NOAA's equipment specs after the Healy ice diving deaths

[mikerault]

And with essentially non-operable BCs (they used the single inflator hose on the rig for their suits) they doomed themselves since they couldn't put enough air in the drysuits (without it "burping" out the neck seals) to compensate for the 60 pounds of lead they were carrying at the advice of their dive leader...

 

[dave4868]

And with essentially non-operable BCs (they used the single inflator hose on the rig for their suits) they doomed themselves since they couldn't put enough air in the drysuits (without it "burping" out the neck seals) to compensate for the 60 pounds of lead they were carrying at the advice of their dive leader...

Dropping to those depths and unable to communicate effectively with their tenders must have been extremely stressful, likely causing them to panic and overlook the solutions that were still available.

Solutions included becoming horizontal and inflating the suit, switching the inflator hose from the suit to the bcd (assuming same fittings) and/or ditching weight.

Easy to say now, but I'm not sure I would have done any better under their circumstances.

I'd like to think my pre-dive planning would have been better, though.

Dave C

 

[CMAN]

If the "negative experience" you refer to is the body of the MK-20 cracking it is most likely caused by the "Tech" that over tighten the Yoke retainer pass the specs from Scubapro. They (Scubapro) have a recall on the MK-20 to change the yoke retainer so it can't bottom out against the body by over torque.

[/QUOTE] I have a feeling this is more of an equipment change. NOAA had a negative experience with ScubaPro products a while back and prob just wanted to get away from their gear and move to a different brand regulator.[/QUOTE]