Royal Marine was 'ill-equipped'

[BladesRobinson]

Dive death marine 'ill-equipped'


A Royal Marine who died on a dive at a fish farm was ill-equipped and not adequately supervised, according to a sheriff's determination.

Mxxxxx Bxxxxxxx, 26, of Aultbea, drowned while working at a fish pen in Loch Ewe, Wester Ross, in May 2002.

Sheriff Dxxxxxx Lxxxxx said Seahorse Aquaculture "ignored" regulations by allowing Mr Bxxxxxxx to carry out dives in exchange for a £300 dry suit.

The commando based in Arbroath was on sick leave after injuring a leg.

Marine Harvest, the company whose fish farm Seahorse Aquaculture had been contracted to work on, have also been criticised.

Sheriff Lxxxxx presided over a fatal accident inquiry held into Mr Bxxxxxxx's death last September.

He said that at the time of the accident Marine Harvest had failed to "police its health and safety procedures and practices adequately".

In his determination, the sheriff said that Mr Bxxxxxxx was swimming and had also taken up diving to maintain his fitness during his sick leave.

In exchange for a dry suit provided by Jxxxx Bxxx, an employee of Seahorse Aquaculture and the son of the firm's owner, Mr Bxxxxxxx agreed to carry out dives for the company.

On the day of the accident he was diving to remove dead fish from a pen.

An hour after entering the water, Mr Bxxx and another worker became concerned for Mr Bxxxxxxx's safety.

The marine was recovered with a rope entwined across his chest and oxygen cylinder.

His mouthpiece and mask were off his face.

Sheriff Lxxxxx said Mr Bxxxxxxx was not provided with a full face mask suitable for the type of diving he was undertaking, or with a life line.

There was no two-way communication with the surface vessel monitoring the dive and the dive team was "inadequate and under-equipped", said the sheriff in his determination.

This led to a "lack of supervision and the absence of a fully equipped standby diver prepared for emergencies", he said.

He concluded his determination: "Notwithstanding the considerable passage of time since Mxxxxx Bxxxxxx's death I offer my deepest sympathies to his family who attended the inquiry with great diligence and showed quiet dignity throughout."


A COMPLETE STORY IS ONLINE AT:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/highlands_and_islands/6286963.stm

 

[GulfDiver77]

This is a sad story. The family have my condolences

 

[String]

Grrr
"Oxygen cylinder"

And yes they broke HSE regulations so will be prosecuted by them from here to the next century.
No in-water rescue diver, no surface first aid trained support on scene, no personal log books, project plan and so on.
Going to be expensive.

 

[Mr.X]

Aside from the lack of safety and supervision...what were the proximate causes of this fatality? Oxygen poisoning, asphyxia or entanglement? Condolences.


X

 

[SteveAD]

And all for a <$600 drysuit?

 

[String]

That'll be a different inquiry.
From elsewhere:

The fiscal Roderick Urquhart said performance tests on the scuba gear were carried out and the regulator was found to be defective, corroded and not producing enough air.

That and entanglement so fairly sure cause of death would have been drowning.

Edit:-

http://www.fishupdate.com/news/fullstory.php/aid/5433/Inquiry_into__diver's__death___ends.html

The fiscal continued: "At an early stage in his dive he became entangled in a slack rope descending from the surface to the top of the 'dead sock' and was unable to extricate himself. He had no means of communication with those at the surface and was unable to seek assistance. Due to its poor condition and absence of maintenance, the regulator of his scuba rig could not suppy him with sufficient air to satisfy his high rate of breathing brought about by his struggles and the anxiety caused by his predicament and he either removed his mouthpiece or his mouthpiece became dislodged resulting in his death by drowning."

In evidence presented earlier it emerged that there had been only three men in the dive team on the day of the fatal accident, J**** B***, who was a qualified diver and is the son of Seahorse Aquaculture's owner C**** B***, D**** B***** acting as the tender, and M***** B******* who was an unqualified diver.

Edit 2:- Forgot to remove names to comply with silly policy here.

 

[String]

And all for a <$600 drysuit?

Not too bad.

£300 for what would have been a few hours work.