Diving accident on the Cedarville

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One diver had gear problems and remained on the boat. The other two went down. The victim was definitely on his pony reg, it is clear in his own GoPro video. The face of the pony reg looked different, but the hose was black, just like the main. The Octo was bright yellow.

The diver looked at his computer several times, but maybe he was only checking the depth and didn't realize that the tank pressure was not changing. There is no clear explanation for why he didn't try to find his main reg, but it was moving around behind him - not hooked off, as he thought he was using it. He had an Octo on his right side, but he didn't go to that either - likely he thought his main tank was empty, and was searching for his pony reg where he expected it to be, only to be surprised. He signaled his buddy and they did an air share in textbook manner. They took a few seconds to let him catch his breath, and they started an ascent. No weights were ditched at this time.

As they ascended, they of course needed to dump air from the BC's. When the victim extended his BC inflator to vent, his BC air hose popped off the nipple. Somehow they dumped too much air and plummeted back to the bottom. The victim apparently lost the donated reg on the way down. His buddy was kicking furiously, trying slow the descent. At the bottom he tried to replace the reg in the victim's mouth, but it was too late.

He removed the victim's weights, and dropped his own belt. They were found next to each other. The survivor started floating up, but the victim probably had a waterlogged BC and stayed put on the bottom. The survivor made a rapid ascent and called for help.

The rescue diver was told the victim was in front of a cargo hatch so he splashed over the stack and swam rapidly forward to the collision crack. Finding nothing he headed back to the stern, quickly looking inside each hold and the coal bunker. Finding nothing he moved aft of the stack and found the victim on the bottom, below the sanitary water tanks (remember this wreck is tilted over past 90°). The rescue diver tried the dry suit inflater. It was working, but they take a long time to add enough air to provide much lift. In the interest of saving time, he grabbed the BC inflater, found the hose off, and quickly connected it. That provided the lift required to get the victim heading upward. He then did a controlled ascent, trying to control the airway of the victim to allow air to escape from the lungs as it expanded. Of course, the victim had been submerged for about 25 minutes by that time, so there was no hope. The main tank (HP steel) had 2900 psi. The small aluminum pony was empty.

It was later found that the BC inflater hose would attach and provide air without being fully/securely latched onto the connector. It needed to be pushed on, and then additional force was required to make it snap securely. I suggest everyone give their hose a tug after connecting, just to make sure it is latched.

This information comes from the rescue diver, as well as a close review of the victim's own video. His camera was on a wrist lanyard, so it was pointing in various directions as he let go of it at different points during the dive and the incident.

The buddy did all he could to help. The victim just had multiple mistakes or problems pile up on each other. It is unclear whether he had a medical issue on the rapid descent, that is another possibility that we're waiting to find out from the autopsy. He was lost by the time they returned to the bottom, so we can't rule that out.

Several lessons to be learned here. Be sure that you are breathing from the correct reg. Be sure your hoses are all connected properly and securely. Do your air adds and vents in little burps, don't overdo it at any one time. Don't just check your tank pressure, note that it is changing at the expected rate. If not, check to see what reg you are using!

This report is intended to help others learn how errors can compound, and as a reminder to look closely at your own gear as well as your buddy.
 
Thank you for your contribution.

One diver had gear problems and remained on the boat. The other two went down. The victim was definitely on his pony reg, it is clear in his own GoPro video. The face of the pony reg looked different, but the hose was black, just like the main. The Octo was bright yellow.

The diver looked at his computer several times, but maybe he was only checking the depth and didn't realize that the tank pressure was not changing. There is no clear explanation for why he didn't try to find his main reg, but it was moving around behind him - not hooked off, as he thought he was using it. He had an Octo on his right side, but he didn't go to that either - likely he thought his main tank was empty, and was searching for his pony reg where he expected it to be, only to be surprised. He signaled his buddy and they did an air share in textbook manner. They took a few seconds to let him catch his breath, and they started an ascent. No weights were ditched at this time.

As they ascended, they of course needed to dump air from the BC's. When the victim extended his BC inflator to vent, his BC air hose popped off the nipple. Somehow they dumped too much air and plummeted back to the bottom. The victim apparently lost the donated reg on the way down. His buddy was kicking furiously, trying slow the descent. At the bottom he tried to replace the reg in the victim's mouth, but it was too late.

He removed the victim's weights, and dropped his own belt. They were found next to each other. The survivor started floating up, but the victim probably had a waterlogged BC and stayed put on the bottom. The survivor made a rapid ascent and called for help.

