Error Two wreck divers dead - Marsascala, Malta

[boulderjohn]

Support divers would be very nice, but I have almost never seen it done. I used to use a dive operation in Florida that would send DMs down while people were scheduled to be on shallower stops. They would make sure everyone was OK and even take away finished deco tanks. I haven't seen anything like that in years, though. There is a cost involved, and technical diving is very expensive to begin with.

 

[divezonescuba]

In a situation like this, I think there are three perspectives. The first is what would the diver expect you to do. The second is what do you the instructor, expect you to do. The third is what does the certification agency that you represent, expect you to do, if you wanted to continue instructing.

I know that the three parties would not be in consensus in expecting you the instructor, not be a potential second casualty. Which is in direct odds with conventional doctrine that most talk about.

 

[Bocian]

Hey guys, i figured i would post some information on the incident. Chris was a good friend and did some of my diving certs. I was not at that dive but spoke with some members that described the incident.

Chris was obviously a very experienced diver and instructor, the other diver was a relatively new diver ( about 2 years of diving) and was new to CCR diving.

I don't know much about CCR diving so excuse me if some of the details are interpreted wrong by me.

The other diver during the dive experienced a CCR malfunction were his wing bladder was filling with air which put him into a rapid uncontrollable ascent. It was well known and talked about in that group that in a situation like this that it's better to have one person dead rather than two but Chris was a good guy and would not be able live if he had not attempted to save him.

He tried to help the other diver but this put both of them into that situation. The other diver panicked and froze and unfortunately did not exhale out on his way up to the surface. When they breached the surface the other diver was already foaming and bleeding profusely from his mouth, which i believe was due to ruptured lungs.

Chris most likely tried to help him here but probably knew there wasn't much he could do. He swam back to the chartered boat and got on and told them about the situation. He placed himself on oxygen and wanted to replace his diving tanks with new ones and jump to do the decompression stop but they stopped him from doing that.

Eventually the AFM showed up and started to treat both of them and drive them to shore towards the hospital, although the EMT's pretty much gave up on the other diver because he was estimated to have died within 30 minutes of him surfacing, most likely due to drowning. Chris lost feelings in his legs on the way to the hospital in the ambulance, they put him in the decompression chamber and everyone thought he was going to be OK but sadly he did not make it and passed away later that evening.

 

[Nick_Radov]

Chris was obviously a very experienced diver and instructor, the other diver was a relatively new diver ( about 2 years of diving) and was new to CCR diving.

Is it really correct that a new diver with only 2 years of experience was allowed to do a technical dive on a CCR? That seems wild. Do you know what training that diver had completed? Was this dive part of a formal certification course? What equipment configuration was the diver using and was it properly set up to allow for quickly closing the valve for the wing inflation regulator?

My condolences on the loss of your friend.

 

[Bocian]

Is it really correct that a new diver with only 2 years of experience was allowed to do a technical dive on a CCR? That seems wild. Do you know what training that diver had completed? Was this dive part of a formal certification course? What equipment configuration was the diver using and was it properly set up to allow for quickly closing the valve for the wing inflation regulator?

My condolences on the loss of your friend.

From what I've been told yes he was fairly new. I don't have the information to answer those other questions, i have no idea about anything else.

 

[Hiszpan]

From a quick search on the internet I found that Krzysztof did JJ-CCR course in 2016. In 2018 he achieved a TDI instructor certification on the SF2. His dive club ( divingexplorers.co.uk ) offers courses on SF2. However, those are CCR Intro and Air Diluent which, according to their website, do not go deeper than 30m.

Krzysztof organized diving trips to Malta which, in 2022, included Dominik D whose name resembles the name of the second victim, Dominik Dubaj. They were then diving out of Diveshack Scuba centre in Malta ( divemalta.com ).

 

[wgw04024]

Chris most likely tried to help him here but probably knew there wasn't much he could do. He swam back to the chartered boat and got on and told them about the situation. He placed himself on oxygen and wanted to replace his diving tanks with new ones and jump to do the decompression stop but they stopped him from doing that.

Well that was going to be my next question, and wow!

 

[Wibble]

Is it really correct that a new diver with only 2 years of experience was allowed to do a technical dive on a CCR?

it’s quite common for some CCR divers to progress on to do their MOD2 course within two years of their MOD1, as I did and many others I know.

The big challenge between MOD1 and MOD2 is resolving problems underwater as you will have significant decompression obligations that keeps the surface out of bounds for a long time. Your drills and skills on the MOD2 course would include, for example, disconnecting the BCD and connecting bailout gas, changing diluent supply, running oxygen from deco gas, etc.

A leaking BCD valve takes a while to diagnose as you’ve so much going on during an ascent, balancing the loop, drysuit and BCD.

 

[DiveLikeAMuppet]

Is it really correct that a new diver with only 2 years of experience was allowed to do a technical dive on a CCR? That seems wild. Do you know what training that diver had completed? Was this dive part of a formal certification course? What equipment configuration was the diver using and was it properly set up to allow for quickly closing the valve for the wing inflation regulator?

My condolences on the loss of your friend.

It’s common (even recommended) to do mod2 course as soon as you are ready after mod1. Mod1 is more or less “bailout”, mod2 is problem solving. Usually that takes about a year or two.

Those 2 years of diving could be referring to CCR experience?

 

[Searcaigh]

Thinking in terms of analysis and learning:

• Part of the dive plan is (or should be) emergency signalling, eg. sending a yellow SMB or 2 SMBs on one line to the surface.
• Adding a safety diver to the group might not be a bad idea. A safety diver could have taken the first diver up.

When I did my technical training with Coastal Technical Divers (CTD) in Fujairah, UAE, I was occasionally assigned as "Safety Diver" when they were diving U533 which sits at 110m off the UAE East Coast.

I usually did not exceed 30m when doing checks on all divers during their ascent. Most of the time I brought bottom gas bail outs to the surface, and fortunately we never had an incident during CTD's dives on that wreck.

Glen Campbell (ex-RCN), who ran CTD, planned very well for this dive site with sufficient redundancy and enough 100% on the boat to deliver to divers on their final deco stop if necessary. It's sad to hear that one person may had died unnecessarily and perhaps some change in regulations may be required to prevent any issues like this happening in the future.

Unfortunately as @Wibble mentions, when a medical situation occurs, there is really not much any of us can do whether at 50m or 20m except bring the victim to the surface, and this is where a "Safety Diver" is very useful.