beester
Contributor
Have had 2 lost diver incidents so far... both with the same diver (a good buddy of mine). First one was on the north sea... Procedure is for the first team to check anchor and the last team in to use a parachute to lift the anchor. Ascend is a free drifting ascend for all teams using SMB's. Since we all get on the wreck at the same time and run more or less the same deco profile this works. Except in this case. Charter captain sees smb's popping up from different teams. When a team get's to the surface he get's to them to pick them up. While he's picking these guys up my buddy's team comes up on the downstream/wind side of the charter. After the first team is picked up... the charter captain sees another team at the surface further upstream and turns the boat to collect them (missing the downstream team who are already a couple of 100m away at that moment)... by the time the 2nd upstream team is picked up the downstream team is out of sight.
Both were wearing a drysuit, were yelling and whisling... but they weren't heard. After all divers were collected we noticed the 2 downstream guys missing. Coastguard called who found them with the helicopter (they deployed streamers). Phew.
2nd time with the same guy was on a Maledives doni (sort of a separate diving platform/vessel separate from a liveaboard). Returning from a nightdive on an atol this guy wanted to pee. So he stepped to the end of the platform, wearing just his swimtrunks. The platform is close to the water, dark and slippery... the engine is making a lot of noise and all of us are standing at the front of the boat so don't see him. The doni is doing about 12 knots... and of course he slips and falls in the water... we don't hear a thing. The water pulls his swimtrunks straight off and he barely manages to grap a line tied to the stern of the doni and trailing about 10m behind. He wraps his arm around the line, and get's dragged at 12 knots both under and above water. We only realise he's gone when we get to the liveaboard, and the doni captain revs down the engine.
To be honest I really believe the latter was more dangerous than the first. Diving in a typical opening on the outside of the atol there is quite a lot of current. We would have noticed only 20 minutes later, him in the dark water with no light being dragged into open sea. Could have ended badly.
I'm very aware and very afraid of getting left behind. When I'm in a group of divers I know very well I'm sure that they'll notice someone not being there. If it's just me and my wife on a liveaboard without knowing anybody else I'm very aware of this. On the North Sea I'll use a streamer and have always a flare with me (stored in an empty backuplight which is btw an ideal waterproof container).
Both were wearing a drysuit, were yelling and whisling... but they weren't heard. After all divers were collected we noticed the 2 downstream guys missing. Coastguard called who found them with the helicopter (they deployed streamers). Phew.
2nd time with the same guy was on a Maledives doni (sort of a separate diving platform/vessel separate from a liveaboard). Returning from a nightdive on an atol this guy wanted to pee. So he stepped to the end of the platform, wearing just his swimtrunks. The platform is close to the water, dark and slippery... the engine is making a lot of noise and all of us are standing at the front of the boat so don't see him. The doni is doing about 12 knots... and of course he slips and falls in the water... we don't hear a thing. The water pulls his swimtrunks straight off and he barely manages to grap a line tied to the stern of the doni and trailing about 10m behind. He wraps his arm around the line, and get's dragged at 12 knots both under and above water. We only realise he's gone when we get to the liveaboard, and the doni captain revs down the engine.
To be honest I really believe the latter was more dangerous than the first. Diving in a typical opening on the outside of the atol there is quite a lot of current. We would have noticed only 20 minutes later, him in the dark water with no light being dragged into open sea. Could have ended badly.
I'm very aware and very afraid of getting left behind. When I'm in a group of divers I know very well I'm sure that they'll notice someone not being there. If it's just me and my wife on a liveaboard without knowing anybody else I'm very aware of this. On the North Sea I'll use a streamer and have always a flare with me (stored in an empty backuplight which is btw an ideal waterproof container).
