Training fatality after Instructor held student down - Stoney Cove, UK

[Esprise Me]

(for PADI, this includes rules that state a safety stop for 3 minutes at 15ft is required any time the diver comes up to or within 3 pressure groups of a no decompression limit and for any dive to a depth of 100ft or deeper).

My PADI AOW manual actually says "As you know, a safety stop is recommended on all dives. But, it's especially recommended when deep diving, when you get close to a no stop (no decompression) limit or any other limit of your computer or Recreational Dive Planner--e.g. within three pressure groups of the RDP limit--or when your computer indicates a safety stop." "Especially recommended" isn't quite synonymous with "required."

But those standards are likely to be relevant in court, and it's a fair point that safety stops are more important on deep dives. I just think that running out of air is something that should. Not. Happen. If it does, or appears to, you shouldn't trust that you're out of the woods once the OOA diver has your octo.

 

[Diver With Altitude]

I read it differently. I read that the Inst held him down and he drowned.

That is what is alleged, but here is the defendant's response:
[Craig, in the second of two statements he made afterwards, said that as Mr Stansfield went to pull himself up to the surface he took hold of him "briefly" and indicated the three minute stop, but said "I didn't keep hold of him and had he wanted to bolt for the surface I wouldn't have been able to stop him due to his size."]
Regardless of whether he held him down, as an experienced instructor, he was negligent in not recognizing the diver's respiratory distress and getting him to the surface immediately (assuming the rest of the account is correct).

 

[John the Pom]

This is about a 2016 incident, but I could not find a thread with the deceased's name nor any other fatality at this quarry that year.

Scuba diver died after instructor held him underwater

The dive master insisted on a non-essential three-minute stop at 5m below the surface, despite the student's breathing difficulties, a trial heard

www.leicestermercury.co.uk

The fact that the student was twice given a spare regulator but kept insisting he was out of air suggests this wasn't simply a case of running out of air. The student had difficulty descending, and his air consumption was high enough to draw comment. It suggests that something was amiss from the start of the dive.

 

[Celt]

The only stops that are needed are decompression stops, there is never a need to do a safety stop. I’ve never done one. There are reasons when getting to the surface promptly is essential and a diver in distress is one of those reasons. It was ridiculous to force a diver on a training dive to do an unnecessary stop.

 

[Raphus]

If he didnt held him down. Then i think its not the instructors fault.

He had a working regulator at the safetystop.
So i dont see a reason to skip it. Of course if the student goes up he goes up. Dont hold him down, but i thinks that wasnt the case.
And i dont understand how he drowned?

 

[KenGordon]

The fact that the student was twice given a spare regulator but kept insisting he was out of air suggests this wasn't simply a case of running out of air. The student had difficulty descending, and his air consumption was high enough to draw comment. It suggests that something was amiss from the start of the dive.

This.

I cannot believe that someone in distress would have taken a hint that they should voluntarily wait at 5m while actually drowning.

There is a judgement call about a student bolting for the surface. It will depend on the potential risk. Bolting for 50m is one thing, from 20m another. Not doing a safety stop incurs approximately zero risk. There are multiple ways in which a diver can have a non obvious problem and must surface. Nobody should be preventing that. If you start out with a diver you think is at risk of bolting you should go back to the pool or get them properly comfortable in very shallow water.

It is also worth remembering that nobody gets cleverer in the water. The instructor might make decisions that are clearly wrong given an opportunity to think about the problem for a bit while warm and dry.

My view is that if a student is so uncomfortable that they need to be on the surface then they get to go to the surface. I will not take students on dives where that would be a problem. At more advanced levels where they might need to get their head round being committed to staying down due to deco you need to work up to it and not just land them with 20minutes of stops.

In the commercial world though it is harder to know the personality of the student, especially on intro level deco courses where an instructor might never have dived with the student previously. My experience of those was that the instructor would avoid landing the students in real deco, just planned but actually unnecessary deco, to begin with.

 

[KenGordon]

If he didnt held him down. Then i think its not the instructors fault.

He had a working regulator at the safetystop.
So i dont see a reason to skip it. Of course if the student goes up he goes up. Dont hold him down, but i thinks that wasnt the case.
And i dont understand how he drowned?

If the student Is having a horrible time then isn’t that a reason to skip the safety stop?

Many times people drown despite the availability of a working reg. There was a double fatality off the south coast here where one of them died having given up recovering a slightly failed rebreather while two or three divers were with him offering their bailout In his face.

Try out being in a pool with a load of divers, dumping your kit and finding gas from some distance away so it is a bit difficult. See if you can succeed 100% of the time and never decide surfacing is easier. Loads of working regs, but too hard to use eventually.

 

[leadduck]

"His eyes are described as dilated, his regulator slipped from his mouth on two occasions because he was becoming unconscious and unable to keep it in himself and yet despite these obvious signs he was, in effect, drowning, Craig waited until the planned three minutes had elapsed before taking him to the surface."

No need to discuss the necessity of a safety stop, or whether the victim did or did not try to ascend by himself. The instructor should have pulled the *unconscious* student to the surface immediately no matter what.

 

[ginti]

If the student Is having a horrible time then isn’t that a reason to skip the safety stop?

100% agree.

I had to share regulators just twice in my life, once for a free flow and the second time to prevent something potentially harmful (we were not sure of the way back, and my buddy was breathing a lot and had only 30bar in his tanks). I will not hide that I was feeling stressed

Situations where you share gas are usually the consequences of some other adverse events that we can categorize into two sets (I can't think about anything else right now):
(1) equipment malfunction;
(2) excessive breathing, which is usually (always?) due to stress.
Since equipment malfunction inevitably leads to psychological pressure, any of these situations can be very stressful. With very high stress, even a minor problem can degenerate into a severe panic attack, so the priority should be to reach the surface as soon as possible.

In such a context, when skipping a safety stop (which is far from being a mandatory deco one), the worst thing that can happen is usually a (very) minor decompression accident; and this is still rare. On the other hand, the consequence of a panic attack can be deadly even from a shallow depth of 3m (think about bolting to the surface while holding your breath).

But what if it is a PADI course, and the safety stop is mandatory to pass the course? Well, skip the stop, and you can still redo the dive later on.

That said, my condolence to the family and my support to the instructor, who certainly didn't want to harm anyone and did everything with the best intent (although PADI should do something about him if his behaviour will be found to be negligent).

 

[Julius SCHMIDT]

Can anyone see that the article is mostly quoting Mr House the prosecutor, and them thar prosecutors aren't really much known for truth justice and the English way