Bermuda Fatality

[DandyDon]

From Man dies in diving accident | Bermuda News

A man has died following a diving accident off Grotto Bay Hotel this afternoon.
Police are not releasing the name of the man until his next of kin have been notified. The man's death is not considered to be suspicious.
Said a police spokeswoman: "Around 4.35pm police received a telephone call from Bermuda Radio concerning a missing diver in the waters off of Grotto Bay Hotel. As a result, police divers and a Bermuda Police Service marine vessel attended the area to search for the missing man. He was located in the waters a short time later in an unresponsive state and was immediately given first aid while awaiting the arrival of an ambulance."
The man was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital and pronounced dead at 6.35pm.

 

[DandyDon]

Seems that he was an Instructor and was on a Rebreather: Diving community mourns loss of popular instructor - Bermuda Sun News ... Beyond the Headlines - Bermuda

SATURDAY, APRIL 7: Diving experts are to try to piece together the final moments of an experienced instructor who died in shallow water on Thursday.
Ryan Craig, 25, died while using a closed circuit rebreather — a piece of technical diving equipment —in nine feet of water off the beach at Grotto Bay.
Mr Craig, a Canadian, was an experienced commercial and technical diver, and a PADI diving instructor.
He had been working at Triangle Diving Bermuda for just over a year and was married to a Bermudian, 24-year-old Madison.
Graham Maddocks, owner of Triangle Diving Bermuda, said Mr Craig’s wife is “broken up” but that family and friends are rallying together.
His father is flying to the island from Canada today.
Mr Maddocks said plans are already underway to commemorate Mr Craig.
“We will do something down at the shop but right now we are trying to get ourselves together,” he said.
“It was a horrible accident and this is a very sad time for everyone. It is a huge shock, a huge blow.
“It is the first time anything like this has ever happened to us. We are a tight group and Ryan was a very big part of our lives.
“The phones have not stopped ringing since Thursday with people wanting to give their condolences. This boy touched so many people’s lives and everyone loved him.
“He will be very sorely missed.”
Mr Maddocks said he believed Mr Craig was trying out some new parts on a closed circuit rebreather.
It is thought he entered shallow water off the beach at Grotto Bay Beach Hotel — just yards from the dive shop — at about 1pm.
Once the alarm was raised that Mr Craig was missing, Mr Maddocks and fellow divers began to search the nearby water, joined by police divers.
“We had about seven or eight people looking for him and another boat in the water. Then one of the guys from the top of the boat saw something in the water.
“We pulled him out of the water and started CPR but he’d been dead for hours.
“He was just off the beach in about nine feet of water.”
Mr Craig’s body was recovered at about 4.35pm and he was taken to King Edward VII Memorial Hospital where he was pronounced dead two hours later.
“Ryan was a very dear friend of mine,” said Mr Maddocks.
“He was loved by everyone. Ryan was always smiling, always optimistic. He was just a great guy.
“Every guest who came through those doors always asked for him. Nothing was too big or small for him, it was always rosy with him.”
Mr Craig was also a “wonderful videographer,” said Mr Maddocks.
“He did all our movies for us.”
This included a documentary on the threat that lionfish are posing to marine species in Bermuda’s waters and the work of environmental charity, the Ocean Support Foundation.
But it was technical diving which was Mr Craig’s main interest, Mr Maddocks said.
“Technical diving was his passion.
“Technical divers are not unused to losing people. It is an up and coming sport. We’re on the cutting edge, exploring new frontiers and with any type of new frontier you will always have losses.
“We are experts in technical diving and have all the certifications but accidents can happen.
“Ryan would be so upset if this accident led to people poo-pooing technical diving and in some way prevented it from going forward.
“He wanted to be part of that and he would want things to keep going forward, and that’s exactly what we’ll do.
“On Monday we will take the equipment apart piece by piece with the police and Marine and Ports authorities, and figure out what happened.”
Mr Maddocks said a conference call with a renowned rebreather diver, who is a friend of his, will also take place.
“He is an expert in this particular brand of equipment,” he said.
“But at the end of the day only Ryan will know what happened.”
He added: “When you start dealing with closed circuit rebreather systems it’s the safest way to dive deep but it’s a sophisticated piece of equipment and so many things can go wrong.
“Within eight to nine feet of water is actually the most dangerous depth to dive and most rebreather accidents happen at that depth.
“Rebreathers don’t start to do well until they are in the 70 to 80 feet range, so when you’re in eight to nine feet of water it may give you a sense of being safe but the reality is you’re probably at your most vulnerable at that depth.”
Paying tribute
Stephen Harrold, 35, worked alongside Mr Craig at Triangle Diving Bermuda.
The PADI instructor and boat skipper described him as “one of the nicest guys you could meet”.
“He was one of the world’s most genuinely kind-hearted and helpful people,” said Mr Harrold.
“We spent a lot of time working together and were like brothers. I will miss him massively, it’s going to be a big gap in my life. He was such a fantastic person. He will be sorely missed.”
Friend and dive buddy Marcus Cooper, 40, added: “Ryan was really nice to everyone. He had a huge heart. Myself and all my friends are very shocked. He was such a great guy.”

