Tec diver dies in air deep dive challenge

[Subcooled]

All information is from the organization to which the deceased belonged. I don't know the deceased before.

Orginal link repaired (chinese) :致敬雅各布 —— 与星辰大海同在

DATE: 15/03/23

DIVER LEVEL: TDI CCR MOD5 ( JJ CCR advanced mixed gas diver ) CCR tec instructor

DIVE PLAN: Solo diving, use DPV reach a depth of 130m, then return to 96m to shoot 5th wedding anniversary video.

GEAR: JJ CCR, SUEX DPV

BACK UP GAS: air, oxygen

ACCIDENT TIMELINE:

DT 12, PPO2 over 1.6

16min, breaked personal record: 120m

17min, spasmodic sounds, unstable when looking at gauges, lights are lost of control

19m50s, reach max depth, ppo2 2.45, consciousness gradual loss, DPV towing on the seabed.

25min, he unconscious at the depth where he needed to shoot a wedding anniversary video, DPV stopped, video completely dark, no lights.

28min, camera auto stop.

I am not a rebreather diver. However...
WTF is MOD5 ?
BACK UP GAS: air, oxygen - who uses those at 100+ meters???

 

[Subcooled]

resistance of nitrogen and oxygen.

As we all know, there are coping methods, to some extent, but no true "resistance".

 

[BoltSnap]

They have been pushed out of destinations like Egypt

Yes, one of the worst places for quality control and adherence to standards I have seen. Also, problems with fake credentials.

 

[TrimixToo]

My post in this thread was quite appropriately removed by a moderator. My sincere apologies to any of the friends or family of the deceased who saw what I posted. I've been sort of intermittently checking in for a while and just plumb forgot the A&I rules and the sound reasons behind them.

 

[kensuf]

I checked a couple of reports here in the forum... dreadful

In the oldest accident (Du'an Guangxi), Wang You concluded that one of the reasons was insufficient gas. In the second accident (Manatee Springs), he came to the same conclusion... Why did he not bring more gas to Manatee Springs after the experience with the first accident? He should have known after the accident in China that you always need tons of gas in caves, right?

And now this report of a depth record.

Whether they do not comprehend well the risks, or they do but they are contemptuous of danger because of an overinflated ego - well, it's time to change for them.

I assure you, "not enough gas" was not part of the problem with the Manatee fatality.

 

[ginti]

I assure you, "not enough gas" was not part of the problem with the Manatee fatality.

I trust you. It's just the conclusion that guy reached (at least, in the report I read)... Anyway, my point is that this guy (and probably others of the same school) consistently underestimates risks.

Do you think differently? Given that you are here, what do you think they did wrong in that dive at Manatee?

 

[NothingClever]

Perhaps the Rouses can finally rest in peace with this diver (“Yacob”) exemplifying the dangers of too much too fast.

 

[rjack321]

Do you think differently? Given that you are here, what do you think they did wrong in that dive at Manatee?

Doing an unverified downstream traverse in a siphon is a pretty basic failure to follow the most fundamental cave diving principles. Just talking to locals at the fill station, asking the rangers, or confirming the line was continuous would have kept her out of there and avoided her death.

I bailed on a sump dive once (exploration, no line at all, no map, no locals to consult). It was a downstream sump with a modest sized stream entering the pool behind me. I decided it wasnt safe by any barometer because visibility was measured in inches. I could have EASILY gotten into a delta-P situation before I could even see I was turning into a cork in the cave wine bottle. Bringing an infinite amount of gas would not have saved me.

 

[ginti]

@rjack321 thank you for the explanation. I understood there was some flow, as there is in some caves in Florida. But I have never been there, and I thought it was just a "normal" condition in a cave that people often dive into, even at the most basic level (I heard that even at the intro to cave level, instructors often make the student gain some high-flow experience - but I strongly doubt it is about siphons).


I believe what you described is a more or less standard approach, right? I think anyone, independently from their level, asks for information about a cave system before diving into it. Now I am even more convinced that those people believe they can do everything they want and just do not take risk into account.

 

[rjack321]

@rjack321 thank you for the explanation. I understood there was some flow, as there is in some caves in Florida. But I have never been there, and I thought it was just a "normal" condition in a cave that people often dive into, even at the most basic level (I heard that even at the intro to cave level, instructors often make the student gain some high-flow experience - but I strongly doubt it is about siphons).


I believe what you described is a more or less standard approach, right? I think anyone, independently from their level, asks for information about a cave system before diving into it. Now I am even more convinced that those people believe they can do everything they want and just do not take risk into account.

Manatee has some of the strongest swimmable flows anywhere. Typically heading upstream you are weaving and dodging from little protected alcove that's out of the worst flow to another alcove partly protected nook. You can't just swim up the center of the passage. Now image doing that kind of cave for the first time, downstream, with an unverified exit, and the only remaining passage is a tiny hole at the very end where even a small Asian sized woman can get wedged and stuck with the force of a river holding her into that hole. Bad news.

It's not all that much different than this fatality. If the deceased had asked almost any competent person "is a deep air record on CCR a good idea?" the answer would have been no its a terrible idea. But it seems like he thought the basic rules of physiology and density applied to other people.