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

[chrisch]

....
Reading a few of the google translate articles leads me to believe that it was common practice to enter these caves without "proper" cave training. But maybe I am interpreting the articles incorrectly....

If you look at the cave map there are two sections, the large open section is more or less a cavern dive and I am sure this section is dived frequently. The other entrance takes you into a full on cave dive. There is a connecting passage which is essentially a 15m long squeeze at 50m deep. The squeeze is no place to be without a lot of training and very suitable equipment. The open section is much more accessible.

The newspaper reports are not very specific. It appears the divers entered the deep entrance. If so they either deliberately tried to cross the squeeze and surface into the other section or they got lost in the deep chamber and mistakenly chose the squeeze over the exit. If there is a Carabinieri report this might give more detail.

You can see the deeper section is on the right of this map. Once in the big tall chamber it would be possible to get confused and take the wrong exit out. Without local knowledge it's hard to say if the visibility makes such a mistake likely or not - it is a sea cave and very clear water.


There's a little more here - VIDEO - SUB MORTI A PALINURO, RECUPERATO PRIMO CORPO

The video shows the actual system. The narrative suggests poor visibility being the cause of the tragedy.

 

[vinegarbiscuit]

So in other words, rather than just tell an open water student, "don't do it", instead start teaching some of the reasons why?

I don't recall what was talked about in my OW course regarding overheads. Perhaps someone who teaches can refresh us to what the book says.

Of course staying active in the sport, participating here and researching has taught me a great deal about overheads and why I won't go in one unless I receive the training and feel confident I can handle it.

There was thread on SB some time ago that discussed the re-make of the short film, "A Deceptively Easy Way to Die", which focused on the dangers of unequipped, untrained divers entering the overhead environment. A couple of posters postulated that the film should be shown to all open water divers as part of their training, noting that "overhead" extended to wrecks and coral "swim-throughs": in other words, environments that pretty much all divers would encounter at one point or another. Not everyone took kindly to the idea, with one poster (an OW instructor, if I recall correctly) in particular arguing that showing the film would frighten divers away from the sport. The upshot is, is that while some OW instructors would be all for the idea of a more in-depth discussion of the hazards of overhead environments, there are others who seem strenuously opposed to the idea.

 

[Neilwood]

@chrisch Looking at your map it looks like it would be very easy to "surface" in the wrong section and by the time you have realised it would almost certainly be too late to make an exit. By the looks of the map, if you didn't know the layout of the cave there are a number of areas where you could get into difficulty or be confused.

I have to say I tend towards the "no overheads" viewpoint with the exception of a short swimthrough (wide enough, straight enough and short enough to make traversing easy). I do see the benefit of the course @boulderjohn has written though. Knowing what makes one cave dangerous and another easy would possibly help people understand the risks.

Cavern and cave diving though I will leave to those that are trained on it.

 

[fsardone]

Cavern and cave diving though I will leave to those that are trained on it.

Neilwood, this is the right attitude, but unfortunately some divers after a few hundreds (thousands) dives believe this does not apply to them anymore. These became the "experts" which they are but limited to their usual diving environment and then end up putting themselves in dire situation.

For those who did not watch it the video referenced by @vinegarbiscuit is here

 

[wgw04024]

I've been reading this A&I forum for at least a couple years now (I think). Long enough where I can't honestly say what my opinion was about over head environments was before starting reading these threads. I do not remember it being covered in OW training, what not to do in regards to situations like this. After reading these threads, and a couple diving event books, I certainly know what I feel comfortable diving as a rec diver, and what I know is out of my league. I dive with my sons, so these decisions are even more important to me especially in their presence. That being said, I can see how people who haven't exposed themselves to this forum, books about the risks or events of diving, or had knowledgable people that they trust and/or admire in the diving community, could wander in to environments that can go south in a heartbeat and leave them in a position that the outcome of survival is slim. Sad, but it's totally possible. Knowledge is power.

 

[JohnnyC]

The narrative suggests poor visibility being the cause of the tragedy.

The cause of the tragedy started long before the loss of visibility......

 

[Storker]

The cause of the tragedy started long before the loss of visibility......

I'd say about the time they went under an overhead.

 

[FinnMom]

This wasn't necessarily a case where all 3 made a genuinely willing choice to enter the cave. If the customer ducked in there, or simply dissapeared near the cave entrance (perhaps just rapidly sinking or drifting away, never having entered the cave), one of the others may have gone in to look for him. They were pros, he was a customer, possibly a good friend too... it would be very hard at that moment to resign all hope of his coming home alive just because you know its a bad idea to try to help. Once one pro is in trouble, the guy outside is his friend, colleage, actually a relative in this case.

People get medals all the time for taking unreasonable risks to save someone else. It isn't fair to praise the same act if all turns out well, but criticise their judgement when it doesn't.

All speculation of course, but just thinking that there may be more than we know to the story.

 

[Dan]

I'd say about the time they went under an overhead.

I'd say even earlier, when the Mauros (the 2 instructors) were hastily decide to rescue their closed-friend long-time customer, Silvio, with ill-prepared gear, instead of getting the right rescue divers & gears to RECOVER Silvio's body.

 

[Storker]

People get medals all the time for taking unreasonable risks to save someone else. It isn't fair to praise the same act if all turns out well, but criticise their judgement when it doesn't.

This about the same thing I was saying when the Finnish team lead by Sami Paakkarinen recovered the bodies of the two divers who perished in Plura, after the British-lead Norwegian recovery operation was stopped due to excessive risk to the recovery divers. A lot of people praised the Finns for their endeavor, but even based on the documentary, it was an extremely risky undertaking which might easily have cost more lives.

If it goes well, you're a hero. If it doesn't, you're a fool.