Missing Diver incident

[SteveDiver]

Quote:
Originally Posted by cdiver2
What information are you privy to?, do you know the full facts of this case?, do you know this diver. There is NO excuse for a boat leaving a diver in the water EVER.

Super divers relay p**s me off



What facts do you need ? it's really simple the diver is STUPID! He lost contact with his buddy (if there was one) and/or the GROUP. There is NO excuse for the boat leaving the diver in the water just like there is no excuse for the Diver's stupidity.. You learn this in DIVING101- "Never loose contact if so, search ONE MINUTE then COME UP!" His skin cancer is a joke please! This guy is an idiot and trying to make a buck off of his stupidity..Yes, the boat should be accountable but so should the diver..

 

[Groundhog246]

What facts do you need ? it's really simple the diver is STUPID! He lost contact with his buddy (if there was one) and/or the GROUP. There is NO excuse for the boat leaving the diver in the water just like there is no excuse for the Diver's stupidity.. You learn this in DIVING101- "Never loose contact if so, search ONE MINUTE then COME UP!"

Turns out the DM screwed up the roll call and we left him back at the last site! Scary part is the DM slate had him out of the water at the last site and back in the water at the next site! Apparently he got separated from his 3some, the other 2 in the 3some assumed he had his own buddy so they did not notice him missing. He drifted for 4 hours and ended 3 miles away from the last site where a sailboat happened upon him and pulled him out. The Coast Guard was not too thrilled with the DM. At least the diver made it out alive. What a mess.

Just call me Stupid, as I've 'lost' my buddy a time or two in low viz, done a quick search and then ascended. Fortunately they've been shore dives, not very deep and no current or waves. But if you ascend in a current and come up down current of the boat? Maybe some waves big enough to make it hard to see a divers head. Your not scheduled to surfaceyet, so the dive boat isn't watching for SMB's, especially well away from the boat. No sun for your mirror, and maybe your noisemaker isn't loud enough to get their attention. Your buddies haven't also surfaced (threesome), so you try to swim to the boat.

You "might" be right, maybe he isn't bright enough to be diving, but I don't know the gent, so I'm not prepared to call him stupid. And for any dive boat to leave without all the divers on board, is irresponsible. Obviously the Coast Guard thought so when the suspended the captains license for 6 months (and he's ultimately responsible, that's why he's called "Captain"). I do think 4 million is a little bit steep.

 

[H2Andy]

From the Feb 2005 issue of Readers Digest page 120 in an article written by Chelsea J. Carter,"As he boarded the Sundiver at dawn on Sunday, April 25, 2004, wet gray fog blanketed the Southern California coast."

On page 122, same article,"In the heavy fog, even the rambunctious Scouts were subdued."

Just doesn't seem like strong sun was present on that day.

you can get sunburnt (i.e. get hit with lots of UV light) on cloudy or foggy
days. water vapor is not a good blocker of UV rays.

check out the last section (Prevention) on this article:

http://www.teclabsinc.com/symptoms_sunburn.html

 

[atlas750]

Dont they use the DAN recall system out there? I have been on several boats that use it and it seems to work great.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Dont they use the DAN recall system out there? I have been on several boats that use it and it seems to work great.

Recall has nothing to do with it. If the boat didn't know
he was missing, they couldn't sound recall.

The diver screwed up big time three times
(Signed up for a dive he wasn't qualified for.
Didn't ascend when he lost sight of the rig.
Didn't try to swim back to the boat.)

The DM screwed up big time twice
(checked the diver back on the boat at the first site.
Checked the diver off the boat at the second site.)

The captain screwed up big time.
(Trusted the DM, who didn't work for him.)

The captain has been punished by the suspension of his license.

The DM has not been punsished as near as I can tell. He should forfeit
his DM ticket (and by implication his instructor ticket) for a year.

The diver was punished by having to float for several hours.
He does NOT deserve to be rewarded even one dollar.

