Divers drown in mining pond during search-and-rescue operation

[Kharon]

Tied together? I would never ever get in the water tied to someone else, let alone 5 someone elses. And with water pouring in from a storm. Nah, super bad idea.

I was thinking it had to be bad air till I saw they were tied together. Also, I don't think there is any current strong enough to rip the gear off a diver. I'd bet they were trying to shed the equipment when they should have first cut the rope joining them.

 

[Bierstadt]

I cannot imagine a current that would rip all the gear off a diver. I can understand a mask, maybe fins, but everything? Not saying it doesn't exist, just that I can't imagine it. Six divers. That's devastating.

 

[Basking Ridge Diver]

Tied together?

They were following protocol which may ultimately change based on this incident - or not.

6 FIRE RESCUE DIVERS KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY DURING WATER RESCUE

"The team had followed standard operating procedures in donning complete diving equipment and were tied to a single rope."

 

[Rollin Bonz]

Kisah Masyarakat

Nightmare fuel.
Completely different images than expected when the site is described as a "mining pond".

 

[rhwestfall]

anyone have anything other than FB links? Not something I do.....

 

[The Wolf]

Really? As a professional Australian bushfire fighter before I retired, we ALWAYS had the option to retreat or leave if we thought the conditions were dangerous. I do not know any organisation (apart from perhaps some parts of the military) that would look unfavourably on you for deciding it was too dangerous.

I am thankful you said what you said. I have to agree with you.

 

[The Wolf]

Just watched the video. My comments/observations:

1) Not enough light for the on site commander to make an assessment of the actual pond he was sending the divers into and not enough knowledge about the depth or the conditions under water

2) The 6 were tied together and were leading with a bouy. All had only life jackets on but no gloves and no individual headlamps or helmets on and none carried a knife to be able to cut themselves free once they started to get tangled in the rope

3) There was no small boat in the water directly behind them to come to their assistance in the event they got into trouble which they did. All efforts to pull them out were from shore and there did not appear to be a mechanical winch set up to be able to pull them out and it was all done manually by hand. Trying to pull 6 people tied together with extreme currents as per the video and what looked like a whirpool is not going to work in most cases. I wonder if they should have been tied to ropes individually. Just a personal observation.

One other comment I would like to make; 75% of malaysians are not natural swimmers or have sufficient training from youth to adulthood as swimmers. Their confidence in water is good as divers with BCD's and life jackets but not so much without life jackets in river waters or in difficult open sea conditions. This is an observation I have made having lived in Malaysia for close to 25 years and been involved in recovery of drowning victims in rivers and at seas as a volunteer diver.

I just wonder if the failure in this situation was not waiting till day light to conduct a body recovery mission and being able to see what the divers were getting into clearly and with sufficient assets in the water to conduct a body recovery mission. I know hindsight is always there in these situations and the question of what if they did this or did that...but I just feel this was a badly thought out operation sending 6 men to their death's unneccessarily.

Following SOP or not. In which case, the SOP was flawed in this instance.

Another instance of where SOP failed recently with the Malaysian Fire Department involved the drowning of 2 triathletes at a recent triathlon in Malaysia. The sea was choppy with a strong current. They gave the go ahead for the event to continue and 2 athletes drowned.

The Malaysia Fire Department have to really re-look their SOPs and their decision making because it is costing people their lives. And the knowledge and experiences of their on site commanders may not be up to the mark with regards to water operations and missions.

 

[Backslash 69]

I cannot imagine a current that would rip all the gear off a diver. I can understand a mask, maybe fins, but everything? Not saying it doesn't exist, just that I can't imagine it. Six divers. That's devastating.

You should not see it as a tide current you're used to deal with in open sea, but more as a delta P in semi closed system.

Water goes in the pond as rain, flood, river, whatever, and goes out by a mining system connected with somewhere else. Just like the whirl in a bathtub, the delta P could be strong enough to shake them and remove part of the equipment.

The delta P could be temporarily strong enough to keep the body of the fisherman and released it when the conditions change

I wasn't there though...

Sad story, RIP all of them

 

[EireDiver606]

Obviously the conditions were not know to them or they wouldn’t have done.

Sometimes the pressure of the public and ego get to the best of us.

Such a tragic event. My condolences to all.

 

[wgw04024]

I'm sorry, but who goes into that?