Diver dies on French Reef (Keys)

[deeper thoughts]

A North Carolina woman died Thursday while diving in water off Key Largo

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says #####, 51, was diving in the afternoon with her boyfriend at French Reef. They were aboard the commercial dive vessel Sea Star out of the It's a Dive dive center.

The Sheriff’s Office says they surfaced from their second dive of the day about 100 yards behind the dive boat. They began swimming back to the boat but weren’t making much headway against strong currents and rough water.

The boyfriend, 58-year-old ######of Salisbury, N.C., told authorities that he estimates they tried to swim for about half an hour. He told them she fell behind and when he looked back, her head was under water.

Employees of the dive boat reportedly couldn't see the two struggling divers. When all other divers on the boat were back on board, they realized there were two missing from the group.

At that point, the U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission were called to help search for them.

The divers were found by an FWC officer but were struggling in the water. They were taken to shore, where ### was later pronounced dead.

Prayers to the family

 

[ScubaSteve]

This is terrible news and hopefully the boyfirend and family can get through it OK.

However this is a great example of why a diver should always have either an SMB or a safety sausage...I have both on me for every dive. Such a simple thing possibly could have avoided this tragedy.

 

[diver 85]

This is terrible news and hopefully the boyfirend and family can get through it OK.

However this is a great example of why a diver should always have either an SMB or a safety sausage...I have both on me for every dive. Such a simple thing possibly could have avoided this tragedy.

Same here steve---So many things to consider ie what air left after surfacing, what's the depth in that area-- ?shallow??( if so, hit the bottom & go against less current back to the boat), but MOST important carry that SS---I started about 6 months ago, & a spool too, with over a 1000 dives behind me---never too late to learn something 'new'.....I even 'reinvented' the snorkel(for me)a couple years ago-carry one on every dive now while getting away from it many years ago--gives a diver alot of 'easy extra air' while drifting on the surface with no air in the tank.....

here's hoping for the best to all survivors...

 

[redacted]

How does a dive boat not see divers 100 yards away and leave them struggling for 30 minutes?

 

[Missdirected]

Just taking what is posted on its face, there was no need to even fight the current on top. If you can't make it back to the boat, blow up your SMB and your BCD and hang out and wait for the boat to come to you, as was probably told to them in the dive briefing. Sounds like they over exerted themselves. This is assuming they were new divers and were out of air.

 

[Rick Murchison]

How does a dive boat not see divers 100 yards away

With any seas at all, real easy.

and leave them struggling for 30 minutes?

Even had they seen the missing divers they'd have remained at anchor until retrieving their other chicks. Depending on crew compliment, if there's one to spare, in a situation like this where the crew does see the distressed divers but they're further down-current than the longest line on the boat, a crew member with a decent SMB can join them in the water as "comfort" and keep 'em calm until the boat can get there.
But again, a hundred yards in any seas at all will make it blind luck to see a head during the split second its visible between waves, and, depending on the sun angle a head may not even be visible for a split second.
The article doesn't mention whether or not they had SMBs...
Rick

 

[Jrock1062]

seems to me there had to be some health issues there. for that to be the reason for the fatality

 

[24940]

.....

 

[DandyDon]

This is terrible news and hopefully the boyfirend and family can get through it OK.

However this is a great example of why a diver should always have either an SMB or a safety sausage...I have both on me for every dive. Such a simple thing possibly could have avoided this tragedy.

It has always amazed me that any divers go to sea without such. I've worn mine on virtually every dive since OW, whether real diving or practice pit, only removing for a very few freshwater dives.

How does a dive boat not see divers 100 yards away and leave them struggling for 30 minutes?

Much too easy. They probly didn't drop weights to float a little higher, or wave fins - just reacted with little or no thinking I'm guessing.

Just taking what is posted on its face, there was no need to even fight the current on top. If you can't make it back to the boat, blow up your SMB and your BCD and hang out and wait for the boat to come to you, as was probably told to them in the dive briefing. Sounds like they over exerted themselves. This is assuming they were new divers and were out of air.

Yep.

seems to me there had to be some health issues there. for that to be the reason for the fatality

Yep, but the diver would probly be alive if the more prudent approach had been used: Inflate sausage, float, wait.

Sad loss.

 

[Missdirected]

It has always amazed me that any divers go to sea without such. I've worn mine on virtually every dive since OW, whether real diving or practice pit, only removing for a very few freshwater dives.

They could have easily not known better. Further there would be no need to drop weights if they had simply been calm and inflated the smb and bcd.

I'm totally guessing here but they probably panicked and felt that they had to reach the boat or they would be lost out to sea. So for them it became the fight of their lives and one didn't win.