Vessel Divers Searching Sunk Superyacht- Sicily
- Thread starter Cornellxc
- Start date
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Experienced cave divers have now taken over from the fire brigade and are working on the body recoveries.
It is still amazing to me that the first divers were going to 170' on single AL80 tanks. First off that is extremely "sporty"/imprudent and if they had been fortunate to find someone alive, I have no idea how they planned to get them to the surface. As other posters have noted, after even a few hours underwater any survivors would have had major decompression obligations
JustSurfaceInterval
Contributor
@JohnN
These are divers from an Italian Fire Brigade, not the occasional rcreation diver. You can be sure, that they knew what they were doing. As said before: deco stops would not have been a problem as support crew would have provided full tanks while divers in water to stay at 5 m.
These are divers from an Italian Fire Brigade, not the occasional rcreation diver. You can be sure, that they knew what they were doing. As said before: deco stops would not have been a problem as support crew would have provided full tanks while divers in water to stay at 5 m.
They did not expect that...
CaptainChris
Contributor
Waterspout
A waterspout is a column of rotating, cloud-filled wind. A waterspout descends from a cumulus cloud to an ocean or a lake.
I doubt very much this would have been seen at night. I have seen them form many times in the past and it usually is quite quickly and for a brief period of time. The most I ever saw at one time was 6 and often saw 2 or 3. Mainly when I was sailing in tropical waters albeit as a Captain on 100,000 ton oil tankers so no worries, but always kept an eye out and adjusted course if needed. If it barrelled straight towards this yacht there would be no indications until winds picked up and the sea state rapidly deteriorated. Too many unanswered questions at the moment to form any opinions ( which should be left to maritime experts in any case, such as classification society surveyors, marine incident investigators, etc. NOT these money grabbing lawyers who know jack **** but want to appoint blame for compensation to line their pockets. Insurance will of course investigate to wriggle out of it too. I don't know if standard procedures on these boats is to have a night watchman or officer of the watch posted or not ( unlike commercial shipping) and I doubt that "just because the weather forecast is bad" there would be any written procedures that all crew & passengers should be mustered on deck wearing lifejackets ( especially during hours of darkness)-hindsight is a wonderful thing and no incident should ever be judged or investigated in this way. The big question is what caused it to heel over so much in the first place. The fact that ports and hatches may have been open in my mind are secondary and contributing factors. (Think of the Britannic ). The majority of incidents are caused by human factors, whether it be errors of judgement, negligence, lack of maintenance and often design failures (which may be got away with until a critical issue arises). How much did that massive mast weigh? If it snapped and toppled it would immediately make the vessel unstable (lack of intact stability).
Were the waterspout forces too great for the mast to withstand? What were the design shear force calculations etc etc? Many many questions here. It's a very sad incident and my sympathies go out to all involved and to all who lost their loved ones. I do fear the local authorities and lawyers will try and hang the captain out to dry with criminal proceedings and jail. I hope he is well protected by support of some kind and in a "Just Culture" investigation. It's the only way to find out the causes and for experts to develop rules and regulations for construction & operational procedures to ensure this type of incident never happens again ( albeit if humans don't do anything stupid! ).
I know this is a diving forum but diving incidents should be investigated the same way in order to educate us all involved to be always focused on doing the right thing whist enjoying ourselves in the wonderful oceans we have, so we can go and do it again.
I am not at all sure that the Vigili del Fuoco divers knew what they were doing. The fact that they were using single-tank open-circuit rigs filled with air and no stages strongly indicates that they didn't know what they were doing and were just winging it without understanding the risks. Most public safety divers don't frequently train for dives to 50m or significant deco or penetration into overhead environments. While I admire their courage, they're lucky they didn't hurt themselves before letting the experts take over.
A TV news report in the UK said that divers were limited to 12 minutes on the bottom :-(
It's only 50m/165ft and that depth is typically an hour on the bottom with the right equipment and gas, for wreckreational divers anyway.
It's a body recovery now. Hopefully they've got the right people with the right skills in place now.
It's only 50m/165ft and that depth is typically an hour on the bottom with the right equipment and gas, for wreckreational divers anyway.
It's a body recovery now. Hopefully they've got the right people with the right skills in place now.
JustSurfaceInterval
Contributor
@Nick_Radov That's very patronising... What do you know about the training of Italian Fire Brigade?
Although you may personally not imagine diving 50 m with air, this was not unusual - to not say absolutely common - for a long time for trained divers (at least in Europe...). (I won't go into the details how deep and how long i use to dive when my hair was less grey... that would be showing off...)
Maybe @Angelo Farina can enlight us - if he is still around, long time no hear.
...
Although you may personally not imagine diving 50 m with air, this was not unusual - to not say absolutely common - for a long time for trained divers (at least in Europe...). (I won't go into the details how deep and how long i use to dive when my hair was less grey... that would be showing off...)
Maybe @Angelo Farina can enlight us - if he is still around, long time no hear.
...
You don't need deco gas... an additional 10 L or 12 L air tank at 5 m will be sufficient.
I was just about to mention him. (Yes, I hope he is still around.)
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