Diver incident near Plymouth, UK

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http://www.mcga.gov.uk/c4mca/mcga-d...lease.htm?mcga_news_id=2910&month=5&year=2005

Brixham Coastguard is currently co-ordinating a search and rescue for a missing diver, who had been exploring the wreck ‘James Egan Lane’ in Whitsand Bay.

The alarm was raised at 2:24 p.m. by the skipper of the dive boat ‘Furious’ on VHF radio. The two divers on board had surfaced but found their surface marker buoys were tangled and went back down to detangle them. On resurfacing it was apparent that they were in difficulty and they were thrown ropes, one of the divers managed to hold onto the rope but unfortunately the other did not and disappeared underneath the boat.

Brixham Coastguard, says:

“We currently have a major search underway with many assets involved:

- Plymouth and Tamar Coastguard rescue teams
- Rescue helicopter scrambled from RNAS Culdrose
- Plymouth all weather and inshore RNLI lifeboats
- Ministry of Defence RIB
- Tregonhawke RNLI Beach Rescue
- Local dive boats
- Devon and Cornwall Police/Ambulance

We believe that the divers ran out of air on resurfacing the second time. The skipper of the dive boat contacted us on VHF as soon as he realised he was unable to locate the missing diver.

The retrieved diver is being treated for shock at Derriford Hospital. The search is ongoing.”

Thats the official report although unofficially i know that surface search is being scaled down and operations moving to body search and recovery on the sea bed.

Having organised a trip and dove that wreck last month it makes it seem more real.

Looking at the nearest buoy to the site the weather isnt great, wave height about 5.5ft, water temperature about 52f(11c) and wind of around 16kts.

 

[lord1234]

Seems the search has now been called off...my thoughts and prayers are with the family.

 

[String]

Yes - im the one that told you that on irc

 

[PRL]

Don't know about them. But a couple of years ago at the end of a dive my buddys fin went overboard. Stupid me, I went after it (solo). I didn't find it and due to very low air went back for the surface. At 56 ft ran out of air (like I said stupid me) It's amaizing how calm I was and my training (finaly) just took over. CESA to the surface. On the surface I had my hand on weight release while trying to manualy inflate my bc (if I had to do it again I probably would just dump the weight) My buddy spoted me rt away and figured out something was wrong (I couldn't get a word out of me) Buddy throws me a rope and pulls me to the boat. I never realized how tireing something like this is, I was so spent, I couldn't get into the boat. On the boat I got down on my left side and just relaxed. Asked my buddy if he knows how to do a neurological exam and the answer was "no" so I just told him I'm fine but to keep an eye on me while I relax and rest, and if anything changes to call the CG on the radio and that the chanel is already set. I tried to evaluate my self the best I could (and kept up the evaluation the whole day and next morning) 30 minutes went by, I seemed fine so we went on our way and went home with out a fin and lessons learned.
Have I learned anything? Heck yeah. Will I ever break my own rules again? (and scuba worlds in general) Nope I will not do a stupid thing like that again.

It's just to easy for us to do stupid things like that and it's important for us to set rules of our limits (air included) and NEVER ever even bend them.
I know that many people will critisize me, but hey, to late. and it will never hapen to me or on my boat again.

BTW it took a long conversation with my wife for her to let me dive again.

 

[subaquaman]

do you know of any development in the search? there is no updates on the cg site.

my thoughts are also with his family.

 

[DeepDog]

That is such an unlikely occurance. Sorry to hear about this. I feel terrible for the poor survivor who has to live with this experience.

 

[String]

Nothing found in todays searches, official status is "presumed dead". Given the temperatures and times i cant see any other outcome.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/4569549.stm

Not convinced all the details are accurate in the report, it does sound a very odd freak accident from a rountine procedure but either way thats bad luck.

 

[NauticalbutNice]

Little bit about it in today's Scottish Daily Mirror:

A diver who ran out of air while exploring a Second World War wreck was feared drowned yesterday. The man, 48, was diving on the US ship James Egan Lane, in Whitsand Bay Cornwall, with a friend when they got into difficulties on Saturday. The crew on their dive boat tried to rescue them both but could only pull one aboard. He was taken to hospital. An air and sea search failed to find the other diver, of Cardiff.

As someone who was diving more northerly waters on Saturday - my thoughts and prayers are with their families.

Nauticalbutnice :fruit:

 

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An update taken from:

http://www.divernet.com/news/stories/240505layne.shtml

A diver is missing after sinking from view over the site of the James Eagan Layne wreck, in Cornwall's Whitsand Bay.

A diver is missing after sinking from view over the site of the James Eagan Layne wreck, in Cornwall's Whitsand Bay.

On Saturday last weekend the diver, reported to be a 48-year-old man from Cardiff, completed a dive on the 20m-deep WWII American Liberty ship, in a group diving from the Plymouth charter boat Furious.

Back aboard the dive boat, he and his buddy elected to dive again to recover their SMB reel, which remained on the wreck at a point 12m down.

The pair entered the water at the buoy, which had been deployed and was at the surface. A few minutes later they surfaced, in distress, some way apart. A Force 3-4 wind was blowing, with a moderate swell.

"One of the divers was tangled in line, and I elected to pick him up first," skipper Peter Hambly told Divernet. "That done, I headed for the other diver, who was about 50m away. He was low in the water and had removed his regulator, which made me think he could have run out of air."

Just as Furious pulled alongside, with those aboard ready to take hold of the diver, he sank beneath the boat and was not seen again.

The incident occurred at 2.20pm and, for the rest of the afternoon, airborne Navy divers and the RNLI searched fruitlessly. "Two dive boats in the area could have put divers in, but were not allowed to while the Navy helicopter was operating," said Hambly.

Worsening weather prevented searches on Sunday and Monday. Speaking to Divernet on Monday evening, Hambly said: "I am due to take a police dive unit out as soon as possible, hopefully tomorrow."

At the family's request, police are not releasing the name of the diver while he remains missing.

 

[UKdiver1982]

As an update, it appears as if the body has now been recovered.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cornwall/4588155.stm

Missing diver's body is recovered
A police underwater search team has recovered the body of a diver who vanished while exploring a shipwreck off the Cornish coast.
The 48-year-old man, from Cardiff, got into difficulties at the James Egan Layne wreck at Whitsand Bay on Saturday after he disappeared under his boat.

The body has been taken to Derriford Hospital. The coroner and the man's family have been informed.

The man was a member of a diving club visiting the area.

Surfaced in distress

Together with a friend, the man had dived down to free a tangled marker buoy but ran out of air.

Both surfaced in distress but the crew on their dive boat, the Furious, only managed to retrieve one man, who was treated at Derriford Hospital.

The alarm was raised and a search was launched involving two lifeboats, coastguards, police and the rescue helicopter from RNAS Culdrose near Helston, Cornwall.

However, emergency services called off the operation at 1700 BST, although dive boats continued to search the area.

The James Egan Layne, a US ship torpedoed on her maiden voyage in March 1945, is one of the most dived wrecks in British waters.

She lies on the seabed about 500m from Scylla, a retired Royal Navy warship, which last year became Europe's first artificial diving reef.