Scuba diver dies while exploring popular shipwreck, a third tragedy in the Florida Keys

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

Is there a recovery team that searches the ship?

There is no "formal" recovery team in the keys. I suspect the diver was either diving off of Horizon Divers boat or Horizon Divers was out there when someone realized the diver was overdue. Most often when Horizon Divers is on the SG there are tech divers / tech instructors in double tanks/rebreathers on their boat. My GUESS is that a team from the Horizon Divers boat was just coincidentally ready.

 

[kaylee_ann]

There is no "formal" recovery team in the keys. I suspect the diver was either diving off of Horizon Divers boat or Horizon Divers was out there when someone realized the diver was overdue. Most often when Horizon Divers is on the SG there are tech divers / tech instructors in double tanks/rebreathers on their boat. My GUESS is that a team from the Horizon Divers boat was just coincidentally ready.

I'm kind of surprised there isn't one. Florida and the Florida Keys seem to be a pretty popular spot for both recreational and technical divers.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

I'm kind of surprised there isn't one

There is one here in Cave Country. IUCRR is the website

 

[SlugLife]

One of the early posts mentioned that the still-missing diver on the SG was intending to do a penetration dive; what's the protocol if someone fails to surface after a planned penetration dive? Is there a recovery team that searches the ship?

It likely depends on several factors, including location, the recovery-team available (could be police, fire-department, or even local cave-divers), depth, and so on. I would expect the most common thing is to first locate the body, surface, discuss as a team the recovery (or investigation) plan and then execute the plan.

One of the things you don't want to happen is for a recovery to result in further accidents, which has happened on numerous occasions.

 

[lostsheep]

Are there any more actual facts pertaining to this incident ? The OT is strong in here.

 

[BlueTrin]

While it's true that you can hang out in one area at 80-90 ft, the Spiegel Grove is huge, and it's tempting to want to swim somewhere (and back). One really needs to have a plan. "Be back at the boat with 500 psi" is difficult to achieve on the fly on such a large, tempting wreck. I dove it a couple of times on a single (rental Al 80), and after the last one I decided that just doesn't give me enough gas. I use the Rock Bottom or Minimum Gas method, which is pretty conservative. For me, the Spiegel means I need a big tank (or tanks) and a real plan. Also, the unpredictable current can throw a wrench into a plan, so that should be taken into account.

You don’t deploy a DSMB to be picked up further on this wreck?

Or are you talking about people getting lost during a penetration?

 

[Lorenzoid]

You don’t deploy a DSMB to be picked up further on this wreck?

Or are you talking about people getting lost during a penetration?

The Spiegel Grove has several mooring buoys for dive boats. Unless you're blown off the wreck, you're not expected to deploy an SMB. I wasn't referring to penetration at all. Most divers who visit the SG just swim around the outside, and there is a lot to see. I'm not much of a wreck diver, but I always find myself having to resist the temptation to attempt to swim too far from where I started.

 

[Nemrod]

You don’t deploy a DSMB to be picked up further on this wreck?

Or are you talking about people getting lost during a penetration?

As @Lorenzoid started, there are multiple buoys attached to the wreck at various locations. If a diver gets lost, which is easy on this huge wreck, just take any buoy to the surface, the (a) boat will come get you in due course. There are almost always multiple boats on the wreck, somebody will come gather you up. Of course it is always best to return to your boat in timely manner, that is the expectation. These are not typically guided dives, each diver team is responsible for managing their dive.

Unlike the Thistllegorm I just visited, an actual WWII wreck, the Spiegel was purposely sunk as a dive site. It is HUGE and is now covered with growth. There are grouper, turtles, sharks and schools of fish sweeping across the wreck, there is plenty to see and do without going inside and I will tell you to NEVER go inside an opening that daylight is not immediately visible from because again, this is a huge wreck and it is possible to get lost inside. And there are no cool Triumph motorcycles or packs of rifles or anything inside there to see, just empty corridors leading the unprepared and untrained off to a diver's doom.

 

[Capt Jim Wyatt]

@Nemrod - Very good posting!!

 

[Rose Robinson]

Well, rainbow reef dives it, and unless they changed something, pretty sure all their divers are running single tanks.
Plus, SG is within recreational NDL limits.



Yes

Not if the diver was inside the wreck at 150 ft.

Single tanks being what, 80 cu ft AL?

150 ft, 80 AL, on air, no bailout, buddy diving with same configuration,

What could go wrong!!

What ever happened to the rule that OW divers do not dive below 60 ft.

OW and wreck penetration are a recipe for disaster.

Someone has to be responsible for this.

Rose.