Utila Aggressor Last Week

[Ravzie]

I am so sorry to read this. God bless.

 

[ed fla south]

Don't jump to conclussions until the facts are in. Just came back from a week on the Utila Agressor.Diver lost week prior. Accidents happen . Even to the best operations, thats why we sign waivers. Operators do not have crystal balls to see the future. We at times under estimate our ability and physical condition. We have all experienced situations underwater, thats where our training is so critical. Great professhional crew. Had a great experience. Would go back tomorrow if I could.

 

[DandyDon]

The known story of the accident was posted in Passings http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/passings/373377-lost-diver-roatan-true-story.html and it does not look like the operator is withholding info from the widow as she was there.

 

[Graeme Tolton]

One of the major hazards of diving in roatan is how deep it is, so close to the walls that you are diving on. Most of the dives I was on while at FIBR were wall dives that dropped almost staight into the abyss. There were some divers on the boat, bragging about dives they had done in the past on those walls, dropping to 200-300' on a single al80 of air. Please, anyone who wants to dive deep, seek appropriate training and use appropriate gear and gasses.

Unfortunately accidents like this, it appears there is nothing to be learned, only adding evidence to support the rules that we already have in place.
I am very sorry, this is extremely tragic for all involved.

 

[ukdave0]

I was on that boat several weeks prior to this tragedy. On our trip we had an event where two divers jumped off the boat with the intention of swmming to the nearby wall. As is not unusual when jumping into the blue, they headed off in the wrong direction. They made it back to the boat no problem but we learned they had dropped down to over 150 feet (on Nitrox) before either of them realized the situation. Could have easily ended in a mystery just like this death. The wall was actuality only about 15 yards from the back of the boat. If anything had happened to those 2, I don't think any of us would have been able to understand how they could have gotten lost.
I don't fault the crew or dive masters at all for our event. I just think you need a reasonable bit of skill and experience when diving without visible orientation (in the blue or night diving).

 

[Ayisha]

The last two posts remind me of when I was in Roatan two years ago. My buddy and I were at about 125 - 130 feet with most of our group of 14. We were the second last buddy pair and I checked behind us and saw the last buddy pair waaay below and behind us. I informed my buddy and we watched them to see if they were having any issue, but they seemed to be fine and slowly rejoined the group. They told us later that they had gone to 150 feet (on air) just because that was a goal they wanted to reach and lagged back from the group in order to do it without being noticed (by our dive guide).

If we hadn't checked on them, nobody would have known and if something had happened to them, nobody would have known why they went to that depth or what precipitated the problem. Wherever you have great depths, some people will be tempted to go deeper than the plan or than they're trained for. Poor judgement has a greater chance of going wrong. Only people with excellent buoyancy control and experience, plus who consistently monitor their depth and gas consumption should be doing essentially bottomless dives or night dives, but that is often not the case.

Of course, we don't know what happened in this accident. It seems, though, that Honduras may be one of those places like Cozumel and Cayman where people tend to test their limits a little more than others.

 

[buddyoscar]

150 feet just becouse they wanted to .somthing like that tends to ruin it for al.l i have 200 dives+ dives logged have dove and done almost all the padi diver courses. education is important. and while down a roatan this year i made my deepest dive ever to the recomended 130 feet. I have dove to 120 feet ore soe several times. in all that every body new and agreed that i was going deeper but to lag behind and do youre own thing that what gets people killed i would not be afraid to pull them aside for an ass munching session there would not be a re invite eather. the deep blue becons whith the sirens calling tend put training aside. ive been there then what???

 

[Ayisha]

Oh don't worry, they knew we were not impressed. I made the decision when I saw them down there and realized what they were probably doing (knowing their cowboy personalities already and seeing them face each other and look at their gauges well below me) that I would not attempt a rescue to their depth if needed. I would honk my scubalert to get the DM's attention, but I would not go down there untrained and on my single tank and I knew my buddy would not go either. We kept a watch on them and stayed at 130 feet longer than the rest of the group to keep an eye on them just to make sure they continued to be ok. We then stayed a little shallower than the DM for the rest of the dive well within our NDL's on our computers to make up for it. They thought nothing of going to 150 feet and did 4 dives that day anyway against the advice of the group based on their first dive. People just shook their heads, but they certainly were not held back from or warned about any later dives.

 

[DocIndyDiver]

Was he on NITROX or air? If CCV closed the Front Yard to even shore diving that
afternoon, the conditions must have been extremely dire. I question the reasoning of
UA II to opening the pool that night.