Wow. It is a remarkable story.
Before I say anything else I want to make the following disclaimer: I do not dive a rebreather, I am not a cave diver, and I am not professing expertise in technical diving.
I have read most of non-fiction books on diving in extreme conditions (Shadow Divers, Deep Descent, Dark Descent, The Last Dive, etc...).
This accident seems somewhat representative of how divers die in extreme diving. There was a variation from the plan of the dive (the body floated up) and things came unraveled from that point on. Narcosis and unforseen events can and do kill divers that do these dives. They know it when they get in the water.
Heck, I have personally seen things get hairy at 100 feet without an overhead environment.
At least Shirley did not die too, trying to go after Shaw. Shirley barely survived as it was.
The only thing that I can think of after watching the video is: I could see Dreyer's mask in the video. If Dreyer's body was free from the muck, why not grab his head, inflate Dreyer's drysuit or wing so that the rest of the body goes up, and then leave?
But that question is asked from the safety of dry land on the other side of the world over a year after the fact....
It is a tragedy, no doubt. The kind of thing my wife never needs to read if I am going to keep diving. Thank you for posting the link.
