Researcher dies after Andrea Doria dive

[bobby-in-mass]

FROM YAHOO 7/10/06
BOSTON - David Bright, a leading researcher into underwater exploration and shipwrecks, has died after diving to the site of the Andrea Doria off Nantucket, where he was working in preparation for the wreck's 50th anniversary. He was 49.
Bright, of Flemington, N.J., resurfaced from a dive late Saturday with decompression sickness and went into cardiac arrest, according to the Coast Guard. He was pronounced dead at Cape Cod Hospital a short time later.

Bright was a historian and an experienced technical diver who had explored the Titanic, Andrea Doria and other shipwrecks many times — 120 times for the Andrea Doria.

The Andrea Doria was headed from Genoa, Italy, to New York when it collided with the Swedish ship Stockholm on July 25, 1956, killing about 50 people. The Italian luxury liner lies at the bottom of the Atlantic in 200 feet of water.

Bright had an extensive collection of artifacts and established the Andrea Doria Museum Project, which lends artifacts to museums. He was the founder of the Andrea Doria Survivor Reunions Committee.

"His passion has been growing for a little over 30 years, all kinds of shipwrecks and getting to know them," Elaine Bright, his wife of 23 years, said Monday.

"It's very traumatizing to his entire family but we know that he's happy. It's a very sad thing, but water, scuba diving was what he wanted to do," she said.

Bright started the Nautical Research Group about four years ago after his retirement from Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, where he worked for 12 years as a research scientist, his wife said.

He also spent two years working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration on the exploration of the wreck of the Civil War ironclad USS Monitor.

Memorial services were planned in Flemington and in his hometown near Niagara Falls, N.Y. In addition to his wife, he is survived by his mother, two brothers and three children.

 

[Cave Diver]

Sad to hear, but this has got to be a misprint, at least the way its worded.

Bright was a historian and an experienced technical diver who had explored the Titanic, Andrea Doria and other shipwrecks many times — 120 times for the Andrea Doria.

 

[Gilldiver]

Sad to hear, but this has got to be a misprint, at least the way its worded.

I think he had been out with the Russians and the Mir subs.

Not all wreck diving is with scuba or rebreathers.

I never met him, but knew of him. He will be missed.

PeteJ

 

[Dave Sutton]

Dave was a well known player in the NJ diving community, a patron of my old dive shop, a frequent diver aboard the boat, and a fellow Member of The Explorers Club. He had dived in MIR to the Titanic along with a few other Explorers Club members including Fred McClaren, who is another friend. He was a careful and experienced diver. Gut-check is that he probably suffered a non diving-related medical condition (heart attack?) as this has historically been the most common cause of diving deaths among experineced divers in his age group here (think the "snow-shoveling heart attack" and then correlate it to the workload of doing a deep wreck dive in current). Typically in these accidents a cardiac event occurs, the diver goes for the surface knowing that he's in real trouble, and then DCS takes over. This is just a guess but we've seen it before. The Doria, by todays technical diving standards, is neither terribly deep nor terribly difficult. In the old days of diving air in double 72's or 80's it was "The Mount Everest of Wreck Diving" but with rebreathers and mixed gas it's now "just another wreck" (and a good one). Time will tell, but he was a good guy, a good diver, and not a cowboy.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

Condolances to family and friends.

His reputation is stellar and he will be sorely missed by both the diving and scientific communities.

Jeff

 

[Thalassamania]

Dave will be badly missed. Here's a bio.

 

[TSandM]

Thank you for the bio link. It sounds like we lost quite a guy.