One dead and one Missing at Buford Springs (FL, USA)

[Norwegian Cave Diver]

Also they may have computers that don’t back light the display 100% of the time. They light up their computer only to find the are deeper than they expect. And a pressure gauge they can’t glance at and read it without shinning their light on it to display the LBS remaining.

 

[lukeb]

Plus when diving on air / nitrox at that depth narcosis is a significant factor. Maybe not when everything is going well. But if you run out of air, your emergency decision making is going to be severely impaired.

 

[boulderjohn]

There is, of course, no way to measure this, but this thread has to be close to a ScubaBoard record for the greatest amount of wild speculation generated by the least amount of facts.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

If his BCD was positively-bouyant, at the time he drowned, the BCD would only continue to become more bouyant as it continued towards the surface, and the air expands. Similarly, if the BCD was negatively-bouyant at the time, then the dead diver would sink, and then sink faster, as the air in their BCD compresses.

Exactly

 

[boulderjohn]

If his BCD was positively-bouyant, at the time he drowned, the BCD would only continue to become more bouyant as it continued towards the surface, and the air expands. Similarly, if the BCD was negatively-bouyant at the time, then the dead diver would sink, and then sink faster, as the air in their BCD compresses.

So if you are diving and feel that your BCD is a little too buoyant, what do you do? You exhale until you start to sink. It does not take much usually.

What happens when a diver dies while diving? There is a full exhalation that will likely reverse a typical upward movement.

 

[UCFKnightDiver]

While one diver was found at 137ft, this appears to be a large cavern, meaning the diver could have drowned at something like 70ft, but then sunk to 137ft.

The cavern drops more or less straight down to 70 feet and the slopes down at an angle. Had they drowned at 70ft, it is very unlikely the diver would have sunk to 137ft as he would need to be a quite a good bit further back in the cavern to hit that depth

 

[SlugLife]

There is, of course, no way to measure this, but this thread has to be close to a ScubaBoard record for the greatest amount of wild speculation generated by the least amount of facts.

Nonsense, hang out in Accidents and Incidents more, we love wildly speculating here!

So if you are diving and feel that your BCD is a little too buoyant, what do you do? You exhale until you start to sink. It does not take much usually.

What happens when a diver dies while diving? There is a full exhalation that will likely reverse a typical upward movement.

My explanation was simplified, and you're correct. The exhale/inhale buoyancy control has limits, which is where we might say he was more buoyant than an diver with an empty lung.

It's very plausible the last diver was doing an emergency-ascent at the time he drowned, during which your BCD might go from neutral-to-positive as you go up, or some divers may ditch-weights, or "elevator" their BCD.

edit: My comments about "wild" speculation were meant to be fun, and not taken too seriously. I usually speak in terms of probability or possibilities, and things which are suggested by evidence. We currently have (non-conclusive) evidence of (a) inadequate air-supply (b) risk-taking (c) an equipment problem (d) cave/cavern diving without adequate training and equipment.

 

[chillyinCanada]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Please read The Chairman's post and the links within it, before boldly offering up your opinion or speculation.

This is a learning and teaching area but it is also essential that we are kind, considerate and humble.

It is exceedingly rare to know exactly what happened to cause any accidents resulting in death.

This is not the place for blamestorming, neither victims nor bystanders.

Yes, we can speculate, as well as, offer up potential explanations along with recommendations for those divers reading here.

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[sourdough]

"Buddy diving is like solo-diving, but with a Buddy-hazard." It seems unlikely that both divers would have died, except for the actions or encouragements of one of the divers.

Given a bad buddy you may be better off alone? This line of reasoning is why I haven't gone diving with a friend that I know has the bare minimum standard agency training.

 

[wgw04024]

The kids did a fine job. The smoking comment was completely irrelevant and just seems odd. If they were in that frame of mind, it's probably why they were so observant of the divers the first time they came up frankly.

The dive computers will obviously tell almost the entire story here. The take away from all this, if you have to ask if you have enough gas, you don't.