Japanese tourist killed by boat prop off of Phuket

[Kiwi303]

I could understand an ordinary pleasure/recreational boat haveing exposed props, but a specialist dive boat kitted out for diving from in a popular dive zone? Surely it would be common sense to install cages over the props as part of the fitting out of the boat?

 

[vladimir]

I just don't get it! Why is it necessary to position a boat with running propellers directly over divers? WHY? Common sense dictates that the boat position itself away from the point of immediate descent or the SMB (incase of ascent), the divers will then surface and swim the 50m or whatever to the boat.

I wonder, considering the state of fitness of the average diver, whether asking them to do a 50-meter swim at the end of each dive would yield fewer or more casualties. In addition to the occasional myocardial infarction, there is also the heightened DCS risk associated with strenuous (agreed, it shouldn't be strenuous, but for many divers it is) exercise with a nitrogen load.

 

[ozzydamo]

BC inflator buttons are indeed a risk point. Some suggest servicing them annually. I do rinse mine well and tell well before each dive, but there is always a chance of a stuck on and the need to dump like hell. This may have nothing to do with this accident other than a learning opportunity of discussion.

This stuck Inflator problem happen to an insta-buddy with me in Phuket in February. I grabbed them and disconnected the bcd inflation line before anything had a chance to happen(luck for the buddy I was beside them and heard it immediately!) the instructor was very impressed indeed. I wouldn't use hire equipment ever, my bcd's manual states a 100hr service schedule due to it using the air trim system, which is a lot harder to mix up which is inflate or deflate due to it's fixed position on the vest, the 2 buttons it has are also a different shape, size and have a raised pattern that you can feel even in darkness.
This incident shows the need to would be divers that taking up diving on a wimb isn't a clever idea, skin diving proficiency should be sort firstly, so less is to be absorbed and understood fully, in such a short time frame as the OW course.

It's a freek accident that the Thai's in their infinite wisdom, will put down to "an act of the Buddha" and a part of life. I hope her family recover fully from their grief in good time.
Kob n kab'
Damo'

 

[ozzydamo]

I could understand an ordinary pleasure/recreational boat haveing exposed props, but a specialist dive boat kitted out for diving from in a popular dive zone? Surely it would be common sense to install cages over the props as part of the fitting out of the boat?

You obviously haven't been to Siam'
Accidents happen, she could of hit the hull and died, or a prop cage, let peace return, breath in and out..............
You can't stop somethings, the tsunamis for example...... look at Dunedin....understand it's tragedy man.

 

[Kiwi303]

Dunedin? You mean Christchurch? Had another 5.5 followed by a 6.o today, felt it up here 400Km away.

 

[Quero]

I just don't get it! Why is it necessary to position a boat with running propellers directly over divers? WHY? Common sense dictates that the boat position itself away from the point of immediate descent or the SMB (incase of ascent), the divers will then surface and swim the 50m or whatever to the boat.

Kiwi, I agree that there should be prop guards on the boats, and in some places in the world this has happened, but it's certainly not the norm, even in first-world countries. I have seen a listing of over 40 propeller accidents worldwide since the beginning of 2011, with two reported as recently as yesterday--one in Texas and the other in the UK. This list includes two incidents in New Zealand, a bunch in Australia, many in the US, and other scattered cases (UK, Netherlands, Borneo, Guyana, Thailand [this exact case]).

As to why boats have engines running during pickups, I don't see how else the divers are going to get back on the boats beyond having runabouts going around picking people up. and of course those, too, have props! We do drift dives in Thailand, and if you swim 50 meters away from the island, you may get caught up in a current and swept away. Most commentators to this thread are trying to apply fixes appropriate to the circumstances with which they are familiar rather than ones that are appropriate to our circumstances.

 

[The Wolf]

Every location and incident and situation is generally different.

It's never easy to fix the blame on one person or one situation alone. Several things generally happen that leads to an accident like this.