Fatal accident in Fontanazzi Cave and protests towards IANTD

[Alexandros]

In his latest video, Krzysztof Starnawski, tries to raise awareness about the fatal accident in Fontanazzi Cave in Italy, back in January 2017. This was previously posted here in scubaboard: Cave fatality - Solagna, Italy

Starnawski links to this website https://iantdaccident.com which refers to the accident as well as to a quite serious disturbance within the IANTD organization. Looking at the attachments it seems there has been both internal and public protest between IANTD headquarters and IANTD instructors and divers. The main argument is that during the accident there was a violation of IANTD standards and that involved instructor's qualification should be revoked. The letters are signed by renown cave divers, instructors and instructors trainers of IANTD.

 

[Jayfarmlaw]

What does "stacked" mean? The victim had become completely "stacked" presumably reaching for a tank that had dropped into the crack.

Thanks,
Jay

 

[rsingler]

What does "stacked" mean? The victim had become completely "stacked" presumably reaching for a tank that had dropped into the crack.

Thanks,
Jay

I'm presuming that was a poor translation from the Polish for "stuck".

 

[falcon125]

The video makes it look more like a crawl than a dive.

 

[kafkaland]

Reading this I notice that it's the sixth dive of a full cave course, and there is no prior lower cave cert listed for the victim. His highest level was Advanced Nitrox (but no DP). And he was doing this dive with four tanks, the two sidemount tanks plus stage and O2 deco tank. They were planning stage drop and retrieval drills, lost line, OOG, traverse and circuit navigation for the dive. Isn't that a bit much for just the sixth dive of such a course?

 

[sigxbill]

His highest level was Advanced Nitrox (but no DP).

If his Adv EANx was iantd, that is equivalent to the combo of an/dp in another agency ...

 

[JohnnyC]

Aside from the stage thing being kinda weird, if one takes the zero-to-hero path of cave instruction, chances are you won't be issued a cavern and intro card unless you want them and pay the instructor to print the cards. You would have done all of those dives as well as the skills, so no need to spend the money getting the physical cards unless you really want them.

As for the skills involved, I'm pretty sure I did all of those during almost every dive, except for the circuit and traverse, which may or may not be accomplished, but must be attempted during training (not every training cave has a traverse or circuit available).

Cave courses throw a lot of stuff at you, by design. It's entirely reasonable to assume a lost line, OOG, complex navigation, etc. will all occur during the more advanced dives of the course.

 

[Dirty-Dog]

Reading this I notice that it's the sixth dive of a full cave course, and there is no prior lower cave cert listed for the victim. His highest level was Advanced Nitrox (but no DP).

From the IANTD site for the Advanced Nitrox course:

What do you need to enroll in this program?

• Open Circuit
  • Must be a qualified IANTD Deep Diver or equivalent.
  • Must be a qualified IANTD EANx Diver or equivalent.
  • Must be a minimum of 15 years old.
  • Proof of a minimum of 30 logged dives or sufficient experience to satisfy the instructor that the student has the ability and knowledge to continue into this level of training.

As you can see, if you're IANTD AN certified, then DP is automatic.