The rescue diver was told the victim was in front of a cargo hatch so he splashed over the stack and swam rapidly forward to the collision crack. Finding nothing he headed back to the stern, quickly looking inside each hold and the coal bunker. Finding nothing he moved aft of the stack and found the victim on the bottom, below the sanitary water tanks (remember this wreck is tilted over past 90°). The rescue diver tried the dry suit inflater. It was working, but they take a long time to add enough air to provide much lift. In the interest of saving time, he grabbed the BC inflater, found the hose off, and quickly connected it. That provided the lift required to get the victim heading upward. He then did a controlled ascent, trying to control the airway of the victim to allow air to escape from the lungs as it expanded. Of course, the victim had been submerged for about 25 minutes by that time, so there was no hope. The main tank (HP steel) had 2900 psi. The small aluminum pony was empty.

It was later found that the BC inflater hose would attach and provide air without being fully/securely latched onto the connector. It needed to be pushed on, and then additional force was required to make it snap securely. I suggest everyone give their hose a tug after connecting, just to make sure it is latched.

This information comes from the rescue diver, as well as a close review of the victim's own video. His camera was on a wrist lanyard, so it was pointing in various directions as he let go of it at different points during the dive and the incident.

The buddy did all he could to help. The victim just had multiple mistakes or problems pile up on each other. It is unclear whether he had a medical issue on the rapid descent, that is another possibility that we're waiting to find out from the autopsy. He was lost by the time they returned to the bottom, so we can't rule that out.

Several lessons to be learned here. Be sure that you are breathing from the correct reg. Be sure your hoses are all connected properly and securely. Do your air adds and vents in little burps, don't overdo it at any one time. Don't just check your tank pressure, note that it is changing at the expected rate. If not, check to see what reg you are using!

This report is intended to help others learn how errors can compound, and as a reminder to look closely at your own gear as well as your buddy.
 
Several lessons to be learned here. Be sure that you are breathing from the correct reg. Be sure your hoses are all connected properly and securely. Do your air adds and vents in little burps, don't overdo it at any one time. Don't just check your tank pressure, note that it is changing at the expected rate. If not, check to see what reg you are using!

This report is intended to help others learn how errors can compound, and as a reminder to look closely at your own gear as well as your buddy.

Perhaps a couple more lessons for us rec divers: Practice *orally* inflating your BC at depth, so that doing this is second nature and will immediately occur to you as a viable option. Practice *orally* inflating your buddy's BC for the same reason. Physically link with your buddy (grab, and tightly hold onto his/her harness shoulder strap or his vest near his chest) as you're donating gas to him/her while either buddy breathing or air sharing via your octopus/primary reg and direct-ascending together, face-to-face. And (as someone earlier in this thread mentioned) release your buddy's weights (if you must), but don't release your own unless absolutely necessary.

Safe Diving,

rx7diver
 
Another thing to consider here is the effect of narcosis, especially with other stressors occurring. Depth, cold water, and add in gear problems and clear thinking just isn't going to happen. And anyone who says they don't get narced on a hundred foot dive is an accident waiting to happen. I feel sorry for those involved here, mistakes were obviously made, but don't think it can't happen to you.
 
The buddy did all he could to help. The victim just had multiple mistakes or problems pile up on each other. It is unclear whether he had a medical issue on the rapid descent, that is another possibility that we're waiting to find out from the autopsy. He was lost by the time they returned to the bottom, so we can't rule that out.

Several lessons to be learned here. Be sure that you are breathing from the correct reg. Be sure your hoses are all connected properly and securely. Do your air adds and vents in little burps, don't overdo it at any one time. Don't just check your tank pressure, note that it is changing at the expected rate. If not, check to see what reg you are using!

These are all things that would have been prevented by following what was taught in any good OW class:


  • Dive properly weighted. If the victim was properly weighted, swimming up would have been trivial.
  • Even If overweighted and sinking, weight ditching would have ensured that the victim arrived on the surface and stayed there. Maybe bent, but alive. It doesn't matter if the victim had a medical problem or not. If the weights go away, the diver goes up. Better bent on the surface than dead on the bottom (not my line, stolen from someone else)
  • Be prepared that any breath could be your last and have an alternate air source ready. I doesn't matter that the OP was breathing the pony and depleted it. The response is the same: "Switch to the 'other' air source", whether it's another tank you have, or a buddy. If you screw up and breathe the pony down, the main cylinder is still full.

