Well, what could go wrong?

[FireInMyBones]

A blown high pressure seat at depth causes one of the divers to panic and bolt for the surface. The other diver catches the diver just in time before the safety stop, calms the other down, deploys long hose (or octo) and they preform an extended safety stop to prevent the likely onset of DCS. When they return to the boat, they are given O2 and monitored for the next several hours. Any consecutive dives they had planned that day, they act as surface support and sit the dives out.

 

[TSandM]

Sorry, the phrasing in the original is a bit misleading. I was trying to do two things: Make the point that, if you do good planning and execute the dive carefully, the likelihood of having anything untoward occur is low, and also to elicit ideas for things that could happen during a dive that, despite good planning, could make things go pear-shaped.

Falling off the ladder was a good one. Uncontrollable environmental factors like sudden currents or down- or upwellings is another, although outside of discussing options for response, there isn't much you can do to avoid them if you dive walls where there is high current. Being aware of, and perhaps having a plan for boat traffic is another. Making sure your own skills are up to handling flooded masks or lost regulators is another. Perhaps assessing the risk involved in participating in a rescue could be another. Keeping your hands off sea life (avoiding envenomation) is also good.

Keep talking; I think this is a useful exercise.

 

[idocsteve]

Back on the boat after a wonderful and uneventful dive, Bob starts walking over to Karen to do a post dive debriefing...just then a rogue wave hits the boat, and Bob, being unprepared due to the calm surface conditions, topples backwards, inadvertently putting one foot in the rinse tank. This causes him to fall backwards right onto a knife being held up by a diver who is inspecting it for surface rust.

The knife cleanly severs Bob's right testicle which falls to the deck with a "plop" sound. Bob falls to the deck, bleeding profusely from the severed testicular artery but all divers are watching in stunned silence as Bob's testicle rolls around the deck and finally through one of those oval openings on the side of the boat that has claimed more than one piece of diving gear, and into the ocean with a splash.

Karen thinks quickly, recalling the Lorena Bobbit incident and the successful reattachmnent, and she grabs a weight belt and dives over the side, bent on recovering the lost testicle. In mid stride (and midair) she clips the belt to her hip but lands on a sea turtle that has surfaced next to the boat.

She's knocked unconscious by the impact of her head against the turtle's shell, and she falls to the bottom of the sea...minutes later Bob's testicle lands next to her to join her in her watery grave.

 

[Cave Diver]

Oh, another one I'll add. The air conditioning in the room was a bit too cold the night before and one of them woke up feeling a bit stuffy and congested, but otherwise ok. After an uneventful dive with only slightly more difficulty in equalizing they start their ascent. The diver suffers a reverse block, giving them a bad case of vertigo in mid water. Inability to equalize and panic from vertigo causes them to run low on air.

Alternatively, they have problems clearing on descent, over equalize and rupture their ear drum.

I've seen both of these first hand as well.

 

[Cave Diver]

Back on the boat after a wonderful and uneventful dive, Bob starts walking over to Karen to do a post dive debriefing...just then a rogue wave hits the boat, and Bob, being unprepared due to the calm surface conditions, topples backwards, inadvertently putting one foot in the rinse tank. This causes him to fall backwards right onto a knife being held up by a diver who is inspecting it for surface rust.

The knife cleanly severs Bob's right testicle which falls to the deck with a "plop" sound. Bob falls to the deck, bleeding profusely from the severed testicular artery but all divers are watching in stunned silence as Bob's testicle rolls around the deck and finally through one of those oval openings on the side of the boat that has claimed more than one piece of diving gear, and into the ocean with a splash.

Karen thinks quickly, recalling the Lorena Bobbit incident and the successful reattachmnent, and she grabs a weight belt and dives over the side, bent on recovering the lost testicle. In mid stride (and midair) she clips the belt to her hip but lands on a sea turtle that has surfaced next to the boat.

She's knocked unconscious by the impact of her head against the turtle's shell, and she falls to the bottom of the sea...minutes later Bob's testicle lands next to her to join her in her watery grave.

:shocked2:

 

[Codiak]

The dive does seem well planned and executed.

DCS is always a possibility
Lung expansion is still could have occured.

Falling off the ladder has been mentioned.

What about
1) No mention of a safety at 15 stop
2) Clear mention of keeping the guide in sight at the beginning of the dive, not at the end
Did they have an SMB deployed?
Or did the boat hit them?

3) Did they have remember to inflate their BCs on the surface?

4) Did they come up into swells?
Do they have their snorkels?
5) Did they come up in a current?
Do they have any type of signalling device?

Most importantly did they have fun?

 

[Blackwood]

I think what you're getting at here is that they planned to go to the maximum bottom time. Any time you don't leave yourself a buffer on your limits, you risk the introduction of unplanned circumstances causing you to exceed those limits and put your lives in jeopardy.

They planned a maximum bottom time, their maximum bottom time. I don't buy into the unqualified term "the maximum bottom time," but what you are getting at (I believe) is NDL.

Saying I've included a maximum bottom time in my plan is not sufficient information for you to infer anything about proximity to an NDL and whatever buffer I may leave myself.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It is not that good planning eliminates all problems. Bad planning may create opportunities for problems that could have been controlled, but good planning only serves to reduce the likelihood of problems or their impacts when they occur.

Good planning also includes an honest assessment of your own abilities, as well as those of your dive buddy. Bob and Karen carefully prepared a plan ... but was it a plan that was appropriate to their skill level?

According to DAN's Annual Diving Report, 2007 Edition (based on 2005 data), the following is true of dive injuries (as opposed to fatalities):

1. 65% of injuries are to male divers, so statistically it is likely Bob who was injured;

Not necessarily ... did DAN mention what percentage of all divers are male?

If more than 65% of all divers are male, then Bob is less of a potential statistic (per capita) than Karen.

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Cave Diver]

Diver misses the ladder in a swell and the swim platform hits them in the head.

 

[Herk_Man]

They planned a maximum bottom time, their maximum bottom time. I don't buy into the unqualified term "the maximum bottom time," but what you are getting at (I believe) is NDL.

Saying I've included a maximum bottom time in my plan is not sufficient information for you to infer anything about proximity to an NDL and whatever buffer I may leave myself.

You misquoted the quote. It actually says, "They make a plan for maximum bottom time at depth, and sketch out a desired profile."

Now the OP presented a hypothetical situation for the purposes of discussion and learning so interpretation is not critical as long as it leads to meaningful (which I don't think severed testicles quailifies for ) discussion.

When I read that they "made a plan for maximum bottom time at depth" I interpreted this as NDL or an air volume limit. Either one, if followed, could lead to a problem given unforeseen circumstances during the profile.

Nit-picker.