Death of cave diver at Mt Gambier, South Australia

[tstormdiver]

Although there are never any guarantees, and anyone can panic at anytime, it does drive home the point of why divers, both Recreational & Technical, need to practice emergency skills & keep them fresh. Although things still could have gone awry, generally with training & practice of the skills, what is taught will kick in & possibly both could have made it out alive. That's why we are taught the skills in the first place. How much time out of a dive does it take to do an air sharing drill? In diving, the only true emergency is when you draw that last breath of air, the rest is only an inconvenience.

 

[ScoobaDood]

Although there are never any guarantees, and anyone can panic at anytime, it does drive home the point of why divers, both Recreational & Technical, need to practice emergency skills & keep them fresh. Although things still could have gone awry, generally with training & practice of the skills, what is taught will kick in & possibly both could have made it out alive. That's why we are taught the skills in the first place. How much time out of a dive does it take to do an air sharing drill? In diving, the only true emergency is when you draw that last breath of air, the rest is only an inconvenience.

I have to say as a very new diver, these posts are extremely valuable. It is amazing how some of the most basic rules/practices taught in the OW courses could have prevented some of these incidents. In this particular case it is really hard to say what could have been done, but I can tell you for sure that the few minutes it would take to go through a few drills would be well spent to save the life of you or your buddy.

Thanks for all the great posts in this section, It has me thinking about the way I want to handle future dives, and things I want to avoid.

 

[Sas]

I hope some more information comes out about this one. I've been diving fat and happy with the gas management I was taught, on the theory that I'd have enough gas to get my buddy out . . . whatever happened to these two, I'd like to know about it, so that I can change anything that needs changing to avoid what they went through.

Yea me too... I don't know what could have gone wrong unless they were diving deep? In the shallower area it is wide open, has little overhead and nearly always clear access to the surface. Also viz is awesome (say, above 40m) and no chance of a silt out though that being said I haven't dived below 40m there so maybe there is deeper... They were cavern or cave trained too I have heard.

Sad news

 

[scubafanatic]

A struggle?! What...???

the newspaper info provided so far is almost useless......as has already been observed, I'm convinced all reporters attend the same journalist school were they are taught divers all use "oxygen bottles"....good grief!

yeah, the 'struggle' is interesting.....could mean there was a medical issue and it was a struggle to get the disabled diver out.....but it sure sounds more like a 'Sea Hunt episode' where someone had to fight/escape from someone else once it became obvious gas supplies were insufficient for two divers. I'm not going to criticize the surviving diver, as the will to live is a strong one, and I honestly doubt anyone can guarantee how they'd respond if the were REALLY put in the same position...one's true nature isn't revealed until confronted with a real life-or-death situation and the pressure in 'on'.

 

[sydney-diver]

yeah, the 'struggle' is interesting.....could mean there was a medical issue and it was a struggle to get the disabled diver out.....

Yes that's a good point, or it could mean they struggled to free the diver from an entanglement before running out of air?

 

[bfowles]

There is some more news about the accident. Looks like entanglement was the cause.

man-drowns-in-cave

 

[ScoobaDood]

WoW Thats just really tragic. I am nowhere near the level of diver to even consider such activities, but from what I have read about the "rules" of cave diving, this should have been avoidable. To me, those are the worst accidents

Prayers to the Family and Friends

 

[sydney-diver]

It's not clear from the reports that they were technically cave diving, they were in the sink hole but I don't think that automatically means they were in an overhead environment?

 

[Sas]

It's not clear from the reports that they were technically cave diving, they were in the sink hole but I don't think that automatically means they were in an overhead environment?

Well the site has a lot of area that is in OW. It's Cavern rated though (the sites up there have ratings Cavern, Cave + Advanced Cave) so you need Cavern training to dive there so they would have some cave training.

 

[stiebs]

It's not clear from the reports that they were technically cave diving, they were in the sink hole but I don't think that automatically means they were in an overhead environment?

I can't comment specifically about this incident nor the people involved, but here is some information about what I know of the site from my experience.

This site is on private property, and access to it is strictly controlled by the CDAA (Cave Divers Association of Australia). Generally only CDAA members are allowed access, with some special considerations for visitors with equivalent qualifications).

I believe the last death at this particular site was in 1972 or 73, and was one of a number of deaths in the area during a short period leading to the inception of the CDAA.

The site is classified as a sinkhole. It widens out considerably as you descend, and is considered an overhead environment. Descending directly from the entry point, the bottom is at ~20m (60'), and depending which direction you take from there can get to as much as 60m (180'). There are two fixed lines running down to about 40m (120'), and can be useful for orientation in the hole, but not required for navigation. The water is without fail crystal clear.

This picture was taken from 20m, looking up towards the surface. The rock formation you can see is actually above ground, about 15m above the surface.

There are a lot of large boulders creating wide swim-throughs of 2m - 5m (6' - 15'), but also along the walls there are a handful of longer, tighter tunnels that could be classified as caves, silt up easily, and require running a line through.

The one pictured below runs from about 27m (100'), and gets to about 42m (127') before exiting at 37m (120'). So if a diver were to get entangled in that passage, there is not a lot of space for a buddy to assist, and not a lot of spare time to get out.

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