People need to practice skills frequently. Good tech divers often take a ribbing for the amount of "practicing" they do, but this is exactly why it's necessary. Skills should be easily reproducible on demand, not something that gets forgotten or ignored.

It's sad when someone dies; It's even sadder when it could have been prevented by performing basic Open Water skills.

flots.
 
These are all things that would have been prevented by following what was taught in any good OW class:


  • Dive properly weighted. If the victim was properly weighted, swimming up would have been trivial.
  • Even If overweighted and sinking, weight ditching would have ensured that the victim arrived on the surface and stayed there. Maybe bent, but alive. It doesn't matter if the victim had a medical problem or not. If the weights go away, the diver goes up. Better bent on the surface than dead on the bottom (not my line, stolen from someone else)
  • Be prepared that any breath could be your last and have an alternate air source ready. I doesn't matter that the OP was breathing the pony and depleted it. The response is the same: "Switch to the 'other' air source", whether it's another tank you have, or a buddy. If you screw up and breathe the pony down, the main cylinder is still full.

People need to practice skills frequently. Good tech divers often take a ribbing for the amount of "practicing" they do, but this is exactly why it's necessary. Skills should be easily reproducible on demand, not something that gets forgotten or ignored.

It's sad when someone dies; It's even sadder when it could have been prevented by performing basic Open Water skills.

flots.

This (the bolded statements) are so ridiculously simplistic that they take away from the valuable lesson this accident provides..

To say that "if you reg stops working switch to the other source" is kinda obvious, don't ya think?

the lesson is a little more specific than that! Apparently the reason why this guy died is that he got confused, most likely TRIED to switch regulators but became confused. He died before he figured out his errors.

This is the exact type of error (potential danger) that I identified in a previous pony bottle thread, but it seemed that people didn't really accept this potential problem as a significant hazard to consider when back mounting their pony bottles.

Make sure your tanks are on and you know which tank you are breathing from.
 
To say that "if you reg stops working switch to the other source" is kinda obvious, don't ya think?

That was my point in mentioning it.

People are talking about "mixing up bottles". That's not the point. He didn't accidentally breath down a deco bottle full of 80% and tox (at least not AFAIK), he screwed up and ran out of air. It doesn't really matter which reg he used to do it. The other one was just fine.

If he did what was taught in OW class and tested each reg before splashing, all he would have had to do is switch to another reg. Any other. Whatever one he had breathed down, the other one was still full.

If he had an integrated inflater that somehow came disconnected, his primary second stage would still have worked.

If all this turned "brown" his buddy should have been close enough to share.

If by some miracle, all his tanks were empty/unavailable and he managed to lose his buddy and was plummeting to the bottom, he should have been able to ditch weights.

This is all Open Water stuff. Not even Rescue. Just OW

I feel terrible that the guy died, but these are the basic SCUBA skills. If you ignore/don't learn/can't do enough of them, it's possible to die.

the lesson is a little more specific than that! Apparently the reason why this guy died is that he got confused, most likely TRIED to switch regulators but became confused. He died before he figured out his errors.

There's nothing to be confused over. He had three regs. No matter what, one would have worked. His buddy had at least two regs. Weights were still ditchable.

He died because he didn't follow training.

I really don't mean to be a dick about it, but this is all basic stuff. I'm not mentioning it for you guys, I'm mentioning it for the thousands of divers that read SB and never post and think skills practice and refreshers are for "other people."

flots.

---------- Post added August 29th, 2014 at 11:12 AM ----------

I
Seems you hardly get and training for when things go wrong in scuba besides a mention from the dive instructor.
Just my thoughts.
RT

The big problem with SCUBA is that the entire class is important, however the "skills" are all seen by students as an annoyance or a test, while they are actually what is required to keep you alive.

Because SCUBA is sold as a warm-and-fuzzy and safe recreational activity, few instructors are willing to say things like "These skills are the only things keeping you alive. If you can't remember them or don't know when to use them or can't perform them as-needed and correctly, and don't practice them regularly, you're going to die."

---------- Post added August 29th, 2014 at 11:18 AM ----------

Could things have progressed as follows, I wonder: "Main" regulator isn't working, drysuit won't inflate, BC won't inflate, SPG hasn't moved, so main tank must not be fully on, but it's valve cannot be reached because drysuit is too squeezed, and now both the "alternate" regulator and weight belt cannot be reached? Terrifying scenario.

I dive dry almost all the time. Even if you can't reach behind you to get the valve, the weight ditching release (belt/harness/pockets/whatever) is always accessible.

However most divers never think to ditch weights which is why most fatalities are found with their weights on.
 
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