Missing diver - How long to wait before notifying authorities?

[gcbryan]

The standard rescue recommendation is to activate EMS and get at least one other to assist you prior to attempting a rescue.

I don't think you'll find many diving fatalities attributed to the failure of immediate rescue efforts by the deceased's dive buddy. Inhalation of water is called drowning.

That's my point. By the time you swim to shore, get out, walk to the car, and call 911 their air may have now run out or as you prefer...they now have drowned. If you don't find them right away but rather later as a body recovery (drowning) who knows if that would have happened if you found them earlier.

How many people have been rescued from underwater and lived by rescue personnel? Many responders aren't divers. How can they help do anything unless the lost diver actually does come up on their own?

I agree that most accidents aren't from someone becoming stuck underwater. Many are panic/drownings/health issues and 911 can help there. We were talking about someone not coming up. Either way the odds aren't good in that scenario anyway so I don't see that it is clear cut to always leave the water to call 911.

What if two buddies don't lose each other but one becomes entangled in a net or line or whatever. Is the correct response for the other diver to get out of the water, call 911 and wait until there is at least 2 divers to go back down and try to disentangle the original diver? He would most likely be dead by then.

 

[Troutmaster]

Inhalation of water is called drowning.

Actually it is only drowning if you die within 24 hours. If you survive it is called near drowning.

"When to call" is primairly dependant on the rescue resources. If I call 911 in the area I work the county can put divers in the water, but it usually takes at least an hour, and the county divers are under trained and under equipped. Most are just open water divers and they only train 10 days a year. If I am diving locally, if I don't get my buddy out of whatever jam he is in, he dies. So under that circumstance I am going to burn up all my gas trying to locate and rescue him myself.

If I am diving in an area where a call to 911 is going to get me some divers, I would make that call much sooner. And on the Great Lakes, I would call the coasties in a heartbeat for a lost diver, because he is either bobbing at the surface getting further away from the boat, or he is dead. If he is on the surface we need to find him before he becomes dead or the weather makes it imposible to find him.

I am a police officer and tech diver, but not a public safety diver.

 

[theduckguru]

That's my point. By the time you swim to shore, get out, walk to the car, and call 911 their air may have now run out or as you prefer...they now have drowned. If you don't find them right away but rather later as a body recovery (drowning) who knows if that would have happened if you found them earlier.

How many people have been rescued from underwater and lived by rescue personnel? Many responders aren't divers. How can they help do anything unless the lost diver actually does come up on their own?

I agree that most accidents aren't from someone becoming stuck underwater. Many are panic/drownings/health issues and 911 can help there. We were talking about someone not coming up. Either way the odds aren't good in that scenario anyway so I don't see that it is clear cut to always leave the water to call 911.

If you want to really perform an immediate rescue of your dive buddy, don't get separated from him.

 

[gcbryan]

If you want to really perform an immediate rescue of your dive buddy, don't get separated from him.

That's my plan but it's not the scenario offered. The answer to "How long to wait before notifying authorities" can't be "don't get separated"

 

[theduckguru]

DAN stats claim 40% of diving fatalities are associated with loss of buddy situations and 14% are associated with solo diving situations. Solo rescue of a buddy would fall into both risk groups IMO..

 

[vladimir]

I suspect that very few divers who would have drowned at depth are likely to be saved by the buddy they separated from. The searchers we're talking about are:

--unplanned solo divers,
--probably not highly trained,
--probably in low-visibility or otherwise challenging (for a search) conditions,
--probably with less gas on hand than a safe search would call for,
--possibly with a substantial nitrogen load, and
--undoubtedly in a stressed state.​

A strategy of summoning help immediately and not searching at all would probably save more lives than it would cost. To the extent that those factors militating against a search don't apply to you, I guess you can opt to search.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

If there is any hope of the EMS people in recovering an unconcious diver from the bottom, then I guess you call early.

I dive in the ocean and pretty much by the time you realize the diver is significantly over due, he is probably dead (or on the surface) and you almost assuredly don't really know where to begin the search on the bottom. So in these conditions, I would not call the USCG for probably 45 min to an hour after the diver is well past "late".

If the person is dead on the bottom or floating off on the surface, neither situation is truely an emergency. We loose divers all the time when drift diving in Palm Beach and they are usually found floatiing within an hour or so.

I've never had to call the USCG, but they have been looking for me several times... I've always been found by private boaters (sometimes after 2 hrs)... I now carry a marine radio in a pressure proof vessel.

 

[Cave Diver]

I dive in the ocean and pretty much by the time you realize the diver is significantly over due, he is probably dead (or on the surface)

Another good point. Separated and missing doesn't necessarily mean the second diver is still under water. They could have surfaced and been unable to return to shore/boat (for whatever reason) and remained unnoticed by their buddy.

 

[BladesRobinson]

My experience searching for missing divers has resulted in more saves on the surface than recoveries (or rescues) underwater. I speak with 27 years of experience working at a marine rescue station along the east coast of Florida.

To believe that a diver can locate an unconscious (lost) diver at depth and save that diver is the stuff that Hollywood dramas is made of. Granted, there may be a rare instance but from experience and history, the chances of locating and rescuing an unconscious, lost, non-breathing diver from depth is unlikely. It makes little difference in this scenario if the victim is located by his dive partner or a first responder. Dead is DEAD...

Because a majority of lost, separated divers end up with both divers on the surface, the sooner that authorities are notified, the sooner the rescue can take place. Because of currents, time = distance, and the longer the delay in notification the larger the area is that needs to be searched, and the greater the potential for a poor outcome.

ScubaBoard forum members may be surprised to learn that technology and the best assets of the Coast Guard and first responders does not guarantee a successful search / rescue. The ocean is HUGE and the head of a diver is quite small. I have been involved in several searches where victims have been in the water and have seen searching aircraft pass over their heads and they were not seen. Search boats have passed in close proximity too and the victims still were not seen. Sometimes the lost divers are seen and sometimes they aren't. The bottom line is if the search area is small, then a concentrated and focused search has a greater chance of being successful. This can only be done if the call for assistance is relayed early.

I would much rather receive a call and be canceled than to do a multi day search. Do the professional rescuers a favor and CALL EARLY! Do the lost diver and their friends and family a bigger favor ... CALL EARLY!

My two cents, and about all it's worth.

Blades Robinson

 

[OBXDIVEGUY]

I have been a searcher too. There is no worse feeling than calling off a search knowing you and your shipmates have done everything they can to the best of their abilities. In the back of your mind you always wonder, "did we just go right past them? If only we had more time."