The accident at Dutch Springs involved a group from the dive shop I use here in Connecticut. One of the divers in the group that night works in my office. He was just certified in early September along with the unfortunate victim. He is on vacation right now. The day it occured was the first day of his two-week vacation. The Monday following the accident he e-mailed me and then called me from South Carolina to discuss the incident. He had to be pretty shook up to contact me while on vacation. Anyway here is what I know from talking with him and subsequently talking with the owners of the dive shop.
The group diving that night numbered approximately 10 individuals. This included one instructor, a divemaster who was training to become an instructor, AOW students doing the night portion of their AOW, newly certified BOW divers on their first night dive and at least one more experienced diver along for dive.
The plan was for the entire group to stick together that night. All divers had been diving earlier in the day. The victim indicated that she was a bit nervous about the dive prior to entry. In order to make her feel more at ease a more experienced diver was then paired with her.
The group started out and became separated. Visibilty stunk. My friend said that he thought a number of the divers, including himself descended too quickly. He bottomed out fairly quickly at 70ft and then ascended a bit. Eventually he went to the surfaced due to buddy separation.
Then the buddy of the victim surfaced indicating that something was wrong and she had lost the victim. Also at the surface was the DM and the victim's aunt (mother was there but not diving that night as she was not yet certified). The DM went down to try and find the victim. He sent the other three divers to a dock to get help. My friend went to get assistance. The DM could not find the victim and returned to the dock to get another tank and search again to no avail.
Eventually the instructor returned with the other divers, saw the commotion and at first did not realize it was his group that was involved. Upon learning of the situation he immediately went down to search for the victim. He found her rather quickly, unfortunately too late. He had lots of trouble getting her off the bottom. The victim was large, some 250 pounds. The instructor did not have enough air to get lift sufficient to pull her up and had to kick to the surface. If it were not for his pony bottle he may not have been able to recover her.
According to the LDS the instructor experienced a great deal of squeeze in his dry suit to the point of bruising his body. He didn't have the air to eliminate the squeeze. He is quite distraught and will not teach the rest of the year and possibly never again.
The vicitim's buddy indicated that she tried to get the victim to ascend a bit when she realized how deep they had gotten. The victim in panic pushed her away. Whether the victim was entangled at this point is unclear. However all indications are that she was stuck on something.
The LDS doubts the embolism finding at this point and believes it is strictly a drowning case. There was no stripping of the gear by the buddy at depth as reported here.
I may know more once my friend returns from vacation. then again We may never know more.
Questions in my mind are why the group was so large and why a night dive to a planned depth of 60ft.
Condolences to all involved.
Alan