muckle
Registered
See:
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/2916196.shtml
I know the victim, and I am a customer of the shop she co-owned. I have dived with all the people involved. She died yesterday. Her husband was my SSI Stress & Rescue instructor.
I was not at the scene. I have spoken to one of the rescuers, and to a non-diver who spoke to another rescuer. It appears that the victim experienced an out-of air emergency. It appears she arrived at the entry alone, planning to join a group already in the water, swam out to join them, descended, ascended, struggled at the surface, and went under again. The newspaper report is not quite accurate, particularly the boat operator's seeing a stream of bubbles and directing divers to her. Actually, she was found by a pair of divers (I spoke with one) who did not know she was lost. They literally bumped into her, unconcious, on the bottom at 23 feet. Vis was 3-4 feet or less in the muck at lake bottom. I heard second-hand (from a non-diver who spoke to a rescuer) that her tank valve was closed.
My belief is that she failed to turn her tank valve on, or may have turned it on, then off. Probably in a hurry (people waiting in the water for her). No buddy at the entry to double-check, likely over-weighted (wearing no neoprene, just a skin.). This woman had been certified for at least 5 years.
Even more tragically, the group was performing a sort of "dive-in" as a fund-raiser for the teen-aged son of a local diver (not present), the son having been recently diagnosed with luekemia. The victim's daughter was killed in a motorcycle crash three years ago last month.
I haven't posted here before. I guess I'm posting this to clarify my thoughts, to remind myself that I can't allow myself to rush in prepping for a dive, even a supposedly cake-walk dive like this was supposed to be.
http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/2916196.shtml
I know the victim, and I am a customer of the shop she co-owned. I have dived with all the people involved. She died yesterday. Her husband was my SSI Stress & Rescue instructor.
I was not at the scene. I have spoken to one of the rescuers, and to a non-diver who spoke to another rescuer. It appears that the victim experienced an out-of air emergency. It appears she arrived at the entry alone, planning to join a group already in the water, swam out to join them, descended, ascended, struggled at the surface, and went under again. The newspaper report is not quite accurate, particularly the boat operator's seeing a stream of bubbles and directing divers to her. Actually, she was found by a pair of divers (I spoke with one) who did not know she was lost. They literally bumped into her, unconcious, on the bottom at 23 feet. Vis was 3-4 feet or less in the muck at lake bottom. I heard second-hand (from a non-diver who spoke to a rescuer) that her tank valve was closed.
My belief is that she failed to turn her tank valve on, or may have turned it on, then off. Probably in a hurry (people waiting in the water for her). No buddy at the entry to double-check, likely over-weighted (wearing no neoprene, just a skin.). This woman had been certified for at least 5 years.
Even more tragically, the group was performing a sort of "dive-in" as a fund-raiser for the teen-aged son of a local diver (not present), the son having been recently diagnosed with luekemia. The victim's daughter was killed in a motorcycle crash three years ago last month.
I haven't posted here before. I guess I'm posting this to clarify my thoughts, to remind myself that I can't allow myself to rush in prepping for a dive, even a supposedly cake-walk dive like this was supposed to be.
