St. Petersburg woman disappears while lobster fishing in Florida Keys

[fisheater]

No training means no skills, so buoyancy, mask clearing and open airway management can't be assumed. In fact, we can assume the opposite.

Her distance away on the surface is a sure sign that was no longer tethered to system and had no air from it. It's likely that she separated from it while submerged. Hence, my hypothesis that she panicked and surfaced with a breathhold, that caused her loss of consciousness.


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[tlt]

Pure conjecture here, but maybe a shark or other large creature swam through the area and hit the hose, yanking it away and not easily recovered. A careful inspection of that entire system I assume will happen. It is a very sad situation.

 

[d_lafleur]

Pure conjecture here, but maybe a shark or other large creature swam through the area and hit the hose, yanking it away and not easily recovered. A careful inspection of that entire system I assume will happen. It is a very sad situation.

Or the husband never had even a discover diving course, as represented by the surface to clear the mask skill set.

Lets count the number of times we have come across divers with issues that have been through a course vs. the number of times a shark or other large fish has seperated you from your buddy in less than 30' of water.

 

[TheScubaBOB]

Not to be too harsh but...

Am I supposed to feel sorry for them?

I'm horrified that as parents they would do something so stupid and think the biggest tragedy here is that the kids will have to live with there memories of this day. They are the only victims who deserve sympathy in my opinion.

She was the architect of her own demise and her hubby was a willing participant. 1 hour of intelligence could have given them the information they needed to be somewhat safe. I'd guess they both figured, "It's only 20 feet down nothing can go wrong". Well, now they know better but was the lesson worth the price?

As a diving parent one of the reasons I'm taking Specialties is so that I can be better educated about diving the way I want to.

 

[jridg]

I used a double hookah system in the Oklahoma aquarium for a couple of years. Even though I had a ton of experience with scuba, I was still required to get training in its use - it IS different. Sure, the scuba skills made it relatively simple, but I would NEVER put an untrained, unexperienced person on the system.

People do stupid things and it sometimes kills them. I feel bad for the family - it's a terrible thing to witness, and I am going to guess the hookah system had all kinds of warnings on it talking about training, etc......

 

[Jeff Toorish]

This is the Accidents and Incidents thread. Frankly, some of the speculation I am reading here is just plain disturbing. This is not really the place for wild speculation. It is to discuss the actual known facts of an accident.

Clearly there is more information needed in this tragedy; hopefully there will be an inquest so all the facts can come out.

There are a lot of unanswered questions:

• Was anyone involved in this dive certified?
• Had the hookah system been serviced recently?
• Were these divers using any equipment besides the hookah system and weight belts?

I would be interested to know if the two adults who were diving left two children on the boat alone without anyone to operate the boat in case of an emergency. That in itself would raise serious questions in my mind.

Was the wind blowing the exhaust into the hookah system's intake?

Were there other boats nearby? Were there any witnesses?

Twenty feed of depth doesn't sound like much, but twenty feet of depth with lousy visibility can be very dangerous to someone inexperienced. What was the visibility, the water temperature?

Hunting bugs can be exhausting, what was the physical condition of the victim prior to the dive as well as during the dive?

Nothing I am writing should be viewed as speculative. I am merely suggesting questions that need to be asked. If we get some or all of those answers, we may begin to draw a more complete picture of what happened.

Jeff

 

[DandyDon]

No training means no skills, so buoyancy, mask clearing and open airway management can't be assumed. In fact, we can assume the opposite.

Her distance away on the surface is a sure sign that was no longer tethered to system and had no air from it. It's likely that she separated from it while submerged. Hence, my hypothesis that she panicked and surfaced with a breathhold, that caused her loss of consciousness.

I don't see evidence to support any assumptions, but it does sound like a lack of training and preparation was the general cause for whatever did happen. My grandson wants to learn to drive, but I'm not going to just give him keys and point the way to the hiway.

 

[KY_BOB]

Although, I have heard of it before I find it very disturbing that they put two people in the water neither of which had any experience or training without some kind of supervision.

I know a person that went on a hookah boat with his wife to let her see what it was like to dive. He was a certified diver. I have no problem with that. He could have helped her if a problem arose. She didn't like it and that was the end of her diving career. No problem. I assume that their op was doing the same thing as this one in letting any couple that wanted to pay jump in without regard to their training or experience and go diving. That, I have a problem with.

Is sending two people with zero training and no supervision common? It sounds dangerous as hell to me. If there was a DM down with them, I would be OK with going to 20' without a lot of training but not 2 people with a total of zero training or experience and nobody underwater that had any.

To me, the actual cause of death, be it panic, an over expansion injury, or whatever doesn't matter. The lack of anyone with training being in the water with them does.

I see other problems with this scenario but that's the biggie.

 

[DennisS]

This is the Accidents and Incidents thread. Frankly, some of the speculation I am reading here is just plain disturbing. This is not really the place for wild speculation. It is to discuss the actual known facts of an accident.
Jeff

Accidents and Incident is all about speculation and people explaining how it would never happen to them or their students

Although, I have heard of it before I find it very disturbing that they put two people in the water neither of which had any experience or training without some kind of supervision.

Is sending two people with zero training and no supervision common? It sounds dangerous as hell to me. If there was a DM down with them, I would be OK with going to 20' without a lot of training if supervised but not 2 people with a total of zero training or experience and nobody underwater that had any.

I sounds like a private boat, a lot of divers dive off of their own boats down here. Did it say that the husband had no training.

 

[KY_BOB]

I sounds like a private boat, a lot of divers dive off of their own boats down here. Did it say that the husband had no training.

No, it didn't. I assumed that from what it said about him having to go to the surface to clear his mask. I could be wrong but I doubt it.