Diver watched as friend became disoriented and descended to death on famous shipwreck

[OTF]

What is with people in this sport trying for Darwin awards.

When someone dies street racing motorcycles nobody bats an eye, but when anyone dies doing extreme-risk dives and ignoring accepted safety practices we all go "gee, how unexpected, that could happen to me, how can i learn from this and dive more safely?" even though most of our diving is more like riding a bicycle by comparison. This is a good thing, dive accidents SHOULD be a big deal that we endeavor to learn from and prevent completely. But the dive community's focus on discussing and publicizing accidents can obscure the fact that many of them are the result of flagrant disregard for safety standards.

 

[Cio]

“He won prizes for his university work studying air pollution, gained a PhD, and carried out research in Brazil.”

Here’s your climate scientists, entitled twits…..

Seriously though, what captain was OK with two dudes drinking beers unequipped and claiming, “we’re gonna go halfway and come up”

As much as I love personal responsibly, I have to wonder who figured these two would drink some beers and go halfway and turn around. Summit fever is not folklore.

 

[clownfishsydney]

Darwin Award winner! As others have said, to be 0.10 blood alcohol had to have had at least half a dozen beers in a short time. I was diving the wreck of the SS President Coolidge in Vanuatu in 2007 and there were a few divers who I saw drinking beers at lunch between two dives. The Coolidge runs from 18 metres to 70 metres, with a minimum depth of 30 metres. I could not believe that anyone could even consider diving after drinking, especially on a wreck that deep.

 

[L13]

Drunk diving. Good plan.

This should have been in the headline, not 2/3 of the way down the story.

 

[Dan]

Beside drinking & diving, the dive preparation & plan were disturbing, from reading the statement, below,

“He’d borrowed dive gear from Smyth for the day, and when they got in the water, they checked each other’s equipment for leaks, and then secured an extra dive tank at 5m if they ran short of air while returning to the surface.

Around 4pm, they began descending the anchor rope, and when they reached 50m, Smyth, who was wearing a dive computer, signalled to Pattinson to stop. Pattinson indicated he was okay, and agreed when Smyth motioned they should start ascending.

That was when the school of kingfish appeared, and the divers became momentarily distracted.

It was only when they’d passed that Smyth noticed Pattinson had carried on descending, and was now well below him.

He followed his friend, but knowing the regular air they were breathing would turn toxic below 60m, Smyth eventually had no option but to leave his friend, and kick for the boat as fast as he safely could.“

It sounds like, only Smyth was wearing a dive computer. He should have led the dive and descent first. He’d be more in control of the situation.

Since Pattinson was borrowing Smyth’s diving gears, he may not be wearing a dive computer and was not aware the depth he was in without a dive computer to alarm him at 60m. He seemed to be a less experienced diver of the two of them and he should stayed above Smyth and followed Smyth’s direction. At least Smyth would have stopped & blocked Pattinson from descending further if Smyth was below Pattinson.

 

[Knockneed Man]

I wonder if the five gold bars are still down there or whether in the original recoveries they “miscounted “ and some divers got a little bonus

 

[wgw04024]

It's win win. You get a few free bars AND leave behind a good story for infinity!

 

[NothingClever]

Enthusiasm exceeded experience and judgment.

 

[MidOH]

The only thing I can think of, is after the distraction. his mind switched to autopilot, completely forgetting that yhey were at the end of a dive. Since most dIves start on the bottom........


Otherwise, it's an insult to anyone that accidentally died, to call this an accident.

 

[clownfishsydney]

I wonder if the five gold bars are still down there or whether in the original recoveries they “miscounted “ and some divers got a little bonus

Very likely they were recovered in the original recovery. Same thing for the SS Satara off Seal Rocks, New South Wales, Australia. Divers did not recover all the bullion according to the records.