Just to make clear what I thought might have happened which should in no way be taken as expert in any way shape or form:
1. Husband surfaces, pops some air into his BC, transitions to snorkle, goes face down into the water and plugs for shore, now he can't hear or see his partner if she has problems. He should have waited for her and made sure she was ok before heading for shore.
2. Wife surfaces, pops air into BC, not adding enough, she lifts her arm to transition to snorkle and partially submerges face, inhaling water and maybe causing a larnygeal spasm, maybe not, but does cause choking.
3. Not being experienced, not being able to breath and every motion causing her face to submerge since there wasn't enough air in the BC she spirals into full blown panic thus:
Not dumping her weights
Not pumping up her BC
Not grabbing the reg or snorkle
Not able to signal partner since he is face down in the water heading for shore
4. The result is drowning, whether wet or dry.
Now, do I know for a fact that this happened? No. Neither does anyone else. But according to reports in the thread the sea was smooth with little or no swell or waves, her BC was inflated enough so that she could float, but not enough for much else. Her husband did not notice her problem (I would assume if he laid over on his back and swam that way to shore he would have seen her since the seas where flat calm.) Something caused her to not properly fill the BC and resulted in this tragic accident.
Just a possible series of events. Until we know more (if ever), we can only speculate on what happened between the time she surfaced and the time she was found. I hope the husband would not have left her had she been having problems and signalled to call the dive or if they had called the dive because she was out of air, but again until we know more anything said is speculation. Her BC may have been partially full because something happend on the way up to cause the drowning and the residual air in the BC just expanded enough to allow her to float, again we don't know.
Mike
