Fatality on Rosalie Moller wreck

[BlueTrin]

I had a situation once where we could not find the anchor line to ascend, due to poor visibility. There was also high current and we did not want to do a drift safety stop. We ended up using a line from the wreck to control the ascent and safety stop, in the current. You have to double the line in order to recover it on the surface.

Please could you explain the exact way to do this and be able to recover it at the surface ?

 

[beester]

A good example (because i've seen it many times) is divers used to my former local environment: typical shore dives in tidal water (slack tide, current, low vis, cold... but always following the bottom, because there is no visibility). Thinking you are amazing because you are diving (granted) in harsh conditions...

Then transitioning on a tropical liveaboard holiday to "gun ho", because you are this amazing diver... no? Diving too deep because the water is warm and visibility amazing and getting into trouble or not being able to make blue water ascends (because you are not used to it diving from shores)... etc

Seen it happen quite a few times ;-)

 

[johndiver999]

Mmm this is of course totally of topic, but while I agree in general it's not always as black and white. I grew up in cold water, bad vis, big current diving environments, but it can lead to bravado and an over estimation of ones skill. Next there is always something to learn and every environment has it's particularities and dangers (also tropical water). Once you've dived in enough different environments you start realizing this.

Yes I agree, that is why I said what is really relevant is what type of recent experience the diver has had in similar conditions. I don't necessarily assume that a very accomplished quarry diver is going be comfortable diving with tropical sharks and stinging gorgonians while wearing a speedo.

 

[EdC]

Please could you explain the exact way to do this and be able to recover it at the surface ?

Assuming you have sufficient line you loop the line through your anchor point on the wreck and ascend with the free end as well as the reel. When you get to the point of recovery you drop the free end and reel the line back in, hopefully without snagging anything on its round trip.

 

[CT-Rich]

I was thinking about this incident earlier and I will float it here and see what people think.
This woman had a couple of possible issues running after her lost weight. She could have simply run out of are on her bounce dive and drown. An AL 80 isn’t going far at 55 m.

Another possibility that crossed my mind was oxygen toxicity. She had EAN 28 and to reach her weight pouch she would need to go a good 10 meters beyond the recommended depth for that gas mix (I may be a little off on that). She was also doing it at the end of the dive when her PPO was highest. Is it possible that she had a seizure and drown instead of running out of gas? She may have thought she had plenty of air and simply not realized she was exceeding the safe limit of her gas mix.

 

[Edward3c]

Assuming you have sufficient line you loop the line through your anchor point on the wreck and ascend with the free end as well as the reel. When you get to the point of recovery you drop the free end and reel the line back in, hopefully without snagging anything on its round trip.

This is what I did in post 103.

 

[Tippytoes12]

Liveaboards are pretty intense, we didn’t know where she flew in from. From Europe it would be a 5 or so hours flight then sleeping on a boat with an instacell mate and then straight into intense diving can be quite tiring. Sixty is considered young now and it is, but people think they can do anything. Instabuddies can be fine, but we have seen people be very unlucky with them. Guides on Egypt LOBs are so strict on negative entries and sticking to your buddy. So she dived with 10 kgs and she lost her computer. All of these factors may have contributed to a
disastrous decision to dive down to try to catch the weight pocket. Unfortunately this was at the end of the dive. The Swiss cheese effect !

We saw a similar thing happen on a LOB a few years ago, the diver was overweight, sharing a cabin with an insta cell mate who snored, a smoker, liked a drink in the evening, buddied with the guide, in rental equipment that didn’t fit, went to over 60mts, on Nitros, after getting disorientated. His rented thick wetsuit had a hood so he couldn’t hear the tankbangers go crazy. He was very very lucky that it was at the beginning of the dive and that the guide swam down to get him.

Paying attention to all the little things is so important.

 

[KenGordon]

Another possibility that crossed my mind was oxygen toxicity. She had EAN 28 and to reach her weight pouch she would need to go a good 10 meters beyond the recommended depth for that gas mix (I may be a little off on that). She was also doing it at the end of the dive when her PPO was highest. Is it possible that she had a seizure and drown instead of running out of gas? She may have thought she had plenty of air and simply not realized she was exceeding the safe limit of her gas mix.

At 55m her ppO2 would be 1.8. That is only a bit excessive. Looking at the ppO2 graphs of people who die on CCR they are typically literally off the scale for many minutes before they fit. I think there was an example of some cave diver who started a dive on 100% and it took 30 minutes before he died.

The give away, in my opinion, is an empty cylinder. This is also a simple solution to the question. The bigger question is why she thought going after the weight was a good plan.

 

[Centrals]

The bigger question is why she thought going after the weight was a good plan.

Panic probably unfortunately the person who could answer it is no longer around.

 

[KenGordon]

Panic probably unfortunately the person who could answer it is no longer around.

Let us assume that for a minute. Why would she panic?

What about dropping the weight was worrying to her? Getting told off on the boat? A rapid ascent? Missing stops? Discovering she didn’t need it after all? Or was she overwhelmed already?