Equipment Woman loses lower leg to prop - Maldives liveaboard

[JustSurfaceInterval]

you aren't going to swim away from being basically winched in. fast reaction with a cutting tool (emt shears/trilobite) or unclipping would have been required if already in a bad situation due to it being clipped to bcd.

Yes, of course. That would be the adequate reaction . But do we know in what state of panic she was and whether she had a cutting tool?
...
And for the stats: On our last trip (report to follow ) the check dive on the first day also included launching the SMB. Rational behind that: although the guide would do it for you on every dive, you may get separated from her/him and have to be able to do that. No excuses were accepted.

 

[apedai]

What a terrible accident.

One must be careful with a DSMB/SMB. I was on a tech training dive when a diver launched her DSMB from depth. The wreck line attached to it had somehow wrapped around a piece of her gear, and she began being dragged toward the surface. Her buddy quickly cut the line, so no harm--except for the scare. (We were all in deco at the time.)

Here in MO/AR, boats will come very close to your DSMB. I hold my reel lightly, making sure it is held away from my body/gear, with the idea of releasing it NOW if I have to.

rx7diver

what a quick reaction!

 

[rx7diver]

what a quick reaction!

{HIJACK]
At that time, the buddy wore a Wenoka stiletto on his waist strap, ever at the ready. The built-in line cutter made quick work of that wreck line! Many years ago he replaced this Wenoka with a (blunt-tipped) Gerber River Shorty knife--which doesn't have a line cutter (sadly) but does eliminate the sharp point of a stiletto.

If the buddy had been paying closer attention, he might have seen that the diver's wreck line had become fouled in her gear before she launched her DSMB. Lesson learned: As with gas switches, a buddy "needs to" watch DSMB launches very carefully.
[/HIJACK]

rx7diver

 

[MidOH]

you aren't going to swim away from being basically winched in. fast reaction with a cutting tool (emt shears/trilobite) or unclipping would have been required if already in a bad situation due to it being clipped to bcd.

[But.....but.....cutting tools are bad!

How dare you dive with something pointy.]


One swipe with a decent dive knife, and this wouldn't have happened. SB might want to rethink its stance.

 

[johndiver999]

Probably a better option for a tangled smb that has just been released, is to immediately exhale, grab the thing/line and swim down and vent it. That is almost surely a quicker option than locating, deploying and using a cutting device. Typically an smb launched from depth, does not need to contain that much air and can probably be manhandled to get things under control.

Lift bags... those are a different story and are definitely dangerous; took a ride from 60 feet being dragged by my octopus one time. LOL.

Also, I am not sure how anyone can have much confidence in various theories, with so little information pertaining to this accident.

 

[Dan]

To make a quick launch, I have a dedicated low pressure hose to fill up my DSMB quickly so I don’t get dragged up by the DSMB.

For those, who are not familiar to what a dedicated low (LP) pressure hose looks like, see the LP red hose in my reg set. Just stick the red LP quick connect nozzle to the nozzle tip of DSMB (just like connecting LP hose to your BCD power inflator). Press them together to fill the SMB to half full and release (hands off) them.

I just used it in Maldives last month. It works perfectly in 10 seconds flat (7 seconds to uncurl the SMB & 3 second to fill it at depth. As someone said above, practice makes perfect.

 

[DiveProKoko]

It says "their surface marker buoy became entangled in the dhoni’s propeller", not "her surface marker buoy became entangled in the dhoni’s propeller". As far as my experience, only our DMs used surface markers.

"....a diver aboard the Maldives Aggressor II experienced an accident where their surface marker buoy became entangled..." Don't read too much into it. This is the proper way to state a gender neutral possessive. It was the diver's SMB that was entangled. The question is whether not she became entangled in her own SMB line and dragged into the prop, or was she attached (clipped in) to her reel? Regardless, it's a cautionary tale to NEVER attach your SMB to your kit for this very reason.

 

[scubadada]

Hi @Dan

Is that an IP gauge on the left LP hose? I assume that is your inflator hose.

 

[DiveProKoko]

For those, who are not familiar to what a dedicated low (LP) pressure hose looks like, see the LP red hose in my reg set. Just stick the red LP quick connect nozzle to the nozzle tip of DSMB (just like connecting LP hose to your BCD power inflator). Press them together to fill the SMB to half full and release (hands off) them.

And for those of you that want to use this technique/type (which is a good one, BTW ), you can simply disconnect LP hose from your inflator, launch the SMB, and reconnect to your inflator. You don't need a dedicated hose for this. Happy diving!

 

[MidOH]

Probably a better option for a tangled smb that has just been released, is to immediately exhale, grab the thing/line and swim down and vent it. That is almost surely a quicker option than locating, deploying and using a cutting device. Typically an smb launched from depth, does not need to contain that much air and can probably be manhandled to get things under control.

Lift bags... those are a different story and are definitely dangerous; took a ride from 60 feet being dragged by my octopus one time. LOL.

Also, I am not sure how anyone can have much confidence in various theories, with so little information pertaining to this accident.

I suppose it's simple:

If I use my dsmb, I ain't clipping it on. Especially with boats and jetskis running around.

And if I get any line tangled and pulling on me, I'm cutting it.