Lake Attersee fatality - Austria

[DandyDon]

Tödlicher Tauchunfall im Attersee bei Steinbach am Attersee | laumat|at
Google translation...
Fatal diving accident in the Attersee near Steinbach am Attersee

STEINBACH AM ATTERSEE.

A fatal diving accident occurred on Saturday in the Attersee in Steinbach am Attersee. A large contingent of emergency services was alerted.

A large contingent of emergency services including divers was alerted in the early afternoon after a lifeless diver floating in the water and a missing diver were reported.
"A 42-year-old from Lower Austria undertook a dive on November 14, 2020 at 11:30 a.m. together with a 32-German citizen in Steinbach am Attersee at the so-called diving site Föttinger. A dive was planned with a maximum of three hours and a maximum depth of According to the current state of the investigation, the man may have had problems after a diving time of 48 minutes at a depth of 27 meters for as yet unknown cause. He initiated an emergency ascent, which the 42-year-old did not survive. Divers present took him on the water surface lifelessly floating and brought him to shore. The notified rescue workers could only determine the death of the diver, "reported the police in a press release that evening.
The diver was located by the emergency services, she slowly ascended independently and was obviously uninjured.

 

[michael-fisch]

Planned dive to a depth of 150M.
In American units thats 500' at a watertemp at depth of 39°F.

Initiating an emergency swimming ascent 48 minutes into the dive was the wrong thing to do.

Michael

 

[Miyaru]

Explains why the article says "missing diver", she was simply sticking to her deco scheme instead of becoming victim 2.

150m depth....surfacing after 48 minutes is not an option.

 

[CycleCat]

Article says they were at 27 meters (90 feet), not 150. That lake is at an elevation of about 5000 feet.

 

[Mod63]

Article says they were at 27 meters (90 feet), not 150. That lake is at an elevation of about 5000 feet.

probably already on their way up (no info if they ever reached 150m) and Attersee is at around 1600 feet elevation.

 

[Miyaru]

Article says they were at 27 meters (90 feet), not 150. That lake is at an elevation of about 5000 feet.

If you create a diveplan to 150 meters depth (where you return immediately), you can be back at 27m after 47 minutes runtime, which is what the article says. Total runtime could be around 165 minutes (depending on personal choices and chosen deco gasses, the elevation would add another half hour) and could be within the planned 180 minutes described in the article.

Surfacing from 27m with a deco obligation of 1 hour and 18 minutes is disastrous.

 

[BlueTrin]

If you create a diveplan to 150 meters depth (where you return immediately), you can be back at 27m after 47 minutes runtime, which is what the article says. Total runtime could be around 165 minutes (depending on personal choices and chosen deco gasses, the elevation would add another half hour) and could be within the planned 180 minutes described in the article.

Surfacing from 27m with a deco obligation of 1 hour and 18 minutes is disastrous.

Out of curiosity at how much deco obligation skipped you would have changed your wording from disastrous to something else ?

Obviously 1 hour skipped seems a massive amount, but I have no idea what would be considered something acceptable to skip in case of absolute emergency. (If there is such a thing)

 

[michael-fisch]

I assume that you could blow off your 3M, 6M and 9M stops and live to tell about it - If you are put in a chamber within 2hrs of ascending. It would still be a serious neurological hit, probably with long term damage including the loss of your sense of balance (you will never again pass the physical portion of a drunk driver roadside test).


Michael

 

[Miyaru]

Out of curiosity at how much deco obligation skipped you would have changed your wording from disastrous to something else ?

...like survivable?

Obviously 1 hour skipped seems a massive amount, but I have no idea what would be considered something acceptable to skip in case of absolute emergency. (If there is such a thing)

That's one the main considerations for technical (trimix) dives: accepting that some emergencies can have dire consequences. And in order to never have to answer that question, you have a contingency plan.


....in theory, I personally would accept 5% difference in surface GF. But that's a discussion for another forum section.

I assume that you could blow off your 3M, 6M and 9M stops and live to tell about it - If you are put in a chamber within 2hrs of ascending. It would still be a serious neurological hit, probably with long term damage including the loss of your sense of balance (you will never again pass the physical portion of a drunk driver roadside test).

 

[boulderjohn]

Out of curiosity at how much deco obligation skipped you would have changed your wording from disastrous to something else ?

Obviously 1 hour skipped seems a massive amount, but I have no idea what would be considered something acceptable to skip in case of absolute emergency. (If there is such a thing)

I am not sure I understand the question, and I will assume that Miyaru's calculations are accurate without running the numbers myself--they sound right. I am puzzled, though, by the announced run time of 3 hours, which would indicate the diver still owed more than 2 hours of decompression. That difference does not matter--in any case in that range, I would think it very likely that the diver would die shortly after reaching the surface, which is apparently what happened.

It is also possible that the diver's rapid ascent resulted in a CAGE (cerebral air gas embolism), which would also likely be fatal, but either one would be fatal.

Diving to that depth for that length of time at that temperature is not for everybody. I have to assume that the diver had the kind of skill, training, and experience needed for that kind of dive; doing otherwise would be so inconceivable that I could not imagine someone without those prerequisites would attempt it. All of the training required for that kind of diving is devoted to making sure that this sort of thing does not happen, so I have to further assume that something truly extraordinary happened before that ascent.