Wilmington Incident - 16 Oct

[dumpsterDiver]

I guess it'd be pretty difficult to tell a lady who "worked in the dive op that ran the boat, (whose) husband is a boat captain in NC" that she was not prepared for the dive. That'd be the Captain's job maybe. I've had times I wanted to tell divers that on some dives, but then I think about how imperfect I am and revert to more polite suggestions.

not me, believe it or not, I can be ASSSS.

 

[bankyf]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any factual information, or at least very educated opinions on the likelihood of surviving a 100+ foot free ascent if done properly? Has it ever been done? It was stated earlier that a 100 foot free ascent would not be a big deal, but that seems pretty unlikely to me.

 

[Thalassamania]

I made many in that range (and deeper). Every submariner who ever went thorough the escape tower has done so also. It is, in fact, no big deal. Can you hold your breath for a minute and a half? That's all it takes.

 

[DandyDon]

I made many in that range (and deeper). Every submariner who ever went thorough the escape tower has done so also. It is, in fact, no big deal. Can you hold your breath for a minute and a half? That's all it takes.

You hold your breath on a 100 foot CESA? No Way!

 

[Thalassamania]

OK, "can you go a minute and a half without inhaling?"

Certain baby steps are assumed.

 

[DandyDon]

OK, "can you go a minute and a half without inhaling?"

Certain baby steps are assumed.

I did one from 50 ft after a screw up a couple of years ago, exhaling slowly all the way, coming up too slowly, running out of lung air, so I stopped ascending, inhaled from my back gas that had expanded, then resumed ascending and exhaling. Some of us have to think thru our contingency plans in detail.

From 100 ft, I imagine I'd ascend faster - but I avoid going below 50 without my pony.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Out of curiosity, does anyone have any factual information, or at least very educated opinions on the likelihood of surviving a 100+ foot free ascent if done properly? Has it ever been done? It was stated earlier that a 100 foot free ascent would not be a big deal, but that seems pretty unlikely to me.

In my opinion it would be VERY tough in a genuine panic situation, but definitely survivable if everything went well.

Running low on air at 100 feet to the point where it gets hard to breath and then coming up slowly, sipping the remaining air from the tank is 100 times easier than having nothing to breath.

That is why ditching the entire scuba unit and shooting for the surface (if that is what happened?) is not taught.

 

[ahava]

There is always the air which you are venting from your bcd/wing. Although you cant be assured that you wont come down with some nasty lung infection but it is better then the alternitive.

 

[Scubasw]

I am offering this information as I saw it, after many days of worrying, because maybe it will save another. I know I have made a pledge to myself to be less complacent and more attuned to the other divers on the boat.

Amy told me that morning she had done less than 50 dives. Myself and one other gal each invited her separately to be a buddy, but she declined. She did not want to "hold us back". She wasn't looking for teeth. She planned to stay within sight of the anchor line, and only stay a short while. She did not have a pony. She did not carry a reel. She told me she wasn't carrying a computer, because she did not plan to stay down long enough to deco. Integrated weights I think (she said her BC was like mine). Equipment was found with 0 psi. Equipment was not recovered that day, but coordinates given to coast guard.

If I could do that day over, I would have dived with her and stayed by her. That will probably be the biggest regret of my life. Why didn't I recognize that she needed a buddy?

The last I saw Amy, she helped me out of my gear after my dive, because I was terribly seasick and throwing up. That was just how she was. Always putting the other person first.

I've been reading this thread as I lost one of my friends on this same site 3 days before. I have noticed several major areas where these inicidents diverge in thier details and causes of the accident. I can speak from first hand knowledge in one case as I was there, but in this case until highlandfarmwv made some further details known I did not know how far apart the circumstances of these incidents are. My friend Don was very qualified, trained and prepared for this dive with the proper equipment, techniques and mind set for the dive. I am convinced that Don's problem was medically related and could have occured working out at the gym.

Reading the details that highlandfarmwv provided, I'm pretty sure that Amy was not ready for the dive in training(open water maybe advanced training with fewer than 50 dives by her own admission) or experience(obvious to anyone reading highlandfarmwv's description of Amy's dive plan to not stay long, stay around the anchor, not look for teeth, not use a computer), not prepared with the correct equipment( single tank, no pony, no reel, no computer) and not diving with the right mind set as demonstrated by the failure to monitor air supply, failure to follow a reel line back to the anchor line, diving solo and deep with a lack of experience in both and not utilizing a buddy when one was offered by two different people.

I've dove many times in North Carolina and while not all require you to have a buddy, most require you to take at least a pony or doubles if your diving solo. I'm not looking to point any fingers as Amy was by all accounts an adult, capable of making her own decisions, but in this case the dive shop/boat crew need to shoulder some of the blame as they allowed her to get on the boat to start with and do the dive solo without the proper qualifications/equipment/mind set. My understanding is that the boat captain that day was her husband, who should have known she was not ready for this dive. They did have a duty to tell her "No, you can't do this dive by yourself".

No one else on the boat should feel any guilt at all, as they would not have been in a position to know what Amy was getting herself into based on her training, lack of experience and inadequate gear configuration.

Sorry if I've hurt anyone's feelings, and my condolences to Amy's loved ones, but this was an avoidable [-]accident[/-] chain of events that could have been stopped at any of several points.

 

[bankyf]

In my opinion it would be VERY tough in a genuine panic situation, but definitely survivable if everything went well.

Running low on air at 100 feet to the point where it gets hard to breath and then coming up slowly, sipping the remaining air from the tank is 100 times easier than having nothing to breath.

That is why ditching the entire scuba unit and shooting for the surface (if that is what happened?) is not taught.

Do you know for fact that it gets difficult to breathe when running out of air at 100'? At ambient pressure with a firefighter SCBA you get at least 4 or 5 higher resistance breaths. In the pool at 12ft it seems more like only 1 or 2 more breaths after you sense something is wrong. I am guessing that due to the increased consumption at 100' that you would run out part way through a breath with no warning and no time to develop a plan. For clarification, when I said it sounded unlikely in my previous post I was referring to the fact that I think it is unlikely that it would not be a big deal. I have always felt like I could survive the ascent with a trip to the chamber being the best case scenario. My backup plan(besides my pony bottle) had always been to breathe the air from the BC with the understanding that I would likely have a nasty lung infection. I wonder how may more breaths you could get from an empty tank during a 100' ascent?