Scuba diver dies after being found floating at Kurnell, NSW, Australia

[Diver0001]

Wed Skiles died in the same circumstances. He left his team. He didn't survive. Does anyone think he panicked?

Buddy separation is a common theme in many of these kinds of accidents.

Did Skiles panic? Nobody knows. Did Marcia panic? Nobody knows.... but what I'm pretty sure of is that every living person on Earth has a breaking point....

R..

 

[tracydr]

A rig is balanced when it meets the following conditions:

You can swim up your rig from depth with a full tank and no gas in the BC.
You can hold a stop at 15ft with 500psi with little to no gas in your BC
Rig can float without the diver in it.

I believe there is a very good chance that Quero hadn't had the time to be meticulous with these checks. She was still trying to figure out her undergarments, which means she was probably changing weight with each undergarment adjustment.
I also wonder if she had a small,tropical or travel type wing. A 17-18 lb wing,perhaps?

 

[Cave Diver]

I also wonder if she had a small,tropical or travel type wing. A 17-18 lb wing,perhaps?

To the best of my knowledge, she was using a smaller travel type wing.

 

[down4fun]

Nope, not too close to the diver. I admired her thru her posts but don't know her.

Those that are familiar with my postings know I'm cold-logic based, and have been chastised for the same in this forum.

I just don't buy the OOA-panic. In a 400-dive regular diver in a new drysuit, yes. In well-practiced diver, who trains in these drill at least weekly, for years, it doesn't add up.

When the excrement hits the rotating thingy, you do not rise to the occasion, you fall back on your lowest level of practice.

Quero was very well practiced.

Wed Skiles died in the same circumstances. He left his team. He didn't survive. Does anyone think he panicked?

Sent from my PC31600 using awfulcorrect.

I never said she panicked. What I said was despite the experience level, people make mistakes and at depth mistakes can kill. Wes made at least on mistake if not two or more. All I am saying is everyone is capable of making mistakes. And friends or family or online acquaintances want to believe that their friend was above making a mistake and that the cause must be medical.

 

[Cave Diver]

Quero was very well practiced.

Wed Skiles died in the same circumstances. He left his team. He didn't survive. Does anyone think he panicked?

Well practiced? Probably. Well practiced in this configuration? Probably not.

AFAIK the only circumstances they really shared was buddy separation. That happens to buddies every day without resulting in death. While the lack of a buddy may be a contributing factor, it's not the triggering event.

 

[Jax]

Very possible, that hypotheses, Cave Diver.

Sent from my PC31600 using awfulcorrect.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Any indication or possibility of a drysuit flood?

 

[Cave Diver]

Any indication or possibility of a drysuit flood?

To the best of my understanding, there was no indication of a flood.

 

[beaverdivers]

What was the size of her wing? How did she have her weights divided? Were they on a weight belt, weighted sta,dumpable pockets?

How much of her weight was able to be dumped? How much of her weight was not able to be dumped?

 

[Darnold9999]

So far the relevant facts seem to be tropical wing, 26lbs of weight, steel tank and buddy separation. It also seems that she was OOA when found.

Given these facts if the drysuit failed in any way (inflator failure, dump valve stuck open, seal tear, OOA) the only option would be to dump weights. Not enough lift to get to the surface without the lift in the drysuit. That did not happen for some reason. Either she could not for some external reason (weights on inside the BC for example) or she did not for some reason. Inexperience with the configuration not allowing her to find this solution in the time available.

Someone with minimal drysuit experience might not even recognize the problem as lift in a wetsuit is completely controlled by the BC and as an experienced diver you are never wearing enough weight to even come close to overpowering the BC. You can always swim your rig up in an OOA situation. Needing to use the secondary lift (the drysuit) would not be an instinctual solution, neither would dumping weights and if you are inexperienced it takes time to work through all the possible solutions. Time she might not have had if OOA.

One possibility, going unexpectedly OOA - guage at 10 Bar with no air left to inflate the suit - would give her a very short window to figure out a solution in an unfamiliar rig. Someone diving tropical for most of their dives will have dumping weight a long way down the chain of possible solutions. Simply swimming up would be first choice and would exhaust you very quickly. Possibly before you realized that it was not possible and you had to come up with another solution.

I doubt we will ever know more than this.

I do know that reading this and threads like it make me think about the what ifs and add to my list of things that can go wrong and what to do about them. Even if the speculation is completely wrong in the particular incident discussing the possibilities is still very useful and saves lives.