Fatality Cabo San Lucas March 3

[beaverdivers]

Sunshine divers is a very good company.

Let's wait for the dust to settle before passing judgment.

My condolences to the family.

 

[daniel1948]

My condolences to the family. I think we should wait for more information before blaming the fill shop. Testing for CO sounds like a good idea, regardless, but would not have prevented this tragedy unless CO turns out to be the culprit.

 

[Johnoly]

....Let's assume that the tanks were partially filled with contaminated air prior to be completely filled by another operator.....

I don't have an answer to your question. And below is not related to this accident.

But your filling example is an everyday occurrence where two different compressors have been used to fill/top-off a tank that has not been drained (like an 21% air fill). In your case if one of the compressors does not use an inline tester, the diver will never know. The only way to verify the CO level in a tank is with a hand held tester by the diver and even more reason why every diver should test each and every one of their individual dive tanks.

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't have an answer to your question. And below is not related to this accident.

But your filling example is an everyday occurrence where two different compressors have been used to fill/top-off a tank that has not been drained (like an 21% air fill). In your case if one of the compressors does not use an inline tester, the diver will never know. The only way to verify the CO level in a tank is with a hand held tester by the diver and even more reason why every diver should test each and every one of their individual dive tanks.

You may have missed the point.

In several earlier posts, it was alleged that if the air in the tanks was contaminated, the source of the contamination was not in the final fill bu in whatever remnant was left from a previous fill. My point was that if the source of the contamination was from the remnant from the previous fill, then the previous fill must have been very highly contaminated before being diluted by the supposed good fill. In that case, it would certainly have been noticed by the previous user who must have been diving on a MUCH more highly contaminated mix.

 

[fjpatrum]

If CO was the issue wouldn't depth have also played a role? My understanding is that the CO becomes a (more urgent) problem because of partial pressures as you go deeper. IE if the tanks were contaminated by a previous fill but only dived to 10 feet for golf-ball recovery or something, would it be feasible to have not noticed any effect but then noticed something in a subsequent deeper dive, to say, 60 feet?

 

[DandyDon]

If CO was the issue wouldn't depth have also played a role? My understanding is that the CO becomes a (more urgent) problem because of partial pressures as you go deeper. IE if the tanks were contaminated by a previous fill but only dived to 10 feet for golf-ball recovery or something, would it be feasible to have not noticed any effect but then noticed something in a subsequent deeper dive, to say, 60 feet?

Yes, but we really do not have much info here, not enough to know what happened.

 

[Hatul]

Is there really no minimum standard for compressed breathing gas that requires in-line testing for at least O2 and CO concentration?

 

[boulderjohn]

Is there really no minimum standard for compressed breathing gas that requires in-line testing for at least O2 and CO concentration?

Are you referring to an international standard?

Who would make it, and how would it be enforced?

 

[koozemani]

My condolences to the family. I think we should wait for more information before blaming the fill shop. Testing for CO sounds like a good idea, regardless, but would not have prevented this tragedy unless CO turns out to be the culprit.

I rather quickly came out and posted that I was going to run out and purchase a CO analyser. I stick by that. Whether or not CO is determined to be the culprit in this case is yet to be seen, but having a CO analyser would have either prevented this tragedy or at the very least cut down on alot of the supposition and finger pointing. As DandyDon has pointed out in other threads, you might go forever without getting a significant reading, but for that one time you do the unit will have paid for itself.

I can think of plenty of toys i'd rather spend my money on, but none of which is as likely to save mine or someone else's life. I'll forgo one weekend dive trip to ensure a lifetime of clean air.

 

[DandyDon]

Is there really no minimum standard for compressed breathing gas that requires in-line testing for at least O2 and CO concentration?

In the US, the maximum CO allowed in scuba tanks is 10 ppm, but that is not enforced at all I don't think. Liability laws do more to keep air clean, but I've seen 5 ppm in NM. A few countries have stricter limits of 5 or 3 ppm, but I do not know about their possible enforcements - and Mexico has no known rules.