Officer died in Chesapeake Dive Team training

[Ayisha]

The video of the police chief briefing is embedded on that page, but it is also at:

Chesapeake Police Chief discusses diving death at press conference - YouTube

 

[thirdcoastdiver]

Equipment maker on officer's death | WAVY.com | Chesapeake, Va.
WAVY reports that the officer was wearing a drysuit. If this report is accurate, inflating the drysuit should have allowed for positive buoyancy even with 40 lbs. of weight.

 

[Ayisha]

The text of the above link in case it disappears:

Dive Co.: Equipment issues impossible

Zeagle Dive Systems speaks on officer's death

Updated: Friday, 17 Feb 2012, 7:43 PM EST
Published : Friday, 17 Feb 2012, 7:33 PM ESTCHESAPEAKE, Va. (WAVY) - A dive equipment manufacturer says it's impossible that their equipment caused a Chesapeake police officer's death.

Officer Timothy Schock died in Dec. during dive training.

This week, Chesapeake Police Chief Kelvin Wright said Schock's Zeagle Dive Systems Power Inflator and Rip Cord Release failed. Wright also said that after Schock's death 12 other divers' Rip Cord Releases failed during testing.

Both Zeagle Dive System's president and an engineer told WAVY.com that the Chesapeake Police Department has not contacted them and that they haven't seen the equipment Schock was diving with when he died.

The company said they learned there was an alleged problem with their equipment when Hampton Roads dive stores starting calling them about 10 On Your Side's report.

According to Zeagle Dive Systems' President Dennis Bulin, the importance of sending the equipment to a certified technician is stated right on the equipment itself.

"Your BCD, including the inflator, should be inspected and maintained by an authorized Zeagle dealer at least once a year and more often if you dive frequently," Bulin said.

Zeagle Engineer Jim Fox said Officer Schock should have aborted the dive the moment he realized his power inflator was broken.

"That was about one of five or six things that started this whole snowball," Fox said.

Once Officer Schock couldn't get to the surface, Zeagle's president said he should have dropped his weights.

Police said Schock couldn't.

"Sometimes people modify the rip cord system too. That's why the fact that 12 of them failed is very, very curious and bizarre because that just doesn't happen," Bulin said.

Bulin doesn't know if they were modified because he hasn't seen them.

"Once they have a real diving expert look at the equipment, all the equipment that was actually used and investigate the training procedures and everything that was done...You're going to find out what the real problem really was here," Bulin added.

10 On Your Side called every city in Hampton Roads to see if other police departments have their equipment serviced at a certified dealer. Hampton Police Department does, Norfolk Police Department does, Newport News Fire Department does and Virginia Beach Police Department does.

Spokespeople for each of those cities made it clear they didn't want their methods to be compared to Chesapeake's.

10 On Your Side is waiting to hear back from Portsmouth and Suffolk.

In a statement released to 10 On Your Side Friday, it was learned that Schock had on a dry suit.

Fox said that is significant

"All he needed to do instead of uselessly trying to get it into the BC [was] hit the inflator on his dry suit and the buoyancy would have been produced by the inflator on his dry suit," Fox explained.

An alternative Chesapeake police have not talked about yet.

 

[fisheater]

This incident just gets shadier and shadier.

It'd be comical, if it weren't already tragic.

 

[DandyDon]

The video of the police chief briefing is embedded on that page, but it is also at:

Chesapeake Police Chief discusses diving death at press conference - YouTube

I am not sure which button was missing. If the Deflate button fell off, it might have been that the bladder would not hold air - and if so, the dive should have been aborted before it began.

Sounds like it was the Deflate button, so he couldn't orally inflate - and the device got worse in the dive.

It was also mentioned that he was out of air, so couldn't inflate the dry suit either.

 

[Thalassamania]

That department had no business running a dive team. If I were in the Mayor's Office they'd be a serious stand-down of all but essential functions and an investigation of everything in that department, not just the dive team.

 

[Ayisha]

I'm sure that your OSHA is already in there and that police dept has already publicly admitted to numerous mistakes in their pre-dive and dive procedures, training procedures, and equipment maintenance. This will surely not go well for them. There sure was a cascade of events.

I suspect Zeagle is suggesting that the officer could have used his drysuit for buoyancy prior to going out of air. If his bladder was not holding air and he kept trying to fill it and it was escaping, he could certainly run out of air quickly, like the 17 minutes that it took. It doesn't explain why the rapid gas consumption was not noticed and the dive was not aborted much earlier. Or why the dive began at all.

It doesn't explain why he refused the alternate he was given.

It also doesn't explain why his buddy, who presumably should be well trained, did not try to release his weights or tow him face up by the tank or retrieve him when he sank.

It doesn't explain why the gear was in such disrepair and not maintained regularly and why the officers were so complacent to it as to dive with failing gear.

So many things went wrong here...

 

[Thalassamania]

I'm sure that your OSHA is already in there and that police dept has already publicly admitted to numerous mistakes in their pre-dive and dive procedures, training procedures, and equipment maintenance. This will surely not go well for them. There sure was a cascade of events.

OSHA has no jurisdiction.

I suspect Zeagle is suggesting that the officer could have used his drysuit for buoyancy prior to going out of air. If his bladder was not holding air and he kept trying to fill it and it was escaping, he could certainly run out of air quickly, like the 17 minutes that it took. It doesn't explain why the rapid gas consumption was not noticed and the dive was not aborted much earlier. Or why the dive began at all.

If he was OOA he could not have filled the suit. Was he OOA?

It doesn't explain why he refused the alternate he was given.

Poor training and panic would be a first guess,

It also doesn't explain why his buddy, who presumably should be well trained, did not try to release his weights or tow him face up by the tank or retrieve him when he sank.

Ditto.

It doesn't explain why the gear was in such disrepair and not maintained regularly and why the officers were so complacent to it as to dive with failing gear.

I suspect that full investigation of the department would find more than a few things that are out of whack.

So many things went wrong here...

Too many.

 

[DandyDon]

OSHA has no jurisdiction.

I wondered? It'll come totally under local and state oversite, won't it? Politics can come into play of course.

If he was OOA he could not have filled the suit. Was he OOA?

That was stated in the video by the police officer making the statement - who also got inflator and deflator confused.

I have to wonder what the team SOP was on gear mantenance?

 

[bankyf]

Why would OSHA not have jurisdiction? This was a training incident. If this were a Fire Department incident, OSHA would definitely have jurisdiction. Is their an exclusion for police departments?