This is endemic of all of scuba diving. In fact, the cave diving community is better at providing information about diving accidents than pretty much any other facet of the diving industry. I've learned to stay out of discussions about diving accidents because of the visceral responses that typically come from wanting to find out what happened. I understand it ... these are often friends, relatives, or casual acquaintances we want to protect. But the priority isn't about learning, or figuring out how to prevent the same from occurring elsewhere. It's more often about protecting reputations ... or a dive op or dive site that people don't want to see jeopardized.
A couple years ago there was a local diving accident where a woman died. Even from the limited information available, it was clear that there were some serious flaws in the decision to even conduct the dive. Those of us who pointed it out were blasted ... this woman died in front of her 8-year old son, and everybody was more concerned about what he would think than they were about pointing out the obvious flaws that led to this woman even being in the water at that time. We were told to wait until all the facts came out.
Two years have passed, and we're still waiting ... all the facts will NEVER come out. They never do. They won't this time either. They can't. Despite the best efforts of all the people involved ... and like all of you I have nothing but respect and admiration for the folks who sacrificed so much to bring these divers out of there ... the facts died with the victims. There's nothing to learn. Diving's a risky activity. There are ways to mitigate the risks. From everything I've read it appears these two divers were well trained, well experienced, and well prepared for this dive. They did everything they were supposed to do and they still died.
Sh!t happens ... that's all the lesson we're ever likely to get.
... Bob (Grateful Diver)
