Policewoman missing - Paris, France

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DandyDon

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Une policière disparaît dans la Seine à Paris lors d'un exercice

After google translate....
A policewoman disappears in the Seine in Paris during an exercise
A policewoman from the 27-year-old river brigade disappeared during an exercise late Friday morning in the Seine in Paris, at Notre-Dame, police said. Important research took place all day long. They were interrupted around 17:30 due to the dark and will resume Saturday at 8:30.

112 firefighters including 17 divers, 20 "operational gear on the water" (inflatable boats, barges, boats), two helicopters (one of the gendarmerie and one of the civil security) and four dog teams were mobilized to find the policewoman. A captive balloon equipped with a camera was also used.

"It was a planned exercise and framed," it was said on the side of the police headquarters. "Around 10:50 this morning, during a training of the divers of the river brigade, one of the personnel engaged surfaced and then suddenly disappeared in the Seine", explained at a press point Philippe Caron , director of technical services of the police prefecture. "The search was immediately initiated by the divers, by the crew, by the colleagues of the river brigade and very quickly by all means of the fire brigade of Paris," he continued.

"It was a joint exercise of the fluvial brigade and the fire brigade of Paris. It was a planned exercise and framed, "said the police headquarters.

 
"she had been qualified to dive for 3 weeks" wow! and diving in a river "that had burst it's banks" (if I'm understanding that correctly in the article. Just wow. I wouldn't of guessed you could go right from freshly certed diver to part of a rescue team.
 
With 40kg/88 pounds of equipment and a faulty BC, lifeline released, the diver who was sent down to help her had no air cylinder. I have to wonder if the supervisor was sober.
 
With 40kg/88 pounds of equipment and a faulty BC, lifeline released, the diver who was sent down to help her had no air cylinder. I have to wonder if the supervisor was sober.

depends if it was after lunch.
 
It the US there is an issue that major urban public safety teams only want cops or firemen to be part of the team (for a variety of good and not good reasons), and it turns out that not a lot of them are highly experienced divers. So they often end up recruiting non-divers who want to be on a special unit and then training them. Sometimes this works out fine. It depends on the team, team leader, willingness of the new team member to do more than the minimum, and the ability of the team to train.

Might be similar outside the US too.
 
From what I know she has been trained for over a year.
Some are accusing "cheap equipment", which is a rubbish idea. Faulty is a possibility, but not faulty because it's cheap.
Some say the instructors have diplomas that nobody else recognizes as "diving instructors", I don't know how true and relevant that is, the French system is quite stupid as soon as water is involved.
There seems indeed to have been a cover up, it's currently under investigation.

It's quite admitted from divers of any level that this dive was a moronic thing to do in the first place.

Google translate might make something out of these
Dans la Seine en crue, la jeune policière s'est noyée à cause de décisions ahurissantes
Policière disparue dans la Seine: des dysfonctionnements pointés du doigt

What I wrote above is basically what I've read on french boards and/or in those two articles, so the truck of salt is to be added.
 
It the US there is an issue that major urban public safety teams only want cops or firemen to be part of the team (for a variety of good and not good reasons), and it turns out that not a lot of them are highly experienced divers. So they often end up recruiting non-divers who want to be on a special unit and then training them. Sometimes this works out fine. It depends on the team, team leader, willingness of the new team member to do more than the minimum, and the ability of the team to train.

I think the main reason why PSD team use only public safety employees is for insurance/liability coverage. The other reason is that "organized" teams have operating guidelines in place with training standards and team member qualifications to guide them. Just as an example, I am the team leader of a joint (fire, police, EMS) public safety dive team. Our team follows the standards set forth by NFPA, National Fire Protection Association. These are the standards that if God forbid an accident occurs are referenced for the investigation. These are not laws, just standards and recommendations based on best practices from experts throughout the country. Our team also trains monthly and has an excellent success rate in locating victims and evidence when called to do so. Members of the participating departments see this and want to become divers. That's fine, but they have to follow the teams guidelines to become a primary diver on the team. If they have their OW certification they can attend training sessions to gain experience and are allowed to dive for training only with a primary diver. Probationary divers are not allowed to dive on call outs and can only become a primary diver once they get certified as a public safety diver by a nationally recognized training agency. At no time is any member of the team put in harms way during training sessions or call outs. Also, divers have the right to so yes or no when asked to dive. If the situation is beyond their comfort zone or training they can opt out without ridicule or retribution.
This incident was bad from the start. Diving in what sounds like an extremely fast current, especially for training; inexperience of the diver, not maintaining control of the tether line, and not having a properly equipped safety diver among other things lead to the fatality. The fact that the tether line was released by the tender is down right negligent. Tethered divers should have the ability to break free of the line in case of an entanglement/entrapment by utilizing a breakaway/snap shackle. This allows the line to be free of the diver so they can surface and be rescued. A trailing line behind the diver in a current will eventually get entangled and hold that diver down and no matter how much air they have it wont be enough.
Just my 2 cents.
 

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