Diver missing on Oriskany 10/22/11

[Hatul]

The other thing about diving solo is the uncertainty. I mean, this incident has resulted in a huge search effort, simply because nobody knew where the diver WAS. Even if your buddy can't help you, and even if you get SEPARATED from him, at least he can give some information about where you were last seen and under what conditions, that can help guide a search. For example, in this case, if it were known that the diver had exited the wreck, then an expensive and risky effort wouldn't have to be made to search the interior for him. On the other hand, if a buddy reported he never came out, it might have focused efforts ON the wreck, rather than a big surface search. You really impair efforts to retrieve you, when you deprive folks of that information.

True but it's not realistic to buddy dive just so they can help locate your remains. When I dive I'm thinking I'm going down and coming up, not what's the best way to recover my remains.

 

[Teamcasa]

Said his name was Jim.

It was not.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

That's what it said in video a couple of times, of course you know the guy so it is not jim.

 

[ucfdiver]

It was not.

Why not say the name? His wife was on the boat, so first of kin has been notified. I think at this point most in the community have heard from word of mouth.

 

[Blue Sparkle]

Here is the text that goes with the above [link] for future reference:

Did you notice how, in that article, there are many quoted statements but no mention of who said them? Huh.

(I'm not saying it's a big deal, but it just struck me as odd and I'm not sure I've ever seen that before; I clicked to the original article link and it's the same.)

Unless I missed a key mention? It's possible I'm staring right at it and missing it :blush:

 

[Teamcasa]

Why not say the name? His wife was on the boat, so first of kin has been notified. I think at this point most in the community have heard from word of mouth.

Why? It's not relevant for the purpose of this forum.

The purpose of this forum is the promotion of safe diving through the examination and discussion of accidents and incidents; to find lessons we can apply to our own diving.

His name will be in the Passing's Forum once it has been publicly released.

 

[jhayes75]

Said his name was Jim.

I will not release his name, but it was not Jim.

 

[merxlin]

Why not say the name? His wife was on the boat, so first of kin has been notified. I think at this point most in the community have heard from word of mouth.

Out of respect for the wishes of his wife, and also the terms of this forum. It has not been publicly released so therefore cannot be published here. From the "Special Rules" sticky http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/accidents-incidents/52701-special-rules-please-read.html at the top of the forum:

(1) You may not release any names here, until after the names have appeared in the public domain (articles, news reports, sheriff's report etc.) The releasing report must be cited. Until such public release, the only name you may use in this forum is your own.

 

[Tom Smedley]

There is no better or faster communication system on Earth than the Coconut Telegraph. Everyone who is concerned with the diving world knew within a few minutes that there was a mishap, whether it was one of their friends, or off a friend's boat. There has been discussion as to whether solo diving played a part. If I remember the last rebreather diver who perished on the O had several buddies with him and the only difference was the speed that the remains were recovered. The big question to me would be a dive plan. In such a plan the diver would lay out their intentions and a timetable that would be followed to the second. Every single tech diver that I know is absoutely anal about the dive plan. There must have someone who this diver discussed his agenda with before setting out that would give a clue as to where to start looking. I am positive that experienced investigators have followed this lead. We hold in our hearts the grief of the family and friends and we hope for the safety of those on the search and recovery teams.

 

[Hetland]

Every single tech diver that I know is absoutely anal about the dive plan. There must have someone who this diver discussed his agenda with before setting out that would give a clue as to where to start looking. I am positive that experienced investigators have followed this lead.

This was a charter trip. Technical divers are required to file a dive plan with the divemaster or Captain of this particular boat (this is pretty common to pensacola boats). A dive plan was in fact filed with the divemaster on this occasion, and a quick search was made along the route of that dive plan as soon as possible (within an hour or so of diver being overdue). Logistics limited the scope and duration of this quick search. A more through search was conducted the next day by several teams of technical divers both on rebreathers and scuba. The second search covered areas not in the original dive plan.