Diver dies near shipwreck off coast of Long Island

[DEEPLOU]

My meaning was misconstrued, then. My intention was that the newspaper article left so much out of the report that it is meaningless. Some items that would have been helpful are:

Did he have a buddy? What is the report from the buddy?

I don't mean to place blame on anyone or imply that I would have done things differently. Just that the media rarely gets enough information to help other divers avoid similar accidents, if at all possible.

Sorry if I misconstrued your meaning.
You are correct regarding the newspaper report. This particular paper I have had occasion where I knew of the story either first hand or through actual witnesses or participants, and they definately either don't get it or twist it so it is nowhere on the mark.

That said, the dive community is not that big around here. I am sure I will pick up some additional information (if its availiable) either on the boat this weekend, or from the shop next week.

 

[nyresq]

but how could he become "separated from his regulator" and so entangled in his line that his buddy didn't notice and help him? Evidently the buddy was not close enough to see that there were issues. At least one of the other 3 divers should have noticed that he was not with them, before 30 minutes into the dive.
Foo

diving in the northeast atlantic ain't like diving in the keys. And unless you dove here or some parts of the great lakes you can't understand. 5'-10' vis with a two knot current in 38 degree water is the norm, not the exception. visibility on good days ranges from 10'-20'.

Unless a buddy is within an arms length he will loose contact with a fellow diver. On most of the more advanced wrecks it is common to see divers going solo or diving with the "I'll meet you on the bottom" type of buddy system, most times your buddy will loose sight as you decend down the line and swim out on your dive unless running a line your buddy can follow.
As for the other three divers there are many days where you will happen upon another diver on a wreck only after getting within 3 feet of him.
On the dive boats there isn't enough room for 4 divers to suit up at the same time so the divers will splash as they are ready and the first diver may splash 20 minutes before the last diver on a boat with 5 or six divers. you also have people of different experience levels on the same boat where some may be doing a 25 minute non-deco dives and others may be doing a 45 minute dive with 30 minutes of deco, so after the first dive no one is on the same surface interval time, and again there may be a significant amout of time difference between divers decending. we don't know who else was on the bottom at the same time.

The Iberia is a low lying wreck that is scattered over a large debris field. if the divers split up to look around, its quite possible that anyone could have been ten feet from him and never seen him.
NE wreck divers don't run lines just for penetration dives, many times we run them to be sure we find our way back to the anchor line in the normally crappy vis.

I send my deepest condolences to his family and say a prayer for the other three divers that were on that trip.
There may never be an absolute known reason as to why it happened, but don't second guess any of the other divers on the boat with out knowing the conditions and circumstances that were under the water that day.

 

[Foo]

"And unless you dove here or some parts of the great lakes you can't understand."

You're right, I didn't understand, and that's why I asked the questions. Thanks for the explanation. I have dived in low vis in Texas swamps, but not in the chilling temps you cite, nor to those depths.

"Unless a buddy is within an arms length he will loose contact with a fellow diver."

I guess this type of diving will never be my forte', because I do want to stay within an arm's length or so of my buddy, especially in low visibility. This seems more like solo diving, even though there are other people in the water.

"There may never be an absolute known reason as to why it happened, but don't second guess any of the other divers on the boat with out knowing the conditions and circumstances that were under the water that day."

Sorry if I second-guessed. I know that stuff drives you guys crazy. I am simply a new diver trying to understand how this accident could have occured. You explained it well.

 

[DEEPLOU]

diving in the northeast atlantic ain't like diving in the keys. And unless you dove here or some parts of the great lakes you can't understand. 5'-10' vis with a two knot current in 38 degree water is the norm, not the exception. visibility on good days ranges from 10'-20'.

Unless a buddy is within an arms length he will loose contact with a fellow diver. On most of the more advanced wrecks it is common to see divers going solo or diving with the "I'll meet you on the bottom" type of buddy system, most times your buddy will loose sight as you decend down the line and swim out on your dive unless running a line your buddy can follow.
As for the other three divers there are many days where you will happen upon another diver on a wreck only after getting within 3 feet of him.
On the dive boats there isn't enough room for 4 divers to suit up at the same time so the divers will splash as they are ready and the first diver may splash 20 minutes before the last diver on a boat with 5 or six divers. you also have people of different experience levels on the same boat where some may be doing a 25 minute non-deco dives and others may be doing a 45 minute dive with 30 minutes of deco, so after the first dive no one is on the same surface interval time, and again there may be a significant amout of time difference between divers decending. we don't know who else was on the bottom at the same time.

The Iberia is a low lying wreck that is scattered over a large debris field. if the divers split up to look around, its quite possible that anyone could have been ten feet from him and never seen him.
NE wreck divers don't run lines just for penetration dives, many times we run them to be sure we find our way back to the anchor line in the normally crappy vis.

I send my deepest condolences to his family and say a prayer for the other three divers that were on that trip.
There may never be an absolute known reason as to why it happened, but don't second guess any of the other divers on the boat with out knowing the conditions and circumstances that were under the water that day.

