Three divers die in a cave accident, Punta Iacco, Palinuro Italy Aug. 2016

[Scubagolf]

There's an op that routinely takes OW divers into a cave, on singles, with at most one light per diver. And definitely no line. The entrance to that cave is at 40m. I declined politely, but quite empathically. Several of those who went had worse buoyancy and trim than my son had on his first post-cert dive. Dangling octos on several of them, too.

That was also in Italy.

I'd be quite surprised if they were on RBs.

That's a shop that needs reporting to its agency.

 

[KeithG]

To cave dive at 50 mt you need at least:
redundant air source (separated twins possibly with a stage tank)
deco gas
triple lamp
double mask
helmet (low tunnel involved here)
main reel (I use elastic bands to tie down line)
emergency spool (lost line search)
cutting tools
proper training
and above all a PLAN!

Cheers

We do not yet have any info on their gear setup. BUT it seems very clear to me that a rec wall dive and this cave dive would require very different gear and prep. There is no way that you could "stretch" from one type of dive to the other type of dive once underwater.

I claim we need to more more about their gear and their dive plan to learn more.

 

[KevinNM]

That's a shop that needs reporting to its agency.

Apparently the owner died here...

 

[JohnnyC]

I'm starting to be less and less sympathetic when I read stories like this. It's not like this accident is on some bleeding edge of predictability.

I'd love to take a look at John Adsit's course outline. I'm still amazed he got PADI to agree to a course such as his. I made a conscious decision to be a mentor rather than become an instructor because of the potential conflict of interest between teaching the heavy subjects with some candor, and staying within agency standards and conduct codes. I definitely appreciate the effort he put in to bridging that gap and finding a way to educate his students that satisfies both the agencies concerns, as well as providing an education on a topic that thus far has been dealt with in a manner similar to security through obscurity.

 

[infieldg]

You are a superman. No issue with narcosis? My LDS tech dive instructor told me that any deep dives, deeper than 150' (46m), will need trimix.

Nah I'm certified to 55m on air (TDI Extended Range), and have done a few dives on air between 55 and 62m - think there's some truth in the theory that borderline alcoholism helps with narcosis...

 

[Scubagolf]

Apparently the owner died here...

My comment was directed at the unrelated incident quoted from the post by Storker, not at the incident which gave rise to this thread.

 

[Dalixa]

The bodies of the two Mauro's have been recovered, one is the owner of the dive op, the other his cousin and assistant Instructor

 

[Dalixa]

The bodies of the 2 Mauro's' have been recovered, one is the owner of the dive Op and highly regarded instructor, the other his cousin and assistant instructor, also Doctor of medicine.. The diver that is still missing is an Engineer. These men were educated and in their 50's which is what makes this tragedy difficult to understand. One of the rescue divers that recovered the second diver is being treated for air embolism as he surfaced with severe pain in his shoulder. I read he will need 7 hours of recompression chamber but should be ok..

 

[Dalixa]

If some of you have seen the map of Grotta Della Scaletta posted in a link on page 1 you can see there are 2 cave envinonments with different accesses, one has an air pocket and at first there was much hope that the divers would be found alive in that spot. The 2 caves are joined by a tunnel that is 16m long, 1,2 m high and in some points only 80m wide.... The press gives different and sometimes confusing accounts of things but my idea is that they may be in that tunnel.........

 

[KevinNM]

Looking at the map you posted a link to it looks like the cave entrance is more like 15 meters, going to 50 or so all the way at the back. Which makes it far more inviting.