Diver Fatality off Ponce Inlet, Fl

[cdolphin]

What law was broken?

I don't think anything has been offered yet. If the latest link is true, it is a bit strange that it took the buddies two hours to go back in the water and attempt to retrieve the body, and then were unable to without the help of the 'research vessel'.

I wonder why the authorities had not arrived yet if it took that long for the buddies to go back in the water? Did they not contact the authorities immediately? Or were the response teams otherwise engaged? Or too far away?

 

[tcpip95]

murder. homicide. who knows? But there IS a criminal investigation.

 

[cdolphin]

_______________________________________

http://www.news-journalonline.com/n.../diver-found-dead-off-flagler-identified.html
Diver found dead off Flagler identified
Staff Report
July 31, 2010 12:05 AM



A scuba diver who died 40 miles off the coast of Flagler County this week was a Kissimmee man, officials from the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office said Friday.

Richard J. Larson, 48, and three friends dove to the ocean floor Wednesday but as the others ascended, they realized Larson wasn't with them, according to the U.S. Coast Guard in Jacksonville. Their tanks were almost empty and by the time they made it back to the bottom, about two hours later, their friend was dead.

The friends tried in vain to pull Larson aboard their boat, Coast Guard Petty Officer Michael Hulme said. An off-duty "research vessel"t certain> was able to hoist him aboard and took him to the Port of Jacksonville.

The Jacksonville Sheriff's Office is investigating Larson's death, although foul play is not suspected, a spokesman said.

No other details were available Friday.

 

[Scott L]

murder. homicide. who knows? But there IS a criminal investigation.

My guess is the deceased family requested that the incident be investigated. That's a long, long way from a criminal investigation IMO. Team diving will certainly gain favor if I am wrong..

 

[Scott L]

I don't think anything has been offered yet. If the latest link is true, it is a bit strange that it took the buddies two hours to go back in the water and attempt to retrieve the body, and then were unable to without the help of the 'research vessel'.

I wonder why the authorities had not arrived yet if it took that long for the buddies to go back in the water? Did they not contact the authorities immediately? Or were the response teams otherwise engaged? Or too far away?

Good points. My guess is the distance from shore was exaggerated. Otherwise, there is no possible way they could have come into an inlet, refilled their tanks and returned in 2 hours covering 80 miles, etc. Perhaps they were met by other dive boats who transfered tanks. Lot's of questions...

 

[Mike Boswell]

I was curious how much air you would need to bounce to 115 ft, assuming no safety stop (assume you are and will remain below your NDL - perhaps not realistic, but let's assume).

I did a bounce dive to 115' about 6 weeks ago. It was my second dive of the day, on HP100 tank, and was after a 1:24 SI.

The swim down took one minute and about 109 psi, the return to 40 feet took one minute and another 108 psi, and then the slower ascent, shooting the SMB, and stop at 15, feet took about nine minutes and 1031 psi. 36.2 cubic feet of air total, but most of the air was used on ascent from 40' and the stop.

The long stop was called for by my Suunto Cobra and I ended the dive only after it cleared me to do so. Interestingly, no tissue compartment was more than 43% saturated, so I guess the computer was calling for the stop based on exceeding 100' and on the RGBM.

The other interesting thing is that I burned through the air at a steady rate of about 100 psi per minute, regardless of depth. I think what happened was that the cold water, plus the swim down and back up, got me breathing pretty hard, and kept me breathing hard for a while.

Descent 3191 - 3082
Ascent to 40' 3082 - 2974
Ascent to 15' and stop 2974 - 1943

 

[tonka97]

Notwithstanding, and maybe I don't understand the diving protocols of that area, but having only one tank per diver among them, and not a single spare? And maybe it was their second dive of the day, but still, no spare tank(s)?

I agree.

It would be absurd not to have an extra tank or two on the boat. I would have 2 or 3 extra tanks along with oxygen and an AED unit.

Poor planning in my opinion.

 

[scubadada]

Insufficient and/or inaccurate informaion from the media, incomplete eye witness informaition. A quick bounce to 115 feet to save a colleague would be a no brainer for me given even borderline gas requirements. Under most circumstances, this would remain a no deco dive or would incur a short deco obligation. At worst, would require O2 administation which would probably be given up to the affected diver. I would expect the same from my buddies

Respectfullly,

Craig

 

[madprops]

the news sh!t the bed again.
as for a bounce to get my buddy i would do it if i only had 200psi left
most of the people i dive with are good friends so i would be willing to put myself in that spot.
the way i see it would be from the surface it would take 0 psi to get down and ditch his lead and put some air in his bcd. that would send him up to my buddys. then put some air in my bcd and swim up by this point i would need some air so i would take some and keep swimming up and at the same time using my oral inflation on my bcd as i'm going up. when i start to float up i would just let it happen then stop at 20 feet and suck my tank dry.

but thats just what i would do. i'm a freediver and that would be well within what i can do. i know i may get bent but my main dive buddy would do the same for me!

 

[riftvalley84]

the news sh!t the bed again.
as for a bounce to get my buddy i would do it if i only had 200psi left
most of the people i dive with are good friends so i would be willing to put myself in that spot.
the way i see it would be from the surface it would take 0 psi to get down and ditch his lead and put some air in his bcd. that would send him up to my buddys. then put some air in my bcd and swim up by this point i would need some air so i would take some and keep swimming up and at the same time using my oral inflation on my bcd as i'm going up. when i start to float up i would just let it happen then stop at 20 feet and suck my tank dry.

but thats just what i would do. i'm a freediver and that would be well within what i can do. i know i may get bent but my main dive buddy would do the same for me!

Also, wouldn't the unresponsive diver more likely than not have air in his tank that could be used by the buddy or buddies doing the rescue? I realize you couldn't know that before you went down, but if you were going to try & bring him up anyway, wouldn't it be a good idea to check? Or in most cases, would that be a complete waste of valuable time?