Three divers lose their lives at Chac Mool in Riviera Maya. 2 Brazillian, 1 Spaniard

[Fish-R-Man]

I have to wonder if one of the group didn't get seperated from the others. I would seem that this would be difficult to do if they were diving as a team. The only reason that I say this is I had an experience at Dos Ojos were we actually picked up a stray when we were returning from the cave section. This gentleman was diving with a large group from Cancun and was the last in line. Somehow he lost sight of the rest of the group in front of him and was trying to find them. He finally saw our lights and just joined up with us thinking we were somehow his lost group. It was a real surprise for us to go in as a group of three and come out a group of four. I often wonder how far he would have swam into the cave zone if we hadn't been on our way out. We returned him to his group at the opposite entrance from the one we came out of.

 

[thejamez]

I dove Dos Ojos with Ismael on March 13, 2012. I just learned of his death today while diving 2 other cenotes and talking with today's guide.

When I arrived at the Akumal Dive Shop I had never previously done a cavern dive (unless you technically want to count Belize's Blue Hole) and am only OW cert.

Ismael gave us a full 20-30 minute briefing going over all the safety rules and showed us a map of Dos Ojos and the planned 2 tank dives we'd be doing. He appeared to be very smart, confident and well experienced (he'd had years of cave diving experience). During the dive he watched us closely and stayed on the cavern line. There was never any offer to go further or bend any rules.

I'm truly saddened to hear he died just a month after meeting him. Far too young. I've been searching around the net for any further conclusion as to what caused the accident and deaths.. does anyone have anything not previously mentioned?

 

[Saturation]

I was in the area May 2014. Another fact was it was the 3rd dive of the day for the group, and they were at Chac Mool near closing time. This summary is as Steve Gerard posted in his blog and posted on this thread earlier:

Steve's Info Deep Horizon Blog

"
... On Thursday evening, April 19th a meeting took place in Playa Del Carmen among a group of cave divers. The meeting was about the triple fatality accident that took place a week earlier at Cenote Chac Mool. Fernando del Valle Prieto of the Protec Dive Center in Playa Del Carmen, or known as “Nando” presented the following information. He and Gonzalo Larranaga (actually three people were searching) first searched the cavern areas with no success. Then they began looking into the large room beyond the safe cavern zone of the upstream. Nando spotted a light “on” and then found the body of the male Brazilian open water diver floating in mid-water above the guide line facing towards the exit. He had 200 psi remaining in his single 80 cubic foot tank and had some injuries on his face. The dive was called and it was an 8 minute swim back to the surface. They returned to the same area and found the male Spanish guide and the Brazilian female 200 feet further upstream facing into the cave. The Spanish guide had his long hose deployed and no mask on his face. Both victims had 0 psi in their tanks floating in mid-water near the guide line. This was the third dive of the day for the guide using the same set of double 80 cubic foot tanks as the group had made two dives at Cenote Dos Ojos earlier. There was NO REEL used between the cavern zone and the permanent cave diving line of upstream Chac Mool."


In prior thread posts it was said:

Update Apr. 21: The dead today have been identified as Ismael García Manzanares, 34, a Spanish citizen and the guide, and a Brazilian couple, José Brugnaro Neto, 34, and Renata Alvez Quireno Costa de Brugnaro, 36, who were recently married. A local Q.R. newspaper calls their deaths "criminal negligence."

This is new to this thread from Brazil:

https://translate.google.com/transl...evem-chegar-em-uma-semana-1.247517&edit-text=

 

[thejamez]

Thanks.. I'd read most of that minus the next brazil link. But was hoping that autopsies or further investigating had revealed some new information. Like why the guy would've drowned with 200 psi left, why Ismael's mask was off,.. i guess we'll really never know.

He had 200 psi remaining in his single 80 cubic foot tank and had some injuries on his face.

The Spanish guide had his long hose deployed and no mask on his face. Both victims had 0 psi in their tanks floating in mid-water near the guide line.

 

[Saturation]

Unfortunately, autopsies are not often made public, in the US its only available for criminal events and often censored for public sensibility.

Investigations are just best guess reconstructions to explain all the available facts, the more facts, the better the reconstruction particularly if the facts corroborate. As we've heard even with facts criminals are wrongly accused and set free years later, so can conclusions of a dive investigation with missing facts. The most likely scenarios for the ff conditions are:

200 psi remaining gas: overbreathed the regulator, or regulator malfunction, then unconsciousness [c02 or MI], then drowned or drowned directly
Dive guide facing into the cave: lost
long hose deployed: woman ran out of gas first
mask lost: panic situation, aka loss of control