Teen fatality - Skaneateles Lake, New York

[RochesterUE]

Was the mask recovered? If so...and in good condition, then some other issue may have precipitated a panic that caused him to rip off the mask.

As of yet, it has not been recovered.

---------- Post added November 24th, 2013 at 12:19 AM ----------

Teddy, I hope you don't mind a couple more questions. You said Brandon was using his mother's gear, and I was wondering: Did the BC fit Brandon, and had the regs been serviced in the last year? Had he used his mother's equipment before, or had he rented equipment? Was he wearing his mother's wetsuit?

Based off of my observations, the BC fit Brandon. I do believe the regs had been serviced earlier in the summer, and were tested post-accident and found to have no issues. I am not sure what equipment he had used in the past, this was the first time I had met/ dove with Brandon. I believe he was using his mothers wetsuit, which seemed to fit him well.

 

[84CJ7]

I'm going to go with mask popping off or whatever irrelevant reason and getting out of reach before he could recover it and then him inhaling water through his nose while he was task loaded with the mask recovery and not thinking. That would be enough to cause a panic bolt to the surface for most people. I learned in OW that its much easier to choke and cough through a reg if you inhale water by accident than to try and bolt.
We had an awful lot of people in our OW class that either basically HAD to plug their nose to breathe through the reg or were choking on water as they intermittently breathed through their nose while doing the breathing with mask off drill. Nobody failed because of it.

 

[Jax]

[speculation]
New diver, rapid ascent.

Almost always is panic reaction.

Unconscious before surface - did he hold his breath and AGE?

Solution - train, drill, train, drill, until panic cannot take hold.

Immediate response teams (military, medical, fire, police) have known and followed that for years.

[/speculation]

 

[Beiji]

Thanks for answering my questions, Teddy.