Accidental saturation diver.

[Rhone Man]

What is also amazing to me is that after 72 hours at 100 feet, he only needed two hours of deco (although it does say that he spent time in a chamber afterwards).

 

[swimmer_spe]

So, go with 12 lpm. 40,000 liters would allow him to do it open circuit. That’s a pretty big space, about 2m X 4m X 5m, but still conceivable in a ship’s compartment.

That is not exceptionally small when considering compartment size.

 

[DCBC]

DCN DIVERS TO THE RESCUE​

On Sunday 26 May, the tugboat Jascon 4 ran into difficulties whilst engaged in static towing operations, capsized and sank with a crew of 12 on board.

At the time, the tug was approx. 30 km off the coast of Escravos in Nigeria, offering assistance to a tanker being loaded at a Single Mooring System (SBM). The rescue operation involving helicopters and other vessels swung into action almost immediately. At that time, there was no trace of the crew members.

At the moment of the disaster, the Lewek Toucan, chartered by West African Ventures, with a team of DCN divers on board, was 17 hours sailing distance from the accident site. The team was involved in saturation diving work for the Okpoho-Okono 16 pipeline project being undertaken by DCN Diving in collaboration with DCN Global.

As Internet reports about the accident continued to develop, the realisation grew among the divers that there could still be survivors of the Jascon 4, trapped in an air pocket. Direct contact between the client and the management of DCN Global resulted in the immediate order to head for the accident site and offer all possible assistance in finding the crew members.

The current operation was immediately halted, with divers from DCN actually in saturation at a pressure of 70 metres. The Jascon 4 had however sunk in 30 metre-deep water. The 17 hour sailing time was used to bring the divers to a saturation pressure of 30 metres. Once at the accident site, the divers discovered that the wreck was upside down, and the cook on board the Jascon 4 was indeed trapped in an air pocket in a still intact compartment. After 62 hours trapped in the air pocket, he was brought to the surface safe and well, by the divers from DCN.

This successful rescue raised hope among the DCN team that other live victims would perhaps be found, but further investigations sadly revealed only the remains of 10 deceased crew members.

The 6 divers, the deck crew and technical staff worked uninterrupted. They can be duly proud of the result of their work: 1 person rescued alive, and 10 crew members retrieved from the wreck. Even the retrieval of remains represents an important contribution to the mourning process for the victims’ families.

 

[ianr33]

Kind of makes you wonder how many more people have survived a shipwreck only to sit on the bottom of the sea and die slowly.

Some of the the unfortunate guys on the Kursk may have been alive for at least a few hours. Miserable way to die.
Russian submarine Kursk explosion - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[supergaijin]

Divers forced their way into the ship, and Okene saw the light from their head torches in the passage next to his room. He swam out into the water and tapped the diver. “I was waving my hands and he was shocked.”


A bit of an understatement. After swimming through dead bodies that had fish bites all over them, and then one taps you on the shoulder? Holy crap!

 

[Divedaily]

The divers put a diving helmet and harness onto him and he followed the diver to the bell were he was then taken to deck level and kept in the chamber and decompressed for 2 days.

So 2 DAYS of deco. What is unclear about that?

 

[fjpatrum]

The boat sank in tropical waters. My computer usually says ~27º C (~81ºF), so I don't think exposure was a primary concern.

If I'm wet in 81 F water with no exposure protection, I guarantee you after 2 days I'm extremely hypothermic, if not dead. I am not very cold tolerant though and have been hypothermic in 85+ degree weather when wet (with symptoms of both mild and moderate as shown below). I doubt the guy was fully wet, but I didn't see anything that mentioned it one way or the other when I made my first post.

For reference, some hypothermia symptoms by core temperature. Notice that death happens at some unspecified core temperature below 86F.

Mild Hypothermia - core temperature 98.6 - 96 degrees F

• Shivering - not under voluntary control
• Can't do complex motor functions (ice climbing or skiing) can still walk & talk
• Vasoconstriction to periphery

c. Moderate Hypothermia - core temperature 95 - 93 degrees F

• Dazed consciousness
• Loss of fine motor coordination - particularly in hands - can't zip up parka, due to restricted peripheral blood flow
• Slurred speech
• Violent shivering
• Irrational behavior - Paradoxical Undressing - person starts to take off clothing, unaware s/he is cold
• "I don't care attitude" - flattened affect

d. Severe Hypothermia - core temperature 92 - 86 degrees and below (immediately life threatening)

• Shivering occurs in waves, violent then pause, pauses get longer until shivering finally ceases - because the heat output from burning glycogen in the muscles is not sufficient
  to counteract the continually dropping core temperature, the body shuts down on shivering to conserve glucose
• Person falls to the ground, can't walk, curls up into a fetal position to conserve heat
• Muscle rigidity develops - because peripheral blood flow is reduced and due to lactic acid and CO2 buildup in the muscles
• Skin is pale
• Pupils dilate
• Pulse rate decreases
• at 90 degrees the body tries to move into hibernation, shutting down all peripheral blood flow and reducing breathing rate and heart rate.
• at 86 degrees the body is in a state of "metabolic icebox." The person looks dead but is still alive.

e. Death from Hypothermia

• Breathing becomes erratic and very shallow
• Semi-conscious
• Cardiac arrythmias develop, any sudden shock may set off Ventricular Fibrillation
• Heart stops, death

 

[beanojones]

He was sitting on a table in an air space.

 

[vladimir]

These news stories are always a little dubious.

Yes, I stand corrected; even at 81ºF, if he was immersed for two days hypothermia was a real threat. It's not clear to me whether or not he was immersed. Clearly he was not fully immersed; it sounds to me like he was probably partially immersed.

But I still don't know how they are finding "freezing water" at 30 meters that close to the equator.

 

[mmcdanie]

Interesting, when I read the story, I did not have in my minds eye the darkness. That would have pushed me into panic mode for sure. As we all know keeping your head when things go bad is a major key to survival. Great lesson.