I didn't describe how we dive , wanted to wait see if we got any additional information. Unfortunately, as of today no additonal information has come forth.
In a couple of days I expect some word will get out.

Now the reason for the title:
While we were out today, heard bits and pieces of radio calls. What we picked up was diver convulsing, purple, and waiting for the Coast Guard to come. Didn't catch name of the boat or exact location, but believe it to be northern NJ.
We were 22 miles south of Jones Inlet, so figure the range on the radio. I expect we will hear more about this also. Especially since it is so close to this last one, both in time and location.

 

[MAK52580]

I was also going to ask where his knife and backup were? It definitely appears from all info that he was diving solo, with no cutting tools, no sufficient backup and without proper training to know how to get out of this situation. It was a disaster made to happen.

 

[DEEPLOU]

I was also going to ask where his knife and backup were? It definitely appears from all info that he was diving solo, with no cutting tools, no sufficient backup and without proper training to know how to get out of this situation. It was a disaster made to happen.

So far there are no details other than what was in the news article. And there is absolutely no information in there that is very helpful.

"It definitely appears from all info that he was diving solo, with no cutting tools, no sufficient backup "

This statement is PURE SPECULATION! Not based on any information presented anywhere!

 

[MAK52580]

1. Well they never mentioned a buddy notifying anyone that he was missing, conducting a search for him, or anyone taking any other procedures prior to cutting him lose.

2. The first thing anyone would have done, if he had a buddy was to find out what happened.

3. Anyone with any sense of dive training, especially diving at night, would have some sort of cutting tools to cut themselves loose in THEIR OWN LINE, or a buddy to vut it for him.

4. You are right, he may have had a buddy... "same ocean, same day buddy" that obviously wasn't anywhere near him when the event occurred. A buddy would have easily seen the problem and been able to cut the line if he wasn't able to himself.

You are right, I am speculating based off of the information available, but until anyone presents any information that says otherwise, the accounts of the story point to it. ANY buddy team should have easily been able to assess and correct this problem.

 

[DEEPLOU]

1. Well they never mentioned a buddy notifying anyone that he was missing, conducting a search for him, or anyone taking any other procedures prior to cutting him lose.

2. The first thing anyone would have done, if he had a buddy was to find out what happened.

3. Anyone with any sense of dive training, especially diving at night, would have some sort of cutting tools to cut themselves loose in THEIR OWN LINE, or a buddy to vut it for him.

4. You are right, he may have had a buddy... "same ocean, same day buddy" that obviously wasn't anywhere near him when the event occurred. A buddy would have easily seen the problem and been able to cut the line if he wasn't able to himself.

You are right, I am speculating based off of the information available, but until anyone presents any information that says otherwise, the accounts of the story point to it. ANY buddy team should have easily been able to assess and correct this problem.

I have been holding off with any speculation of my own, but I guess I will do some too (at least until we get more facts)

Knowing the way people dive in this area, there is a good likelyhood that he was diving solo. There is no information of what his configuration was. (size of tank, single? doubles?, pony?)
The article indicated he had been in the water for 30 min when found. The absolute maximum depth for this wreck is 60 ft, but most of the time your dive is in the 55-56 ft range.
Even speculating that he had an 80 w/o a pony, at 60 feet at the 30 minute mark no one would be looking for a missing diver.
My guess is he laid a line out, the line jumped the reel. Instead of wrapping the line around something such as the reel itself, he collected the line in hand. Somehow he let go of the collected line which now becomes an enganglement hazard. After getting tangled, he panicked, in a panic situation perceptual narrowing steps in. As result he completely forgets about those cutting tools he has, and in addition hyperventelates and blows through his remaining air in seconds.

Of course we don't know did he just have some line twisted around his foot, or was it wrapped around his tank valve or what.

We can guess what happened, but only two people really know, and both of them are in heaven.

 

[Rick Murchison]

Y'all need to take it to the bedtime story forum.
There isn't much to go on here; the construction of the detailed scenario is an interesting adventure in fiction, but it is not accident analysis.
If anyone close to this one has access to any more facts please post them. Most likely there are some real, rather than imagined, lessons here.
Rick

 

[Cudabait]

I know I'm a new diver, so I probably say some stupid things here- but how could he become "separated from his regulator" and so entangled in his line that his buddy didn't notice and help him? Evidently the buddy was not close enough to see that there were issues. At least one of the other 3 divers should have noticed that he was not with them, before 30 minutes into the dive. I hope I never get so "comfortable" with diving that I don't feel the need to watch out for my buddy and expect the same from him/her.

My heartfelt condolences go to this man's family. This is so sad.

Foo

My deepest condolences to the family....

Foo. it is easier to do than thought. Usually it is sudden and unexpected. You will eventually see it happen or see some near misses. One of the most common places is on the surface while divers are hanging onto a line for one reason or the other. Boat motion suddenly takes up the slack in the line and the diver is too close. The line gets under or behind the reg and voilently snatches it out of the divers mouth. Just one of many, many possiblities.

Regards,