THE FOLLOWING WAS POSTED AT THE HYPERLINK SHOWN BELOW ON THE ORLANDO SENTINEL WEBPAGE. FYI...
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/news_columnist_mikethomas/2007/12/analysis-of-sea.html
Analysis of Sea World scuba accident
Posted on Dec 10, 2007 10:16:29 AM
From what little we know.
A few observations on the accident we wrote about last week that resulted in two Sea World employees resigning under pressure. My background is from 35 years as a certified diver, including certifications as a cave diver and rescue diver.
As we reported, a diver who was cleaning the dolphin pool was found unconscious with the regulator out of her mouth. Our report noted the maximum depth of the pool was 14 feet and she was in a shallower section. The diver was by herself with a spotter on the surface. This was before sunrise, and the spotter was supposed to keep track of the submerged diver by her air bubbles.
The first problem is the lack of a dive partner in the water, a cardinal sin in diving. Im sure they werent sticklers about that because of the shallow depths. Second is the method of tracking the diver by air bubbles, an iffy proposition before sunset. Tracking bubbles also might not indicate that the diver had come under any stress.
The idea that an experienced diver would get into trouble at such shallow depths is puzzling. There are five things to look for first in any scuba accident an air embolism caused by the diver rising too fast from depth (very highly unlikely), the bends from nitrogen buildup (impossible), an underlying health problem, a people malfunction or an equipment malfunction.
In the story, we note the rescue diver tried to inflate her buoyancy compensator without success, which is quite puzzling. For you non-divers, this is an airbladder usually built into the backback. It is connected to the air tank with a hose that allows you to put air into it, allowing you to neutralize yourself in the water like a submarine. The first thing any rescue diver would do with an unconscious diver would be to bring them to the surface by inflating the BC. It is not hard to do. I am assuming from the description of the rescue divers actions that he knew what he was doing. This indicates the possibility of an equipment malfunction. But the only malfunction that would make sense is a complete cutoff of the air supply, including to the regulator. That would entail running out of air. But this seems hard to believe. Any dive rig should include an air gauge. You also have some warning when you get low on air because it gets progressively harder to breathe. But if the diver did run out of air, and she was heavily weighted down with a deflated BC, perhaps to do cleaning, then she might have panicked.
There also is the possibility of bad air in the tank, which I find hard to believe. That wouldnt affect the function of the BC.
People malfunction would mean the diver didn't turn on her air before jumping in the pool. For this to have happened, it would have meant she didn't check her air gauge, didn't take a breath out of her regulator to check its function, and didn't put any air in her BC before jumping in. Also, if someone jumped in without their air turned on, one assumes there would have been some floundering around if there was anyone halfway observant watching them or nearby. Maybe this is where the darkness could have played a role. I also have seen a diver turn on his air to check the amount of air in his tank, then turn off the air leaving the hoses pressurized. So there would be a reading on their gauge indicating thei air was on, and the diver would get a breath or two of air before it quickly shut off. Also, the notion of tracking the bubbles would be a moot pont because there wouldn't have been any bubbles to track.
Lastly is the underlying medical condition that could have caused the diver to black out. That is anybodys guess. In any case, I believe Sea World has an obligation to release the details of this incident because there are a lot of divers out there cleaning a lot of aquarium pools. And if there are added safety precautions they need to take, Sea World should let them know.
even if she was at 6 to 8 feet of water she could have dropped her weights and bounced out or floated for all that matters if she had two suits on.
