Diver dies during OW course at Arraial do Cabo near Rio de Janeiro.

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miketsp

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Mulher morre em curso de mergulho no litoral do Rio - Brasil - Notícia - VEJA.com


Rough translation - same text is in many newspapers since yesterday.

Woman dies during basic diving course on the coast of Rio

Biologist of 47 years died of asphyxia by drowning. Port Authority found no irregularities in equipment. Civilian Police investigating the case

Enrolled in a scuba diving course - which uses air cylinders - in the city of Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro in the Lakes Region, biologist Regina Célia Gonçalves Peralta, 47, died by drowning in the afternoon last Saturday. The accident happened in the region known as Pig Island, an area used for open water diving instruction for having shallow and calm waters.

Regina was enrolled for the basic course in diving, the first step in the range of recreational diving autonomous practice that attracts thousands of tourists every year to Arraial do Cabo and other cities. By having clear waters and diverse marine life, Arraial is known as "dive capital" in the state. The operator Tubarao Rio, which operates in the market for nearly 15 years, administered the course.

Witnesses told the police that Regina would have lost consciousness when she was at a depth of about 10 meters. Regina was rescued unconscious by diving instructors, but was dead when they arrived at the Fisherman's Marina.The fact that the waters are murky at the time of the accident would have hindered the finding of the biologist. The forensic report indicated that Regina died of asphyxiation by drowning.

In recreational diving, the norm is that divers never stay alone. The practice ensures, for example, in case of failures in the system of air is possible to use equipment of the other member of the pair. And during the course, students are constantly under observation and assistance of the instructors. The first dive alone occurs when the student completes all the training procedures and makes his first "dive tourism," accompanied by another diver who may be a newly formed, like him.

By enrolling in the course of diving, the student fills in a form that informs about possible health problems such as angina, impaired airway clearance, heart problems, hypertension, labyrinthitis and others. The questionnaire attempts to anticipate problems with breathing difficulties and pressure variation.

Diving instructors are trained for complex rescues, including conducting unconscious divers, from underwater to the surface. Technically, you can bring an unconscious person , submerged up to the surface, with the use of respirators - called regulators - and the equipment that allows the diver to float. In panic situations or seizures, however, the risk is the diver can not keep the respirator from his mouth and, therefore, suffer asphyxiation.

The case was registered in police station, the 132 Precinct. The Port Authority inspected the equipment of the vessel and found no irregularities.
 
This is terrible news! Too many diver deaths recently!
 
This fatality happened a little more than a year ago, but, as I have not seen the case discussed here, I thought it might be worth being brought up. I am trying to omit identifying details as I do not know if the official inquiry has been concluded, and what are its findings.

A group of coworkers at a travel agency decided they might get into scuba diving to gain knowledge into new leisure activities that may interest clients. So, one of the workers there called a scuba instructor he knew from a nearby town, where lots of scuba diving is done. He said he'd be able to give in-water lessons but, due to scheduling conflicts, a second instructor was found to give the theoretical lessons. This part of the instruction was done at night, during the week.

Coming saturday, the group traveled to meet the instructor and take the pool lessons and open water dives. The first lesson took place at a well protected dive spot. The second lesson would be held in a similar spot but, seeing as it was already later than he expected, the instructor decided to take the group to the first dive site and do exercises there.

There were 8 divers (not completely sure it were 8, at least 6 and no more than 10) which were divided into 4 buddy teams. There were two instructors. The first instructor would dive first with the buddy team that showed most difficulty next to him. Another instructor would come in the rear, with another pair close. The additional divers would be between the two groups.

So, when one of the "middle group" buddy pair started to descend, both divers started having trouble equalizing and kept going up and down. At one time, one of the two ascended but noticed the other remained in depth (no more than 15ft). He went up a little and, when he came down, he could not find his buddy. Trouble is, the visibility was between 12 and 18 feet. So, not finding his buddy after a minute, he went up. As he couldn't find her on the surface, he called for help.

The instructor stopped the exercise and started looking for the lost diver. After a while, a lone fin was found, but it took at least 20 minutes to find the diver's body on the bottom.

As far as I remember, when the body was found, the regulator was out of the mouth and the equipment was working properly. The cause of death was drowning.

As far as I know, the authorities have come to the conclusion that all safety regulations were followed and the death was just an accident.

Still, I must say I am amazed a diving class could be conducted in such conditions, with what appear to me some serious disregard to safety issues. The biggest of which, there were open water students in the water completely outside the view of any diving professional.
 
Yes, it is. Sorry for the duplicate thread. I hope I have provided some more details, at least. I can say that the the story I narrated is a synthesis from the witnesses' reports.
 
I am sorry, but I am unclear about some things from your description.

As I understand it, the divers did one pool lesson in a safe place. They then did another lesson in the same place.

There were 8 divers and two instructors in poor visibility, and a diver was lost. It took a while to find that diver. I believe I understood that part.

The other thread said the diver was found in 30 feet of water. Is that correct?

Can you tell me what diving agency this was?
 
No exercises were conducted in a pool. They were all done in the sea. The first one was in a very benign location, in terms of depth and sea movement. The second one was done in a place were, as I understood the rationale, the students could have access to more sea life, but which presented some more difficulty. Regarding the depth, I think it was shallower than 30ft and closer to the 15ft I wrote, but, as it has been sometime since I read the documents on which I based the information I provided, it is possible that 30ft is the correct depth. As for the visibility and time it took to find the body, I have no doubt what I wrote represents what the witnesses asserted (though some said it took even longer to find the body).
 
You did not mention the agency, but one agency, PADI, allows initial work to be done in what they call confined open water, and here is the definition: " Confined open water is an open water site that offers swimming pool-like conditions with respect to clarity, calmness, and depth." I suspect the site failed to meet that standard, at least in terms of clarity and depth.

PADI also requires that a professional (instructor or divemaster) be in the immediate presence of all students when diving is done in poor visibility.
 
I did not mention the agency because, in all honesty, I do not remember its name, as it was a less common one. It wasn't PADI, NAUI or SSI, for example.

I would like to add that I do not think a pool must necessarily be used. During my OW certification, for example, we used a very calm, shallow (and hot) lake. What I find perplexing is that an instructor would find OK to take students in the beginning of their dive training to dark waters and decide to proceed knowing some students would be out of the sight of instructors. Notice it took at least 20min to find someone whose problem occurred at the moment she descended, not after she decided to swim away.
 
I know PADI says that the confined water dives must be held in a pool or an open water site with "Pool-like conditions". I've always considered that to mean good visibility and calm water (although some of the pools we use can get pretty murky at times!).

Figuring out what acceptable ratios are in low viz situations is difficult. My husband has decided he will NOT take more than 2 students per staff member into our Puget Sound sites, where visibility at best is in the 20 foot range, and rapidly deteriorates if anyone kicks up the bottom. Frequently, we are actually diving 1:1. Anything more than 1:2, and you run a serious risk of losing sight of students, and students do all kinds of strange things with very little warning.

I am always sad to hear of the death of a diver, but somehow, deaths during OW class are the worst, since in theory, these divers should be so closely supervised in such benign conditions that nothing really serious should happen.
 

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