Diver Indicted in 2003 GBR mishap

[InTheDrink]

To clarify my position somewhat Mike - I'm not doubting that training is shoddy, particularly PADI. I don't think many divers rate PADI certification. I've just come back from a liveabord where there was a family of OW/AOW 'divers' all doing the underwater doggy paddle, hands held by the guides all the while, and the daughter no more than 12. We were lucky the currents were calm there but they're frequently not there and clearly it would have been a dangerous situation had the currents picked up. So their certification certainly meant next to nothing; they shouldn't have been in that environment, period. The liveabord shouldn't have allowed them onboard in the first place, but the greenback speaks loudest.

Still interested in why staying together while doing a free ascent is a worthwhile drill. I'm fairly new to diving, so always keen to learn the rationale behind these things.

 

[Ayisha]

LOL. It just gets better and better for a skeptic.

Well, what are the chances of someone being a widower twice by the time they are 31? It doesn't say how long ago his other (first or second?) wife died or how, but he's only 31 now.

Just wondering. I'm sure that would have been investigated already if there was anything suspicious.

JClynes, I think Mike Ferrera is just trying to say that most PADI divers, including instructors, are a mess. They often don't know what their buddy is doing or necessarily where their buddy is. They lack situational awareness. Their buoyancy and trim are less than immaculate. They may use their BC as an elevator and press the incorrect button compared to what they wanted. They don't stay close enough together to be watchful or useful to their buddy if needed. They can make descents or ascents, but they are often not CONTROLLED descents or ascents. They often cannot hold safety stops at a particular depth. They are not watchful of their depth or pressure or their buddies. Does that about cover it? Just paraphrasing from many many different threads. I guess it relates if there is a possibility that Gabe had no sense of his depth, time or what was happening with his buddy.

 

[livinoz]

There is no second wife. Tina Watson was a "former model".

 

[Ayisha]

Aah, that makes sense. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

 

[ragtopjen]

Now, granted I am an inexperienced diver, but in this case I don't know if the level of certification matters much. My dive buddy is my father, and as long as I have air left in my tank, if he was having trouble I would not leave him sinking toward the bottom. I would think that if someone you love is in trouble, and you do panic, instinct kicks in, but I would think that instinct would make you stay right with that person, sometimes even to your detriment. With the pictures that have been shown there were others divers in the water near to them, if your buddy was having trouble, wouldn't you do anything you could to attract their attention for help, rather than making, from all reports, was a leisurely ascent to the surface? This doesn't make him guilty, I suppose, just a colossal a**.

 

[Gussy]

Now, granted I am an inexperienced diver, but in this case I don't know if the level of certification matters much. My dive buddy is my father, and as long as I have air left in my tank, if he was having trouble I would not leave him sinking toward the bottom. I would think that if someone you love is in trouble, and you do panic, instinct kicks in, but I would think that instinct would make you stay right with that person, sometimes even to your detriment. With the pictures that have been shown there were others divers in the water near to them, if your buddy was having trouble, wouldn't you do anything you could to attract their attention for help, rather than making, from all reports, was a leisurely ascent to the surface? This doesn't make him guilty, I suppose, just a colossal a**.

Yup. It's kind of like if someone you care about falls in the water and can't swim. Your instinct would be to jump in a help them...whether you can swim or not. We've heard stories about lots of people jumping in even when they can't swim. This guy goes the other way...to get help. Sounds like trying to kill time.

 

[MikeFerrara]

Now, granted I am an inexperienced diver, but in this case I don't know if the level of certification matters much. My dive buddy is my father, and as long as I have air left in my tank, if he was having trouble I would not leave him sinking toward the bottom. I would think that if someone you love is in trouble, and you do panic, instinct kicks in, but I would think that instinct would make you stay right with that person, sometimes even to your detriment.

Didn't he say that he couldn't equalize? How far can you descend without equalizing? Have you ever surfaced an unresponsive or paniced diver?

When I was a DM candidate I was on a dive with an instructor and a diver on their first post-cert. The new diver sunk out of control and an instructor was unable to descend after her due to inability to equalize.

I went after her and got her to the surface but she was in full blown panic by then and the ascent was anything but controled or pretty and I don't know how long it took. Sometimes we were going up and sometimes we were going down. If all you had eas a snap shot in the middle you might not have been able to tell whether I was trying to save her or kill her.

 

[Geoff_H]

Didn't he say that he couldn't equalize? How far can you descend without equalizing? Have you ever surfaced an unresponsive or paniced diver?

Mike, I appreciate you hate PADI but you are taking this way too far.

Even if he couldn't equalise - which is possible but unlikely (what % of dives does this happen for for experienced divers on the 3rd dive of a day? 1%? I've only seen it half a dozen times with my buddies or groups in several hundred dives) - then why on earth would he take 150 seconds to ascend 44 feet with a dying wife on the bottom? Clearly he was not panicked or he would have shot to the surface with super fast breathing.

It would also have been trivial for him to inflate his wife's BCD and send her up.

Equally all rescue divers are taught how to bring an unresponsive diver up safely - I concur that not all certifed rescue divers are capable of doing so but I think most divers would be able to attract the attention of nearby divers and/or inflate the BCD at a minimum.

His actions (if they are as reported in this thread) are not consistent with a loving husband nor a panicked diver.

 

[Crimson Ghost]

Didn't he say that he couldn't equalize? How far can you descend without equalizing? Have you ever surfaced an unresponsive or paniced diver?

When I was a DM candidate I was on a dive with an instructor and a diver on their first post-cert. The new diver sunk out of control and an instructor was unable to descend after her due to inability to equalize.

I went after her and got her to the surface but she was in full blown panic by then and the ascent was anything but controled or pretty and I don't know how long it took. Sometimes we were going up and sometimes we were going down. If all you had eas a snap shot in the middle you might not have been able to tell whether I was trying to save her or kill her.

Hey Mike - I do not recall him saying anything about equalizing preventing im from reaching her (that's not to say that I didn;t miss it tho). I recall his statment being that the current pulled her too quickly and he was swimming as hard as he could but could not catch her so he decided to return to the surface for help.

I'll also agree that the life insurance is a small amount (but I doubt its small to everyone) -- and there have been recent "thrill kill" stories in the news, so I wouldn't doubt anything these days.

Did someone say there is a coverage on TV this evening ?

 

[Scared Silly]

I think it was on the Today show this morning:

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/25326275


I found this interesting: "Watson, now 31, is a cardboard salesman who lives now in Hoover, Ala., in the house he inherited from his wife, who was once a model."

I wonder if this gal's parents will eventually file a wrongful death suit against him.

Also this is of interest:

"There was testimony that before the couple were married, Watson had asked his fiancée to increase her life insurance. She did not comply with the request, but told him that she did. According to her father, who works in the insurance industry, Watson did file a claim after Tina’s death, but did not collect because he was not named as a beneficiary on the policy."