Rob Stewart Investigation

[KenGordon]

Is the conclusion that he got bent on the third dive, or is there some other likely cause?

is the argument about what happened or about how it came to happen?

I loose track, sorry,

 

[Rosborne]

I have just finished the book, and thought it did a pretty good job of distilling a fairly complex event with a lot of conflicting views into a reasonably concise account. Thank you Robert.

In case there is a second edition, the issues that I thought were not covered and made me question the ethics and competence of some of the dive professionals involved were:

Four (or even 5) days for a CCR class is cutting it fine, to put it mildly. Although it is possible to teach a pretty truncated course without breaking standards, most reputable instructors would view a week as a reasonable starting point for entry level CCR. Minimum numbers of minutes and dives are usually exceeded on a decent course, rather than being a bar to barely get over.

There has been a lot of discussion on the capacity that Sotis was acting in during the dive. Although he apparently was not acting as an instructor when Rob died, it is ethically very dubious to go on a dive and break a bunch of rules with one of your students. This has happened in a few incidents over the years and the view of "we are on a course now, so we will follow the rules", followed by "this is a dive outside the course, we can do what we like" destroys the credibility of any instructor who acts this way.

Like any complex event, it is disingenuous to point at a single factor and say "it was definitely that". In common with the analysis of any accident, a variety of Human Factors can be used to explain what happened. If anyone is not familiar with The Human Diver, I can recommend reading the book, taking a class or checking out the many free blogs.

Dear Lanny,

Thank you for a very considered response to the book. Of course there are things I would change in a second edition. A book is a somewhat frustrating medium to work in. It's written a year before it's published and nothing can be changed for months ahead of that date because it's already been to the printers. I was learning new information (and am still learning new information) as the book progressed. I think that's fairly common in that medium. That's a long way of saying that I would change some elements in a second edition. I will look at The Human Diver. I agree that it was no one factor that led to the accident but rather an unfortunate series of factors.

I will point out that Stewart and Cahill didn't just take one course in their rEVO rebreathers--they took three in total over a period of about a year. The final one was one dive short of being completed. They is evidence they used their gear in between courses, though other than their dive logs and what they show on their documentary, it's difficult to say how often they dived. I'm not a rebreather diver, but after taking one course for research purposes--which I really enjoyed--I did not return to rebreather diving. My conclusion is that either I went all in and immersed myself in the technology or left it alone and went back to closed circuit. I think it might be dangerous to be a "part time" rebreather diver.

Sotis has always maintained he was along as the safety diver on that film trip. Those are his points, not mine. I will also point out that the whole dive trip should never have happened according to safety regulations for working divers. There are both Canadian and (I believe) American regulations that carefully lay out the procedures for filming and diving. Stewart and Cahill were not following those rules. Sotis was not qualified to be a safety diver. I tried to arrange some underwater filming for one of my documentaries. I started to look at the cost involved when rules are followed. It was very expensive. I dropped the idea and found a way to do the filming in shallow water using snorkeling gear. But many people take the same view you do about the line between instructor and safety diver.

Thanks again for the constructive feedback. It's always appreciated.

 

[BlueTrin]

Read the book "The Third Dive", I do not dive CCR and I am not very experienced.

The book focuses alot on the incentives of the various people and the difficulties investigating the issue. It implies that with such a tightknit community it is possible that some actors tried to impede the investigation.

It portrays Sotis as the ideal scapegoat.

I can see why someone mentioned that it feels a bit like the series Bloodlines.

Like @Lanny said, I think as an instructor you have a special relationship if you dive with one of your students fairly soon after a class, probably more of an ethical issue than a legal one.

Thank you for the book, just to let you know the typo about the PO2 is still on the Kindle version: I understand that it is not easy to fix the print version, but would it be possible to fix the Kindle one as it is electronic?

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

@BlueTrin -- IMO your analysis misses the target, by a long shot. I will not explain, however.

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

For those with reliable hearsay and have read the book, is it accurate? If you don't have reliable hearsay (as I don't think the people there that day are going to chime in) or if you haven't read the book, but inferred from what others have stated, this request is not directed at you.

 

[BlueTrin]

@BlueTrin -- IMO your analysis misses the target, by a long shot. I will not explain, however.

Just from clarification, I am only restating what I read from this book.

I have no knowledge of facts of the accident itself and I am only repeating what I remember from this book: therefore it is not my analysis.

I found the book a bit entertaining to read but do not know if it is accurate (and will probably never know).

 

[yle]

I can see why someone mentioned that it feels a bit like the series Bloodlines.

I think you mean Bloodline, no "s"... assuming you're referring to the Netflix drama that's set in the Keys. Don't mean to nitpick, but figured it was worth mentioning in case anyone wanted to look it up.

 

[Dody]

Has the Stewart parents case against Sotis and Horizon Divers progressed?

 

[abnfrog]

Has the Stewart parents case against Sotis and Horizon Divers progressed?

still winding threw courts

 

[BlueTrin]

And do you think that every CCR student should ask any and all of these questions when signing up for a CCR course??
I know I never checked up on my CCR instructor for any possible financial or criminal activities, just wondering did you? And I don't mean to be smart with that question.

I googled the name of all my instructors after recreational, and asked for recommendations from previous instructors and people more experienced than myself.