Fatality at Jersey Island

[victorzamora]

Taking apart a regulator, 1st, or 2nd stage, or both is a qualified and certified technician job, not to be carried out by the end-user.

I'm a qualified and certified technician AND an end-user of my regulators. Getting certified on a rebreather qualifies and certifies you to do the same.....disassemble, repair/refurb/clean/etc, and reassemble your own gear. It certifies you to do what you need to do to stay alive and then some.

If I go out and do what Dr Lecter's example provided.....is it not the same as mis-assembling your rebreather? I'm factory trained and certified. I didn't put my regs back together correctly, but HOW DARE they be designed in a way that I could screw it up???

The example is perfectly valid. Period. You're drawing imaginary distinctions because your logical position has no validity and hasn't from the start. Mfg's should do what they can to make it easier to assemble properly, but by no means should they be expected to make it impossible. The rebreather in question was "assembled" in a way that completely defied logic and even stretched the belief of people that own that unit. Proper training and care upon assembly should have been WAY more than enough to execute that dive safely, and it's been proven "safe" on tens of thousands of hours in the water. Period. This is not a killing machine, it's a person that killed themselves out of negligence.

DON'T TAKE APART 1ST AND/OR 2ND STAGES......Only factory approved technicians can do that safely.

So the dozens of regs I fixed and tuned before I was certified and "factory approved" are unsafe? How about the regs I've repaired/tuned/refurbed that I'm not certified for? This statement is just wrong. Before I took my reg repair class I knew more of regs and how to repair them than most current reg techs.

 

[gianaameri]

You're ing kidding me, right? Taking apart and cleaning out the 2nd stage by removing the purge cover and diaphram is not only something everyone should know how to do for purposes of cleaning, it's something many of us drill doing underwater while diving​. Stuff gets stuck in there, and knowing how to remove it and clear the lever/diaphragm to function again is an important skill for anyone carrying stage/deco/bailout bottles.

Not once I have been taught to do that by anyone as part of a diving course.

My first SCUBA course (1984) was at The American University in Washington, D.C., as part of my electives, and the dive center was the National Dive Center in D.C., and the Chief Instructor name was Ray, former U.S. Navy Seal and I was told Vietnam Veteran, and he surrounded himself with incredibly competent persons (former military and, if not, trained to HIS standards). Those were the days of NASDS.

I did my first "technician" course there which basically was simply to watch a 1st and 2nd stage being taken apart and serviced AND the technician at NDC as well as every instructor there emphasised the diver should NOT disassemble either the 1st or 2nd stage.

I have done several courses thereafter, in many countries, not a single instructor, and I had several, suggested the taking apart of a regulator as you suggest.

Respectfully, if you do get it dirty, it is because of the way you wear it on your tank or body, a technique problem.

Don't get it dirty, and no need to take it apart.

There is no reason for the deceased or anybody else to perform what is a technician job, especially while diving. Abort the dive and go home, and if you really are competent to fix something, do it in your garage (not underwater).

The deceased did not perform a technician job by assembling his rebreather. It is a standard end-user job taught as part of rebreather course.

 

[gobfish1]

Taking apart a regulator, 1st, or 2nd stage, or both is a qualified and certified technician job, not to be carried out by the end-user.

Assembling a rebreather, like the deceased and her buddies did, is precisely a job to be done by the user.

PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) like a rebreather is to be designed to protect the user (i.e. the deceased from assembly error, for example) and not the factory technician.

So, there is a subtle difference you might have missssssed in your analogy.

DON'T TAKE APART 1ST AND/OR 2ND STAGES OR REBREATHER LIFE SUPPORT ELECTRONICS OR ITS COMPONENT PARTS. Only factory approved technicians can do that safely.

lol . 45 quid and some on line learning ,

if you need a course , id say best let the dive shop clean and set it up , he will have payed his 45 quid and have the badge ,

 

[HIGHwing]

Subtle assembly problems exist in all forms of diving equipment. Imagine you rebulid your CE stamped regs and get interrupted while setting the IP. You jump on a 300ft dive with the IP at 90psi. Good luck with that...

 

[Dr. Lecter]

Not once I have been taught to do that by anyone as part of a diving course.

Respectfully, if you do get it dirty, it is because of the way you wear it on your tank or body, a technique problem.

Because we're now digressing into the minutia of whether an analogy is, in fact, analogous...I'll just leave this right here and call it good (and yes, each and every OC reg I own has one fitted, though they cost about half as much when I scooped up a bunch of em):
https://www.divegearexpress.com/regulators/atomicm1.shtml#4286

The idea that a tool-less disassembly of the 2nd stage purge cover, retaining materials, and diaphragm is a "technician's job" is laughable on its face. But if you're actually doing cave dives and consider ever needing to clear a second stage to be 100% avoidable by "technique"...yeah, can't help you.

 

[gianaameri]

The idea that a tool-less disassembly of the 2nd stage purge cover, retaining materials, and diaphragm is a "technician's job" is laughable on its face. But if you're actually doing cave dives and consider ever needing to clear a second stage to be 100% avoidable by "technique"...yeah, can't help you.

She did not have the time to get her second stage dirty even if she wanted to because she stopped moving 3 minutes into the dive.

 

[Dr. Lecter]

She did not have the time to get her second stage dirty even if she wanted to because she stopped moving 3 minutes into the dive.

/facepalm

 

[Omisson]

She did not have the time to get her second stage dirty even if she wanted to because she stopped moving 3 minutes into the dive.

She also did not have time to check her expired O2 sensors, check her canister cover parts, notice the grossly mis threaded counter lung and loop hoses, the backwards facing bailout valves, or the improperly seated regulator.... But hey, she was an open water instructor.... Right Gian?

 

[gianaameri]

She also did not have time to check her expired O2 sensors, check her canister cover parts, notice the grossly mis threaded counter lung and loop hoses, the backwards facing bailout valves, or the improperly seated regulator.... But hey, she was an open water instructor.... Right Gian?

...she was an Open Water instructor AND had completed an Hollis rebreather course.

PADI OW Instructor?

You r making up she misthreaded the threads... she correctly threaded the parts reversing the components this leading as the root cause to her death.

 

[descent]

She also did not have time to check her expired O2 sensors, check her canister cover parts, ...

I was under the impression that the scrubber cover was in place, and it was the cosmetic "bump cover" carrying the Prism logo that was snapped off and missing.

Have I been misreading the reports?