Teen fatality - Ras Al Khaimah

[Searcaigh]

Course director at Al Boom Diving in Dubai, Mohammed Helmi, said it was uncommon for a pipe to get wrapped around a diver’s neck. ??????? They call hose pipe? Did he have a 7' ?pipe/hose? I wonder?

Perhaps some "lost in translation" for the hose/pipe part, and I seriously doubt he was using a 7' hose, apart from a few tech divers here I have never seen one on rental gear or other divers.

My assumption would be this kid was never trained and his father took him along on some easy dives, just because he was a good swimmer does not make him a good diver. Visibility in the gulf is also pretty poor, not sure about RAK or where they were diving as I have never dived up there, but around Dubai it is 1-2M and I doubt the true story will ever be published.

 

[UnderSeaBumbleBee]

It seems to me there is more to this story. Something would have to pull the hose/pipe tight. It just would not do that all by itself.

 

[DandyDon]

It seems to me there is more to this story. Something would have to pull the hose/pipe tight. It just would not do that all by itself.

From the translations we are getting, I can't tell if the hose actually strangled him or it got stuck so he couldn't get to the mouthpiece? I have to wonder if he tried dropping his weights when he got in trouble? Fix problems if you can, but if you can't - get to the surface at least. Even experienced divers miss that too much.

It does sound like buddy protocols failed, at least the way I see them...

A senior RAK police officer said Ibrahim’s father had lost track of his son while they were diving.

If I dive with a buddy, then I like us to enter together and stay together at every step: meeting immediately, additional buddy check, dive together, ascend and exist together. Looks like they failed as soon as they hit the water...?

 

[Simon-]

I would be surprised if Big Mo said pipe, probably the reporter didn't translate correctly. Big Mo's English is very good.

I have been out tonight with a number of instructors, an Emirati DM and a dive centre owner and none of them were aware of this incident.

I am more inclined to agree with the earlier post that the kid probably wasn't trained and was given some kit to use.

 

[boulderjohn]

I am trying to imagine a scenario in which this could happen and I'm coming up blank.

 

[DandyDon]

I am trying to imagine a scenario in which this could happen and I'm coming up blank.

It'd be hard, but I've seen hoses get caught up - even my own. Somehow the hose goes around his neck, second stage gets caught in his right arm hole, he cinches up, all ready - except he hasn't got the reg in. He eagerly dives in, notices he forget to put his reg in mouth, and struggles - panics, fails to drop weights, drowns.

 

[Shot a man in Reno...]

A loose (or incorrectly threaded) tank band can cause your tank to drop and your hose to pull tight on you, and if it was somehow around his neck he may not have been strong enough to sort it out.

 

[ScubaSteve]

I suspect that any information that comes out will have been filtered through so many high ranking UAE nationalists that there is little there beyond outright lies and speculation. Since this family were nationalists, there could be a lot to the story that we are not seeing.....and never will.

 

[Ayisha]

A loose (or incorrectly threaded) tank band can cause your tank to drop and your hose to pull tight on you, and if it was somehow around his neck he may not have been strong enough to sort it out.

So this young man's tank band might have been loose or incorrectly threaded AND no one noticed AND his hose wrapped around his neck AND the hose tightened AND the father and son were separated and remained separated AND the son was not able to get out of it AND the son was not able to surface.

Way too many suppositions there. I also think there is more to this story than we're getting.

 

[Simon-]

I suspect that any information that comes out will have been filtered through so many high ranking UAE nationalists that there is little there beyond outright lies and speculation. Since this family were nationalists, there could be a lot to the story that we are not seeing.....and never will.

You don't know how right you are with the media here