FP triple fatality

[dmaziuk]

PS. According to the guy's bio he was working there since 2014. A pure conjecture is that his wife's ANMP 60m cert from last October was also obtained there.

 

[Wingy]

I've never dived Ahe - looking on YouTube there are three clips showing Ahes caverns - Purely guessing but Caverns seem to be more likely. The bottom of Tipuata Pass at Rangi is called "shark cave" but it's not a cave per se more overhangs.

 

[Dan]

This accident reminds me of this cave diving accident in Italy:

Three divers die in a cave accident, Punta Iacco, Palinuro Italy Aug. 2016

 

[Kevrumbo]

The only thing more I can find in Russian sources: Instagram post by Татьяна • Oct 26, 2016 at 8:44am UTC

I wonder if anyone has details on the dive site. I find it hard to believe they entered an actual underwater cave (by the definition we normally use) on a dive to 60 meters. That would be a very serious technical dive. I assume (hope???) it was a swim-through or arch that should have been easily entered and exited.

Just going to 60 meters, with or without an overhead environment, is a serious dive. If I am going that deep, I am going to be wearing full tech gear, breathing trimix, and carrying at least one decompression bottle. Is this dive done with single tank recreational gear? (Yes, I know that is done in places.)

PS. According to the guy's bio he was working there since 2014. A pure conjecture is that his wife's ANMP 60m cert from last October was also obtained there.

Well it's kind of moot now . . .but being certified to 60m, I hope they were at least diving doubles and had some cavern training.

They surely wouldn't do an overhead to 60m each on a Single Tank:

A 60 meter bounce dive on a single AL80/11litre per bar cylinder, you will need well over half a tank (130bar out of a full tank of 200bar) just to get both you & a buddy to the surface in an emergency air sharing contingency.

And that's assuming an "under control" absolute max emergency ascent rate of 18m/min, a "non-stressed but elevated" breathing rate of 2 bar/min per ATA for both divers, and also most likely performing a dive computer mandatory deco/"safety" stop of several minutes with whatever air remains (a very narrow & non-robust set of assumption parameters to meet for recovery from this contingency, given the single tank).

So after reserving 130bar for the contingency above, that leaves you 70bar of gas usable for the dive. Assume you use 20bar of this usable gas on the fast descent to level off at 60m (initial exertion entering the water, inflating the BCD for neutral buoyancy at depth etc) --so you actually have 50bar usable at 60m.

At 60m (7ATA), your gas consumption rate will increase sevenfold from 2bar/min to 14bar/minute, so with only 50bar usable from above, you've got a maximum of three minutes at this depth. In short conclusion, this bounce dive is "do-able" on a single AL80, provided you can handle the extreme narcosis. . .

BUT YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE ZERO ERROR MARGIN FOR ADDITIONAL PROBLEM SOLVING & RECOVERY TIME WITHIN THE ABOVE NARROW PARAMETERS, FOR EITHER YOURSELF OR YOUR DIVE BUDDY.

 

[dmaziuk]

Still a bit sketchy: the speculation attributed to "a local diver" is one of them must have panicked and they all ran OOG trying to get him/her out. If they had a direct path to the big blue air tank above, you'd think at least some would've made it up there.

 

[wgw04024]

Thoughts for everyone involved and affected.

A few things I'd love to know.
1. cert credentials of the divers involved.
2. What gas each had. (single, double, rb)
3. what the environment was exactly. (long cavern, cave, overhang of some sort).

Sad.

 

[Scott]

Appears one of the divers, from Instagram image, was PA60

From the ANMP site:

From Level 1 to Level 4, from PE12 to PE60 or from PA12 to PA60, the ANMP offers a wide range of patents and air qualifications to accompany divers to mastering the practice.

What is the definition of "autonomous palanqué"?

I can't really determine the difference between PE and PA on the diver levels. I hope PA60 doesn't certify to 60m on air.

********** More info
PADI / Anmp Matching Level Recognition Chart
LEVEL 3 "autonomous"
correspond to :
RESCUE
Qualification "night dive" checked in logbook
-> can take a course DIVEMASTER

So we have a Rescue diver going to 60m? Regardless if it was a 'cave', cavern or just an overhang.

 

[dmaziuk]

My reading of "autonomous" is "unsupervised". Russian chatter on her Instagram suggest it is 60m on air.

 

[boulderjohn]

I would love it if someone who knows about this would explain.

I found a site teaching ANMP that has 3 levels. You should are recommended to have completed 20 dives before going on to level 2, where you will be certified to dive to a depth of 20 meters/66 feet (without an instructor present) and 40 meters/130 feet) with an instructor present. After that, you can go on to level 3, and here is the description:

Level 3 : 4 days and 8 dives.

The top of the pyramid for scubadivers! You’ll repeat and refine the « level-2 » exercises at a depth of 40m.

The authorised maximum depth for « level 3 » divers is 60 meters, with or without an instructor.​

 

[SoFlaDiver954]

I would love it if someone who knows about this would explain.

I found a site teaching ANMP that has 3 levels. You should are recommended to have completed 20 dives before going on to level 2, where you will be certified to dive to a depth of 20 meters/66 feet (without an instructor present) and 40 meters/130 feet) with an instructor present. After that, you can go on to level 3, and here is the description:

Level 3 : 4 days and 8 dives.

The top of the pyramid for scubadivers! You’ll repeat and refine the « level-2 » exercises at a depth of 40m.

The authorised maximum depth for « level 3 » divers is 60 meters, with or without an instructor.​

Well that escalated quickly. Anyone know if there are any pre-reqs for any of these other than the training dives from the previous levels?