Japanese tourist killed by boat prop off of Phuket

[Mr.X]

New information:
5) the dive operator was one of our Japanese-run shops catering to Japanese tourists
6) the Japanese instructor has said that the student inflated her BCD and shot to the surface, colliding with the boat

More questions: Were the props still spinning in neutral, or in drive? Either or with divers in the vicinity I would have the engine off.

Additionally, I find propeller related injuries just gruesome. For the most part avoidable on the part of the boat operator with simple operating protocols like having the engine off, and being exceptionally conservative.

I say this because I've had my experience with boat props.

X

 

[Quero]

More questions: Were the props still spinning in neutral, or in drive? Either or with divers in the vicinity I would have the engine off.

Additionally, I find propeller related injuries just gruesome. For the most part avoidable on the part of the boat operator with simple operating protocols like having the engine off, and being exceptionally conservative.

I say this because I've had my experience with boat props.

X

The props were engaged and the boat was moving.

 

[Mr.X]

The props were engaged and the boat was moving.

Thank you Quero. I appreciate this and subsequent info.

Just awful and my deepest sympathies to the family /friends of this diver.


X

 

[DandyDon]

Live boat pickups by Cozumel Ops still concern me. I don't know of a hit from an Op boat there, at least not in the park, but near misses do happen. Even with designated pickups, the skippers are careful, but don't always kill the engines - and accidental bumps from neutral are possible with stumbling divers.

The props were engaged and the boat was moving.

So, was this a random boat or one with the class? It does sound like student error, but such is expected among OW students isn't it? I suppose that a boat drifting toward a shallow reef is an emergency situation, but wouldn't the training be in a shallow, sandy bottom area with the boat anchored and the key pulled from the ignition until all divers surfaced from the class?

 

[Quero]

So, was this a random boat or one with the class? It does sound like student error, but such is expected among OW students isn't it? I suppose that a boat drifting toward a shallow reef is an emergency situation, but wouldn't the training be in a shallow, sandy bottom area with the boat anchored and the key pulled from the ignition until all divers surfaced from the class?

No, it was not a random boat. It was the boat the girl was diving from. The boat was not adrift--it was positioning itself for pickups.

Boats here don't typically anchor. Most of our dives are drifts, and groups come up all along the reef, depending on their air consumption, so boats pick the divers up from wherever they surface. Dive leaders put up surface markers to show where we are planning to come up. The boats don't usually drive right up to us for pickups, but they do come close enough for a line to be tossed out so that divers can pull themselves towards the boat.

Generally, both students and fun divers are found on our boats. When we conduct OW training dives, we do start out in shallow areas, but once skills demonstrations are over, we take students on real dive tours, which are drift dives on the same reefs as the fun divers are diving on. According to what I've heard and read, the instructor still had the two students (the girl and her companion) at 12 meters (40 feet) and had not begun the ascent for the safety stop, which is when we deploy the marker. The girl apparently shot up from that depth, unfortunately at the exact time and place that the boat was passing overhead. If in fact the instructor had not yet deployed the marker in preparation for the safety stop, I don't see how the captain could have known that the girl was surfacing right there.

Please understand that information about this accident is still somewhat sketchy and sometimes contradictory. If additional details become available, I'll do my best to provide them.

 

[windapp]

Do you know which dive she was on (1-4) ? It sounds like an equipment knowledge/handling issue. I shot to the surface on my very first training dive (DSD) because I mixed up which button was which on my BCD as it was different from the one I had used in the pool. I wonder if the certification agencies should be taking notice here and revising the curiculum to address this.

 

[DandyDon]

The boat was not adrift--it was positioning itself for pickups.

The original story may have been incorrect when it said...

...one person close to the dive company said it appears the divers surfaced just as the boat was reversing away from a coral reef.

I just dislike a boat moving around where divers are down as I have seen more than one confuse the inflate/deflate button and other surfacings that surprised me. I'd rather use my inline whistle to call the boat from afar when ready.

 

[Quero]

I just dislike a boat moving around where divers are down as I have seen more than one confuse the inflate/deflate button and other surfacings that surprised me. I'd rather use my inline whistle to call the boat from afar when ready.

Don, this is in fact the usual way it works (though not with a whistle). And not that what I will describe is what happened in this case, but I am very familiar with the procedures here, and I'm not ready to place any blame on the boat captain at this time. So let me ask you--imagine a group of divers have surfaced under a marker and have signaled the boat from afar; how do they make it to the boat from there? Do they swim all that ways? What if the boat has in fact come from afar and is picking up these diverswho have surfaced under a marker near the reef, and further, that the captain is unaware that there are other divers below because there are no other markers visible? What if while doing this pickup a diver surfaces right under the boat as the boat is getting into position for the pickup?

Do you know which dive she was on (1-4) ? It sounds like an equipment knowledge/handling issue. I shot to the surface on my very first training dive (DSD) because I mixed up which button was which on my BCD as it was different from the one I had used in the pool. I wonder if the certification agencies should be taking notice here and revising the curiculum to address this.

She was on Dive 1. I don't think it's a curriculum problem. I drill, drill, drill my students (even the DSDs) on the boat/poolside until they can hit the correct button with their eyes closed. This is not to say, though, that the girl's instructor didn't do that as well and she still made a mistake.

 

[windapp]

I wonder if she had a different BCD from the one she used at the pool. Dive 1 can be very dangerous for students because they are still getting used to where everything is, and open water can be very different from the pool situation. I think this is one of the reasons why the the dive is not allowed to be deeper than 12M (40 ft). For the most part, if this happens the risks of lung over-expansion and decompression sickness are greatly reduced (although not eliminated) at this depth.

It really does sound like she pushed the wrong button. I don't recall button drills being part of the required curriculum in the course. In manufacturing, we follow ISO 9001 standards, "say what you do and do what you say". Just because you do it doesn't mean everybody else does.

I'm actually feeling a little emotional because somebody died doing something for which I had a near miss only months earlier. I feel like I should have discussed this more with somebody, although I realize that changes wouldn't happen nearly that quickly.

To everybody out there reading this. Please, don't let near misses just go unnoticed. At least post something here.

 

[Quero]

Assuming the student was in a PADI course, this is the performance requirement, as stated in the Instructor Manual for the very first confined water dive:

2. Inflate/deflate a BCD at the surface using the low pressure inflator.

In addition, descent and ascent skills are practiced over and over and over in confined water, so the position of the buttons should be familiar, if, as you point out, she was not wearing different gear in this open water dive than what she trained on in confined water. It's true that different brands of BCDs have slightly different button configurations on the inflator hoses.