Pompano Beach Fatality Sunday April 16th

[rsingler]

He was using a rebreather...'nuff said.

Nice knee jerk reaction.
Knowing nothing about this incident yet, since it was apparently during descent I'll bet you the CCR was not the cause. My knee jerk reaction is no less valid than yours, at this stage. Why not wait for data before talking trash?
Unless you're a rebreather diver with valid speculation to offer, which is what we do on this forum until relevant info occasionally comes out.

 

[JonnieB]

Please. Can you not…?

Why...8 out of 10 diver deaths I read about the person was on CCR. It's a striking correlation, no?

 

[rsingler]

Why...8 out of 10 diver deaths I read about the person was on CCR. It's a striking correlation, no?

Uh, no. Correlation is not causation.
For example, ice cream sales and shark attacks correlate positively at a beach. As ice cream sales increase, there are more shark attacks. However, common sense tells us that ice cream sales do not cause shark attacks. Hence, it's a spurious correlation.

A growing number of technical divers use CCR because of the cost of Helium. Technical diving is inherently riskier, while CCR has gotten progressively safer in the past decade.

You may be right, but your assumption is flawed.

 

[doctormike]

Why...8 out of 10 diver deaths I read about the person was on CCR. It's a striking correlation, no?

10 out of 10 were scuba diving.

 

[Marie13]

I see many more reports of tropical vacation diver deaths than I see reports of CCR deaths.

 

[mderrick]

Quoting from ... Rebreather Training

"At Rebreather Forum 3 held in 2012, statistics were presented which suggest closed circuit rebreather diving is five to ten times higher risk than open circuit scuba. Some of the statistical increase may be due to rebreathers enabling divers to attempt extreme dive profiles which are themselves inherently higher risk than dive profiles attempted on open circuit. Many experts were of the opinion a lack of experience, along with inadequate and poor quality training, has been a widespread problem in the rebreather community.

Subsequently, The Rebreather Education & Safety Association (RESA) and the Rebreather Training Council (RTC) were formed. These organizations are not training agencies; they are consortiums of rebreather manufacturers, dive training agencies, and knowledgeable individuals who have established recommendations for a student to learn how to properly use their rebreather. RESA guidelines were published in 2018 to help address findings of inadequate training and rapid progression of training that are too often apparent in dive accidents. All major training agencies have updated their training standards and policies to align with the RESA guidelines. The Combined Rebreather Industry Standards Alignment Group (CRISAG) was formed in January 2019 to allow discussions between RESA and RTC delegates, with the aim of creating harmonized standards for the training of rebreather divers. CRISAG now works closely on the process of developing ISO Standards for rebreather diver training. While it might be too early to correlate the effect of these various efforts, data compiled by DAN and presented at RF4 held 2023 suggests there has been no statistically significant improvement in rebreather diving safety in the previous 10 years.

No rebreather is foolproof, and the fact remains that compared to open circuit there is a disproportionate number of rebreather fatalities, most of which have ultimately been attributed to diver error. "

 

[mderrick]

There is little justification for doubting the qualifications and experience of Mr Citelli, but humans do make mistakes and equipment does fail. If the earlier mention that he experienced an LOC during or shortly after descent is accurate then that is consistent with hypoxia due the loop PO2 not being maintained. Given the scant information available, there is also little justification for assuming an equipment failure or diver error.

 

[seanbarnes01]

Who the hell cares what he was diving. He was a great diver and better friend. Questioning his skill shows a lack of respect. I would like to rember him as the New York diver with great stories.

 

[Vicko]

Who the hell cares what he was diving. He was a great diver and better friend. Questioning his skill shows a lack of respect. I would like to rember him as the New York diver with great stories.

Mistakes and equipment failures happen to everyone no matter the skill level and pretending some people are to good to fail does a disservice to everyone else.
I hope we get some details so we can know if this was preventable.

 

[jeffsky29]

Many of the older (50-60+) diver deaths I read about are from heart attacks. Clearly scuba diving is causing heart attacks.

He was using a rebreather...'nuff said.