Ondrej Hindl, a PADI instructor with Blue Water Divers and friend of Mr Craig, said: "On one of our last dives for the Ocean Support Foundation, while looking for lionfish in depths of 200 feet, Ryan needed to send a liftbag up to the surface. His reel got jammed so I reached for mine and passed it to him.
"Ryan signalled that my reel was much better and was gonna keep it. I pulled my knife out, pretending to claim the ownership. I will never forget the grin on his face.
"He was like young Johnny Barnes. He was always happy, smiling and there was enough space in his heart for everyone."

 

[Bratface]

How unfortunate. I am always sorry to hear bad news like this. When my buddy tried her side mount for the first time, I dove along with her. She is also an experienced instructor but you never know if you will have some malfunction and that will be your last dive. My condolences to friends and family.

 

[Tao of the Dive]

I know next to nothing about CCR. I know they use chemicals to scrub the CO2 out of the exhaled air, and that the counter lungs assist in propelling that air through the system, and that you or your computer will occassiopnally add diluent to the system. But I suppose my big question is; why are rebreathers most dangerous at shallower depth?

 

[Ayisha]

If you look back at some of the shallow semi-closed rebreather incidents particularly, but also CCR, they go into why it happens that the person went unconscious, pretty much just fell asleep, in shallow water. There were a bunch one particular year in the recent past, and some did not have an onboard O2 sensor, some did not turn the O2 sensor on, and may not have had any idea that their O2 was low. Most did not have a bailout. I'm sure somebody will be along that can tell you exactly why...

 

[Hatul]

I know next to nothing about CCR. I know they use chemicals to scrub the CO2 out of the exhaled air, and that the counter lungs assist in propelling that air through the system, and that you or your computer will occassiopnally add diluent to the system. But I suppose my big question is; why are rebreathers most dangerous at shallower depth?

I'm not a rebreather diver, but the reason is that for the body what counts is the PPO2 which is ambient pressure* FIO2. Ambient pressure is directly related to the depth. The rebreather is constantly mixing gases and adjusting the FIO2 to have the PPO2 in a safe zone.

If there's a failure of the O2 sensors the PPO2 can drop below 0.16 atm and you can pass out. This is most likely when you're shallow and especially when you make a rapid ascend and the system does not compensate fast enough by increasing the FIO2.

So to summarize the risk is from hypoxia which is most likely in shallow water.

If you look in Jeff Bozanic's book Mastering Rebreathers 2nd ed. it's page 97-98.

The three treatments are to inject manually fresh breathing gas or O2, descend to increase the PPO2, or switch to open circuit bailout.

 

[Tao of the Dive]

Okay, thanks for the answers. Although it makes me ponder why CCR divers do not use a open circuit system to get to a safe depth, then switch over? I hope I am not detracting too much from the incident conversation. I assure ya'll I'm simply trying to add to my limiting understanding of CCRs so that I can better understand what happened to this young man.

 

[Mike]

Solo diver.

 

[gtto]

I was incredibly saddend to learn of this today. I was in Bermuda for 4 months and dove with Ryan a few times every week. He was a really great person and instructor. He did my DM certification. I am glad to have known him. I will miss him. Gary

 

[DT]

Its all speculation folks leave it at that. I've been on a rebreather now for 13 years and know my systems inside out. Many past fatalities were a direct cause of the diver not knowing what he is doing, not knowing when and how to abort and bail, poor equipment maintenance and pushing scrubber life beyond its limits it still happens all the time. Alterning the rebreather components etc etc. Rebreathers don't kill the divers. Perhaps this was a personal medical problem but who knows either way its sad that another fellow diver has fallen.:depressed: