Cozumel Incident 9/4/11

[RonFrank]

Here is a summary of what happened based on what I've read from those closest to the divers living on the island, or from the divers themselves.

Maybe this is old news, I don't know.

I will call them Divers 1-4. Diver 1 was a safety diver and stopped at 150' and waited. They we not hurt.

Divers 2-4 planned a deep bounce dive to 250-300 feet.

Diver 3 and 4 were using AL80s and Diver 2 had an AL100. There were no backup bottles or safety gas of any kind. They were all on Air.

Divers 2-3 executed the dive to approximately 300F, and stopped.

Diver 4 at 300f got very narked, and continued a descent.

Diver 3 decided to go after Diver 4 and did so, but did not stop the decent until approx. 400f.

Diver 3 grabbed Diver 4 and started the ascent back to Diver 2.

By the time Divers 3 and 4 were back with Diver 2 they we running out of air. They decided to buddy breath to the surface off of Divers 2 gas. They ran out of air on the way up but some how made it.

Unfortunately a second party was still in the water when divers 1-4 surfaced. Diver 2, 3, 4 were in pain.

Diver 4 decided to go back down to 60 feet to re-compress. Diver 3 quickly followed.

The second party surfaced a few minutes later. Divers 3-4 came back up in distress. Divers 4 was put on O2 and passed out.

Divers 2-4 suffered problems as a result of this dive.

Diver 2 requires assistance, but can walk.

Diver 3 is paralyzed from the chest down, but is regaining feeling in the chest. They will be released from the hospital this week, but continue ongoing chamber rides.

Diver 4 was flown to Miami and is paralyzed from the neck down. They are responsive (mostly) but still in bad shape, and the outcome is not known at this time I do not believe. They can not do chamber rides due to brain stem issues.

Divers 3 and 4 have no insurance and are accepting donations to help with costs.

K I've left out the names, but this is as close to what occurred as I can tell based on first hand accounts.

A very tragic story indeed, and so pointless....

 

[sealkie]

Here is a summary of what happened based on what I've read from those closest to the divers living on the island, or from the divers themselves.

Maybe this is old news, I don't know.

I will call them Divers 1-4. Diver 1 was a safety diver and stopped at 150' and waited. They we not hurt.

That is the first I ever read of a 4th diver at 150 - I did read there was a completely seperate group that did a dive to 150

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

That is the first I ever read of a 4th diver at 150 - I did read there was a completely seperate group that did a dive to 150

Wondered about that as well ... seems to me if there was a safety diver in the water, the sensible thing to do would've been to swim to the safety diver for additional gas before heading to the surface.

Then again, nothing about this dive seems sensible to me ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[Texas Torpedo]

There was no "safety" diver in the water supporting the bounce divers..

 

[alex300]

I have some experience doing deep dives on air here in Cozumel...315ft with my best friends and solo dives at 240 ft. not only once or twice...but few dozen dives. The main true i know is that diving deep with air doesnt give you that much room for mistakes...and I see a lot of mistakes on the way this dive was done. Cozumel currents can be tricky...sure...but failing to "read" them and act properly is a 100% human error, specially having the knowledge and experience that being a "local diver" gives you. Failing to have plenty of air WITH YOU DURING THE WHOLE DIVE is a big mistake...going with a SINGLE TANK (totally independent of the capacity of the tank) passing 250ft is NOT a good idea...sharing a single tank to TRY to do DECO ...well...what can i say???
Believe me when I tell you that I know by personal experience that all those are BIG mistakes...being there done that. The diference?? I was lucky and perhaps the must important thing, I learn quick from my mistakes.
Lets put it this way: deep diving on air is the same thing that rock climbing without ropes! exciting? YES! extremely dangerous? YES ...sort of playing russian rulette?? TOTALLY!!!
My advise: if you are willing to do this, assume all the risk that involve...think about the consequences ( some will change your life forever ), prepare yourself phisicaly, emotinally and mentally, PLAN the dive, chose very carefull your dive team, use redundant equipment, THINK ABOUT IT TWICE and if you are still convince that yo want to do it...go for it...
... and once you finish your dive realize how lucky you are if everything went well...

I seriously doubt that a current can make you drop the way that its being describe...but i believe that

 

[alex300]

but i believe that NITROGEN NARCOSIS can make you believe that a current suck you down.

I believe that this kind of incidents should help all the divers out there to learn from others mistakes and reconsider how they want or should dive... I believe that humans can push limits that many times seems way beyond our possiblities...and also believe that "accidents" are 80% the result of human error.

Im feel sorry for those divers and only hope that they will recover the best as possible...

I believe that deep diving is awesome but a very unforgiven mistress.

 

[Craig66]

I believe that deep diving is awesome but a very unforgiven mistress.

No disrespect and I know each to their own but unless you are down deep for a specific reason how is deep diving awesome? Perhaps a deep diver can explain what is so awesome that it makes the added risk worth it?



Sent from my iPod touch using Tapatalk

 

[Mossman]

No disrespect and I know each to their own but unless you are down deep for a specific reason how is deep diving awesome? Perhaps a deep diver can explain what is so awesome that it makes the added risk worth it?

Uh, "rapture of the deep"? It's probably narcosis so sublime that it equates to shooting up heroin or to really good sex, either one bad to experience because you only crave more. Unfortunately, more can kill.

(Hey, some guys do get heart attacks from too much sex. I wish I was one of them!)

 

[rigdiver]

Uh, "rapture of the deep"? It's probably narcosis so sublime that it equates to shooting up heroin or to really good sex, either one bad to experience because you only crave more. Unfortunately, more can kill.

(Hey, some guys do get heart attacks from too much sex. I wish I was one of them!)

It happens to women too. I took care of one lady in ICU whose husband thought she was faking it(heart attack.)

Bill R.N.

 

[Mossman]

It happens to women too. I took care of one lady in ICU whose husband thought she was faking it(heart attack.)

Bill R.N.

Hmmm. I've often wondered if they were faking a headache, but they'd have to be really desperate to get out of sleeping with me to fake a heart attack. I guess it's time to re-certify my CPR just in case I get "lucky".