 

[cdiver2]

Quote:
Originally Posted by cdiver2
What information are you privy to?, do you know the full facts of this case?, do you know this diver. There is NO excuse for a boat leaving a diver in the water EVER.

Super divers relay p**s me off



What facts do you need ? it's really simple the diver is STUPID! He lost contact with his buddy (if there was one) and/or the GROUP. There is NO excuse for the boat leaving the diver in the water just like there is no excuse for the Diver's stupidity.. You learn this in DIVING101- "Never loose contact if so, search ONE MINUTE then COME UP!" His skin cancer is a joke please! This guy is an idiot and trying to make a buck off of his stupidity..Yes, the boat should be accountable but so should the diver..

the whole thread that you took my post from (I assume you can read).
1/ Someone in the thread stated that the board had not got the whole story hence the question "what information are you privy to"

2/ He like you states the diver is stupid, so I assume you also know Dan

3/ THERE IS NO EXCUSE to leave a diver in the water.

OK SD

 

[Groundhog246]

Recall has nothing to do with it. If the boat didn't know
he was missing, they couldn't sound recall.

The diver screwed up big time three times
(Signed up for a dive he wasn't qualified for.
Didn't ascend when he lost sight of the rig.
Didn't try to swim back to the boat.)

Man, you better study a bit. The Dan Recall system is a hang board with tags. Every diver takes a tag before entering the water and hangs it up again when back aboard. The boat does not leave until ALL the tags are back on the board. Adoption of the system has been much higher since this incident. I heard the CG is considering making it's use mandatory.

On your theory that the diver screwed up, he wasn't left at the rig. He was left behind on a moored dive and the boat moved to the rig for the second dive without him. I have not seen any documents to suggest he wasn't qualified or that he did not try and swim back to the boat. Where are you getting this info?

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

OK, now I know what you mean by the recall system. I've been on
boats that did a tag system, and I'm MUCH more comforatable with
a properly run roll call.

I think you have it backwards. Everything I've read said the
FIRST dive, where he was left, was on the rig.

 

[H2Andy]

I think you have it backwards. Everything I've read said the
FIRST dive, where he was left, was on the rig.

yeah, that's how i understood it: first dive at the rig, he gets separated
from his three buddies due to equalizing problems, comes up, tries to
get the boat's attention, fails, they take off, he's left behind.

see this story: http://www.cdnn.info/safety/s040428/s040428.html

chuck, i'm not sure i agree with you that the diver made a mistake
in not trying to swim back to the boat. swimming against any
kind of current for 400 feet would probably have exhausted him and he
would have made little headway anyway.

he should have had a safety sausage (apparently all he had was a whistle, which the boat couldn't hear).
the sausuage would have made it a lot easier for someone on the boat
looking in his direction to spot him.

still.... 400 feet away... hmmmm... he probalby still wouldn't have been
spotted.

he did continue to dive for about 15 minutes after having equalization
trouble and loosing track of his buddies. well... he should have followed
procedure for loss of buddy: search for one minute, then surface.

i bet you anything had he surfaced at that point, he would have been
close enough to be boat so that they could have heard his whistle.

he just waited too long (15 minutes) to get back to the surface.

 

[ironpaw2000]

he just waited too long (15 minutes) to get back to the surface.

If any of what I say has already been said I apologize. This has also been aired on The Deco Stop as well....

The point is that a majority of us are adults. It is our responsibility to play by the rules. The rules state that if you get lost or loose your buddy, 1 min later your heading for the surface and carrying out normal safety stops etc. It is up to you to ensure that your buddy is back on the boat at the end of the dive.

If you are having problems ( as has been reported) you are NOT obliged to try and work through it. You can thumb the dive and go back to the surface. Depending on the conditions and there is no reason why a group of three that has been reduced to two cannot then carry out their own dive.

The point is that at the end of the day we ALL have to be resposible for our actions whilst diving, because if you don't the situation may not be a lost and found diver, it could easily become a recovered body.

Graham Wardell, PADI SDI DM