Female Diver Missing on The Yukon, San Diego

[tc]

The Yukon is on it's side in 100'. It has many holes cut in it for access and when the surge gets going if you get in front of one of those holes you can get pulled into the wreck or pushed out of it pretty hard. Think of being in front of a giant vacuum cleaner with the flow alternating every ten seconds.

It would be easy to get hit hard enough to produce an injury when there is a surge there.

 

[merxlin]

Just another theory - It was mentioned she was having trouble with her buoyancy but there was no findings that there was any problem with her gear. Could she have hit her head earlier in the dive, and it was severe enough to cause her to not be able to control her buoyancy, and then she became entangled once she dropped back down on to the wreck?

 

[Thiad]

That's an excellent point - I've dove it and was extremely wary about the cut-outs from previous experience and reminders. But that being the case, it must have been one heck of a surge situation. Very, very sad.

 

[InTheDrink]

Sounds like a stretch to me. Can they tell if someone died of a head injury rather than drowning? Or can they deduce that the head injury happened prior to death (swelling perhaps?). Was ultimate COD not given as drowning I.e. was there no fluid found in lungs?

 

[tech_diver]

"The Yukon is on it's side in 100'. It has many holes cut in it for access and when the surge gets going if you get in front of one of those holes you can get pulled into the wreck or pushed out of it pretty hard. Think of being in front of a giant vacuum cleaner with the flow alternating every ten seconds."

I don't know if this phenomenon was involved in this incident but I have personally seen some very bizarre and powerful currents blowing through the halls of shipwrecks. A liberty ship (I believe the Vancouver) sits a few miles off the beach of Texas in about 50-60 feet of water. The surge does create these suction/ blow effects but much freakier still is the effect of the longshore currents blowing through the openings (constant, not back and forth like surge). On one dive, I actually saw a standing funnel cloud of debris swirling over an open hatch on the deck. It looked like the whole ocean was draining through that hatch. I maintained my distance not wanting to be sucked into it wearing full wreck gear.

I don't know anything about the Yukon site. At 100', is it affected by surge and currents severe enough to injure a diver?




(I like to think that even when we don't have a lot of facts, these discussions (speculations) do have value to other divers.)

 

[diverrex]

Saturday we were doing a dive in an area of narrow passages in large rocks. At times the surge would move us back and forth about ten feet. I was taking photos but became aware that I had to pay attention that I wasn't so busy looking through the viewfinder that I let the surge bounce me head first into a rock. I could see surge causing serious head injury against a hard surface.

 

[Power Scuba]

One of the most common complaints from divers reading accident reports is that there is rarely any conclusive followup or answers as to exactly what happened. Thus, garnering true "lessons learned" can be problematic. The San Diego County Medical Examiners Office issued it's report on Staci today. It seems very thorough and I hope the family can gain some type of closure, as they were having a very hard time obtaining hard info on the circumstances surrounding Staci's death. (I was contacted by Staci's mom several times by phone after she saw a condolence post of mine on the web.)

This is a link to an unaltered copy of the Medical Examiner's report: Report

There is some good, solid info therein. I found this blurb particularly disturbing: Body later recovered at 106 feet of seawater (fsw); body, BCD, and tank negatively buoyant on bottom without weight belt. (Bolding added by myself for emphasis.)

Bill Powers

 

[koozemani]

Thanks for posting. Somehow hitting "like" doesn't seem appropriate.

 

[Power Scuba]

The Examiner's conclusion is that Staci possibly hit her head while being "tumbled" over the edge of the wreck in the violent surge... and was possibly knocked out. Her dive buddy also was tumbled and hit her head either on the wreck or Staci's tank, but, apparently wasn't knocked out (though she was separated from Staci).

The class DM then found Staci some time later with eyes open wide, unresponsive... and negatively buoyant. It was in that condition that he (the DM) over-inflated his own BC, while holding on to Staci, to try and get them both to the surface. The DM noted Staci made no attempt to help in this effort, suggesting she was likely dead or at least unconscious already. The DM lost his grip on Staci while attempting to vent his BC on the way up. He made an uncontrolled ascent to the surface and Staci sank downward.

The part of the report wherein it was stated her body at the bottom (with steel 85 tank & BC in-place)... without her weight belt... was negatively buoyant is a real eye-opener to me. Think how negative she must have been WITH her weight belt on.

Bill

 

[Hatul]

Yes thanks for posting. Questions: how did her weight belt come off? Sounds like it slid off without conscious effort.

Also I don't understand how she could be negatively buoyant without her weight belt? Unless she had some weights attached to her gear, which is not mentioned in the report. And if the divemaster reported inflating her BC why was she found with an empty BC, and then it held air as it was orally inflated?

That LP85 steel tank when empty I believe has neutral (0) buoyancy, so where is the negative buoyancy from?