Diver dies on the Dunderberg wreck Harbor Beach, MI Lake Huron

[worthicm]

Bay Co. man dies in scuba accident near shipwreck
By ZLATI MEYER[/B]
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

A 46-year-old scuba diver died off Harbor Beach in Huron County on Sunday, officials said today.

Daniel Kleinert of Munger, Bay County, was diving near the wrecked schooner the Dunderberg six and a half miles north-northeast off Harbor Beach with three friends shortly before 11:30 a.m. when his diving partner noticed Kleinert was having trouble with the dive and became unresponsive, according to Huron County Sheriff Kelly Hanson.

The U.S. Coast Guard Harbor Beach station transported him to a waiting ambulance, which rushed him to Harbor Beach Community Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, Hanson said.

Huron County Medical Examiner Dr. Richard Lockhard is scheduled to perform an autopsy today at the Huron Medical Center in Bad Axe.

 

[Wayfarer2]

Here is a link to another article with a few more details.
http://www.connectmidmichigan.com/news/story_print.aspx?id=461026&type=story

 

[riftvalley84]

**Reposted this in Accidents & Incidents forum**

"Preliminary investigation is indicating that his partner inflated Daniel’s buoyancy control vest, which raised him to the surface. Daniel was then found by the other 2 friends at about 11:25 am, floating on the surface."

Sounds like his buddy who saw he was having trouble sent him to the surface by himself???? I sure hope not!

 

[worthicm]

Don't kid yourself, if you are having trouble underwater, especially tech diving depths, I'm not hurting myself by skipping DECO to save you. Based on the tiny blurb here, I think that is a reasonable assumption to make that the deceased diver's buddy did the right thing and got the unresonsive diver to the surface while still ensuring his own safety.

"His partner sensed that Daniel was having trouble and apparently Daniel had become unresponsive."

 

[dsc2679]

My thoughts and prayers are with the victim's family and the other divers that were with him on Sunday.

 

[battles2a5]

Don't kid yourself, if you are having trouble underwater, especially tech diving depths, I'm not hurting myself by skipping DECO to save you. Based on the tiny blurb here, I think that is a reasonable assumption to make that the deceased diver's buddy did the right thing and got the unresonsive diver to the surface while still ensuring his own safety.

"His partner sensed that Daniel was having trouble and apparently Daniel had become unresponsive."

I wouldn't make a blanket statement like this. This is a pretty shallow wreck. I would gladly blow off deco for one of my good dive buddies to get him into capable hands on the surface, then go back down and finish my deco. I'm not faulting the diver in question in any way (I wasn't there, don't know the details), but your odds of surviving an incident like this goes down dramatically if you get blown to the surface without an open airway. If you ascend with them and try to manage the airway they will have a better chance, and if you got bent as a result you can likely fix it. You can't fix a dead buddy. Would I do it for an insta-buddy? Maybe not. Would I do it for a good friend when the alternative is telling his wife and kids that he isn't coming home? Absolutely.

 

[drdaddy]

I'm waiting for the facts.

 

[Azotino]

I wouldn't make a blanket statement like this. This is a pretty shallow wreck. I would gladly blow off deco for one of my good dive buddies to get him into capable hands on the surface, then go back down and finish my deco. I'm not faulting the diver in question in any way (I wasn't there, don't know the details), but your odds of surviving an incident like this goes down dramatically if you get blown to the surface without an open airway. If you ascend with them and try to manage the airway they will have a better chance, and if you got bent as a result you can likely fix it. You can't fix a dead buddy. Would I do it for an insta-buddy? Maybe not. Would I do it for a good friend when the alternative is telling his wife and kids that he isn't coming home? Absolutely.

Please ...going back after to finish the deco.
First 140~150ft you don't know how many minutes they spent 15'-20' o 30'.
So you can suppose a tot time of deco if you are diving with EAN 26 total time 20'
you are going to have a Tank of 100% O
you need to do some deco
60ft =1'
50ft =1'
40ft=2'
30ft=3'
20ft=8'
Skip the deco.....now go back(you can use the calculator if you need it) and let me know how many minutes and gas you need it for your deco.
If the boat need to leave?? DO you have enought gas for the deco???And if the bend already started and you are going to have problems???
C'mon don't let me laught....all' around the world they use to go back underwater only if you are in a REMOTE location where the closed chamber is miles miles away from the site.
So is better go to the surface have the bend and go in the chamber...
If your buddy is unresponsive, no breathing....what are you going to do????
You are not there.

 

[battles2a5]

Please ...going back after to finish the deco.
First 140~150ft you don't know how many minutes they spent 15'-20' o 30'.
So you can suppose a tot time of deco if you are diving with EAN 26 total time 20'
you are going to have a Tank of 100% O
you need to do some deco
60ft =1'
50ft =1'
40ft=2'
30ft=3'
20ft=8'
Skip the deco.....now go back(you can use the calculator if you need it) and let me know how many minutes and gas you need it for your deco.
If the boat need to leave?? DO you have enought gas for the deco???And if the bend already started and you are going to have problems???
C'mon don't let me laught....all' around the world they use to go back underwater only if you are in a REMOTE location where the closed chamber is miles miles away from the site.
So is better go to the surface have the bend and go in the chamber...
If your buddy is unresponsive, no breathing....what are you going to do????
You are not there.

First of all, I said I wasn't blaming the diver and that I didn't know the detail. If they had been down for 120 minutes on CCR and it happened at the start of the ascent, it would be a different story.

Second of all, deco is an extremely subjective thing. If you plan a 25 minute air dive to 130ft on Navy tables, you get 14 mins deco. If you plan the exact same dive in VPM-B at +3, you get 48 minutes of deco. So if I decide to ascend at 30 minutes, am I blowing off 15 minutes of deco or am I being conservative and adding 15 minutes as a safety margin? Which is it?

Third of all, your points about gas planning and getting my calculator are ludicrous. If I didn't address those points before jumping in the water, I have no business doing technical dives. That's technical diving 101. And btw, most of the major agencies teach procedures for ommitted decompression in their entry level classes. "In water recompression" is legal taboo, nobody is going to openly recommend it because if you jump in the water when you are bent like a pretzel and lose consciousness and drown, no agency want to get sued. If you skip deco to deal with a problem or help a buddy to the surface and are asymptomatic, then it is perfectly acceptable to go back, pad your schedule, and finish your deco.

This is like everything else in technical diving. It comes down to risk tolerance and risk mitigation. If you plan your dive conservatively (profile, deco, and gas) then you should be able to avoid a lot of problems. But if problems arise you have a lot more options to manage the situation.

 

[always learning]

My prayers go out to the family.