed her she realised she was where she was not supposed to be.
She was a diver with 60 dives, AOW and a medical doctor. After, at the DC, having given it some thought, she told me that the panic she was feeling just before I reached her was due to the fact that she was suddenly aware of being alone, not being able to see the surface, viz 8m, so panic set in again.
I asked her the normal questions of memory of the dive and what she saw/we saw etc and we then knew that she experienced narcosis. This was her first experience of narcosis. As most of us know the first time we get narcosis we do not know it until someone asks us questions of the dive.
I buddied her on the next planned dive 90mins later, 20m. She was fine.

 

[Bob DBF]

Side note too those speculating "narcosis". Narcosis wouldn't have had her going for the surface like that.

Depends, have a nasty dark nark and panic is no longer out of the question.


Bob

 

[chillyinCanada]

I shall have to take your word for (and Shean's).. I've had some nast dark narcs, and I did want out but didn't have anticipated desire to bolt. As I rose a bit in the water column it cleared and it's left them like a nagging bad dream. But we're all different, so I suppose . . .

 

[Robert.rr10]

Possibly a bite or sting. I'm considering this because all her equipment was fine. She had done 3 previous dives in this equipment. A night dive the night before (limited visibility), and she dove the wrecks in Subic, they are deep with poor visibility. The thing that would make her want to get out of the water as fast as she could would be a bite or sting. Just my thoughts. God Bless young Agnes.

 

[Dan]

RIP Agnes & condolences to her family. I hope the class video & autopsy report will be available for review.

This accident reminds me of my dive instructor's comment in our last dive club meeting, when he was announcing his retirement from teaching scuba, that he can now spend more time going diving, fishing, hunting, and no longer worry about pulling students from bolting up to the surface. I didn't think much about his last comment until reading this accident. How often this type of situation happen to dive instructors / assistant DMs?

So far, from reading some of bolting up to the surface accidents, the victims have been disproportionately women. Why is that?

 

[Freewillow]

@Dan, somehow you are opening the Pandora box, here

 

[BryanDP]

Hello and thanks everyone for your replies, thoughts and prayers for Agnes.

I've finally seen the video of that dive with 4 instructors and agree on the following unofficial assessments -

1. Disorganized is a polite way if putting it. I'm one who would always like to see students/guests neatly lined up, grouped closely and with me facing them most of the time. They... They were just everywhere. The instructor even missed the part where someone was probably feeling disoriented/uncomfortable and an assistant had to attend to her for +/- 5 minutes.
2. Their faces and actions would have us believe that they did not know someone in their group was missing. No sense of urgency at any point during the dive and until the last few moments of their safety stop. There was just this one time towards the end of the dive when we saw the instructor with an expression of "where?"
3. Buddy/assistant instructor was seen several times in a horizontal position without the victim. Their story of the buddy immediately following the victim to the surface was not evident.
4. The last time we saw the victim on the video was when she was finning up, slowly. Camera pans several times after we last saw her. Everyone was there except the victim.
5. Narc and getting bitten are both possible but would likely show her going up in a panicked state (?). But with her BCD almost off her left arm, buckles undone and mask on her forehead, we feel that a more plausible reason is that she was removing her gear to give to the boatman.

Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here may not be used anywhere else and are solely my own, unofficial and do not express the views or opinions of the victim's family or friends. It's also not part of any official investigation.

 

[Pao]

I was pretty convinced that she panicked and shot up. Now it looks unlikely. Maybe she had a medical condition unknown to the others, or even to her?

 

[KevinNM]

How often this type of situation happen to dive instructors / assistant DMs?

I was talking to a couple of very experienced instructors at my LDS and asked them if the student diver bolts to the surface thing really happens and they had all had it happen to them more than once. How often with it happens with more experienced divers I have no idea.

 

[BryanDP]

KevinNM - I hope you can also ask how many times they caught, held and pulled someone who bolted to the surface or started ascending, uncontrollably or just wasn't deflating or finning down vs how many times they just let the student reach the surface on their own and continue with the dive.

Pao - I really hope that the autopsy report can answer that. I'll share any information I can once available.

Btw, viz was ok. Not very good but I personally don't think it was bad enough for you not to see anyone you were following up like they said.

Take care, all and safe travels