Need Advice for Film, Please...

[Indiana12]

Okay, so you want a dive accident.... a couple of possibilities... easiest to make happen would be for the villain to open up an air gauge and set the needle to look like it reads 1000 psi when empty. Next they bleed off air in the tank so that looks like it is a full tank. When your heroine is mid dive her tank runs dry and she has to do a free ascent. Modern regulators perform really well right up to the end.

Another convenient accident would to saw partway through her airline and use a rubber hose guard to hide the cut. In reality this doesn’t work well because you can’t control whe the hose will fail, but it will look dramatic.

Another cinematic trope to kill divers is to mess with their gas mix. Pure oxygen will cause seizures at depth as shallow as 30’. A person could damage the exhaust of a gas powered compressor and contaminate it with carbon monoxide. A diver using Nitrox (a common term for mixed gas) normally would check the O2 concentration before use.

Regulators can be tampered with, but it would be hard to not notice right from the start and smacks of bad 1980s Charlie’s Angels episodes. The TV show full of dive accidents was Sea Hunt.

Haha! Yes, that ep of Charlie's Angels is what I'd like to avoid ; ) Thank you for your ideas!!

 

[Indiana12]

How about having the octo “free flow”? This would be a dramatic rapid outpouring of air bubbles, draining the tank in a few minutes. It would look great in the film. The question is how would the bad guy tamper with it so that the free flow only happened mid- dive. Perhaps a small amount of weak acid dripped into the octo just before dive? The acid would slowly eat through the diaphragm and spring mechanism.The trip to the surface would wash out the evidence and an investigation would show badly worn/ corroded parts.

Not that you have done this, but pet peeve: non-divers often refer to “oxygen” tanks. It’s really compressed air tanks. Only in very specific circumstances do we breath pure oxygen. Sometimes we dive enriched air. But it’s best to call them “air” tanks.

I found a few things online about "free flow" so that's definitely an interesting possibility-- it sounded like it could be pretty dramatic, too...Thanks for the idea!!

 

[Indiana12]

Back home again in Indiana....
And it seems that I can see
The gleaming candlelight still shinning bright
Through the sycamores for me

I always liked the song-- especially when Jim Nabors use to sing it at the Indy 500

A Hoosier from the corn fields of Indiana writing a book about some thing she has absolutely no knowledge ?
Interesting ! I have written a number of articles - had four dedicated columns in national dive magazines and the first diving news paper column- even so I always well versed but verified my facts prior to publication

I wish you well and success in this and all your future writings

There are numerous ways to have a diving accident - many have been previously described.

One that was common in the very early days of recreational diving that just might be adapted to a modern accident was
the introduction of carbon monoxide into the SCUBA tank...Diver just goes to sleep

I also live in CenCal...if you would like to discuss this and other methods in detail PM me'

Sam Miller, 111

Hi, Sam-- actually, I'm from Ohio (Indiana is for my favorite onscreen hero of all time-- Indiana Jones!)-- but, I grew up very close to Indiana the state and visited many times! Great place...

 

[Indiana12]

The problem with sabotaging the regulators is that you most likely will discover this on the surface before the dive.

I believe you should sabotage the tank valve so it closes at half the normal tank pressure.
In the old days before a pressure gauge was standard you would have a reserve valve which you would have to open when the pressure dropped down to 50 bar (sorry, I use metric).
I had a friend where it didn't open, because the valve hadn't been serviced for years.
So you can adjust the spring to close before and then remove the option to release it
So when you reach the pressure the valve starts to close and then you have very few breath of air left before you are out.

Thanks so much!! I'm getting a lot of great ideas-- really appreciate it!!

 

[Seaweed Doc]

Should I be concerned that this many people intimately know how hard it is to cut a hose and can quickly come up with alternative means of doing in a diver?

Now I get why so many on this board fear the insta-buddy.....

 

[Indiana12]

Should I be concerned that this many people intimately know how hard it is to cut a hose and can quickly come up with alternative means of doing in a diver?

Now I get why so many on this board fear the insta-buddy.....

LOL!!! Researching it online, they made it sound nearly impossible-- looks like I came to the right place!

 

[Seaweed Doc]

Seriously, pass the scene by some knowledgeable divers after you write it and get some feedback then.

 

[CuzzA]

I'll add my opinion and an option not mentioned which has led to deaths...

Loosening a regulator hose is iffy in terms of being practical. I'm sure it has happened, but as soon as a diver turns their gas on, the o ring would likely extrude and there would be an unmistakable release of gas. For a script for the masses, it would probably work, and of course you could build suspense as that hose continues to unscrew during the dive. Think tight close up shots.

I like the pressure gauge tampering as that is practical and has also led to real life incidents. Not necessarily the tampering, but an SPG can fail indicating to a diver they have more gas than they do, which would lead to an out of gas emergency.

Cutting the hose would work, but obviously doesn't play well for a suspicious plot. Rather I'd view that as an outright attack.

Another option that hasn't been mentioned would be to have the villain cut off the simple cable tie that holds the regulator mouthpiece to the reg.

Here's an example and an article about a woman dying from that type of incident. Of course the simple solution is to switch to your octo. But if you panic, all bets are off.

So far I think tampering with the SPG is your best bet in terms of practicality, but loosening a regulator hose would play better for an audience. That hose coming off or cut would be dramatic, as you've already seen.


Mouthpiece of drowned S'pore diver was missing

 

[CT-Rich]

Entanglements would work well, ghost nets are areal hazard on ship wrecks. And something as simply hooking a line can be a real problem, especially whe the diver tries initially to turn around to find the problem only to get further entangled. This would probably be a great plot devise because it is much more visual than a tampered gauge. Out of air situations would be pretty dull to watch. Check out the movie The Deep from the 1970s. It might give you some ideas

 

[diversteve]

My friend can tell you about the drama of his 2nd stage coming loose at 60' after diving for about 20 minutes. After the hose pulled out of his reg, it flailed around behind him the entire time emptying his tank rapidly.

SPG's are sealed so tampering with one would have to be done when the gear was not in her control - like overnight. I'd notice if mine was not moving during the dive - generally you watch things your life depends on.

The monoxide idea - might make her very sick but I didn't think the idea was to kill her.