Each time an incidednt is brought out to the poblic and anyone asks for information, they are immediately accused of bad mouthing the unit.
You will have noticed that I also ask for information in diver incidents (and not only RB or Inspiration but OC, too).
In fact I crave it. I have a fascination for things that can go wrong ever since I was almost killed on my OW course (dive four, absolute CF, 2nd stage mouthpiece blew off whilst my instructor's tank had been shut off by another instructor etc etc) and after a nasty experience on a Baltic wreck dive half-a-year later.
I believe this kind of info can prevent future accidents and fatalities, including, hopefully my own some day when all goes pear-shaped.
You will also notice that the info I'm asking for isn't forthcoming in most cases. The Haydon specifics you are referring to are unusual in that respect. I assume you knew Mr Haydon, but since we are using his tragic death to discuss the Inspiration, would you allow me to run through what I've read in the matter? Here goes ...
I only know some of the 'reported facts' as found on various boards. Lately Diver Mole has collected and collated them on his excellent website.
Now this is
what I have gathered from reading these accounts. Please correct me if I'm wrong in any of my assumptions:
(1) Paul wasn't trimix certified for the Inspiration, yet he was diving trimix as diluent on the fatal dive.
(2) He did his basic Inspiration training in March 1998. He died in May 1998.
(3) It was an advanced dive to a wreck lying at 75 metres + in British waters.
(4) He dived solo.
(5) He apparently did not do any checks at 6 metres upon descent (according to his computer).
(6) The Coroner's verdict was accidental death caused by hypoxia following leakage of the on-board O2.
(7) Paul apparently did not notice his ppO2 dropping and apparently took no remedial action (several options here).
So far what I've gathered from all the posts and e-mails.
Now, your (?) comments are also to be found on Diver Mole's home page, disputing point (6) quite successfully. Indeed Stephen seems to accept your conclusion (if indeed this is it) that Paul's Inspiration had cracked handsets which didn't tell him that his ppO2 was dropping.
This might be highly relevant to Inspiration divers today if it weren't for the fact that the Inspiration has undergone modifications for the better since 1998. The handsets, for example, were changed in 2000.
Perhaps even more relevant is that Inspiration diver training has taken great strides since 1998. Accident analysis forms part of the training nowadays, just like in cave diving. Perhaps the spiking that many Inspiration divers do at 6 metres upon descent would have indicated to Paul that something was amiss? [Point (5)]. We'll never know.
Certainly diving the Afric after only two months' experience on the unit is somewhat foolhardy. Today, an Inspiration diver diving to those depths would be expected to be Trimix Inspiraton trained with at least 50h (IANTD) or 75h on the unit before Trimix-training and after basic training.
Things might well have looked different in 1998, I honestly don't know, but the rapidness of this dive so close to acquisition of the unit doesn't look too clever an idea by the standards of 2003.
In fact, this is where the relevant OC comparisons aren't made. I've noticed some 5-6 deaths over the last six months, ranging from Egypt to Poland, on technical OC dives. These dives are difficult in themselves. But if a diver dies on an Apeks or on a Scubapro or a Poseidon, does that mean that these regs are dangerous?
Diving a rebreather merely adds to the task-loading. All the more reason to go shallow for the first 50-100 hours.
But my main gripe, like Diver Mole, is point (4). I don't condone solo diving, even on OC, and on a CCR it definitely ups the ante.
I don't condemn solo diving, I wouldn't want it outlawed or anything. For cave exploration or wreck penetration it has its merits. But again, it ups the ante. There'll be no-one else there to help you even in theory if things go wrong.
Remember the Biomarine and RB80 incidents I referred to in my previous post? Well,
the main difference between these non-fatal dives and Paul Haydon's fatal dive is that Paul dived SOLO!
That is the difference, not the make of rebreather!
Jason McH
would have been a civilian Biomarine fatality had he not had a superb technical dive team to get him up from 100 metres and then a superb team waiting on deck to give him first aid and call the emergency response team. The GUE chaps in Brazil
would have suffered much more severe injuries, maybe even death, had they not dived as part of a team, with support (of sorts) waiting on them.
Today, many, many advanced dives are carried out on the Inspiration
every day, all over the world. Yet, since Bobby Barratt (and possibly Thomas Rosenfeldt) there have been no further Inspiration fatalities. Four fatalities in 1998 have turned into two fatalities in 2002, when presumably sales are higher than ever.
My point remains, Lisa, that I genuinely do not believe the Inspiration to be any more (nor less) dangerous than any other rebreather out there. It is merely sold in much larger numbers and indeed, used for more advanced dives than many other pieces of kit.
Paul Haydon's death was tragic, but if knowledge of the details surrounding his death (solo dive to great depth with too few hours on the unit) can prevent further deaths on a rebreather, no matter what the make, then this thread has not been in vain.
