Missing Diver incident

[IndigoBlue]

He is a PADI MSDT and has D/M'ed on several boats I have been on. I know he has been diving at least 7 years. He was my instructor on my AOW cert.

Wow! An MSDT is a fairly advanced level of an instructor, in PADI.

Instructors are normally held to an extremely high standard of performance. It looks like whatever his boat-D/M procedures are, they need to be seriously revised. Looks like the roll-call method did not work at all. I hope he adopts an individual sign-off methodology from now on.

I think you can partially "blame" the other buddies in the three-some, but ultimately the D/M was responsible for getting the roll right.

Three-somes by and large do not work well. Somebody often gets lost, with a three-some. True, the other buddies should have performed a proper lost-diver procedure as well. Apparently, they did not. Apparently they did not speak up when they got back to the boat either. Astounding.

I do feel bad for the boat captain and for the dive shop, who were all relying on the D/M-Instructor to get it right.

 

[pt40fathoms]

Too many "he should have", "he could have", "I would have", remarks. Fact is we do not have all the facts. We do not know what was happening on the boat, who answered role calls, or how many distractions were taking place. I will not defend those involved in this event; however, I will not vilify the DM either. If a system broke down, and in this case it clearly did, then the DM is only one part of that system. The fact that no one died is a great relief, most especially to those involved in supervising the outing. The only question I would have is what is being done to prevent this from ever happening again. The suggestion of making each and every diver, place his or her initials, on a roster upon returning to the vessel, is probably the simplest, easiest, and most effective way I have heard of to keep track of divers.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one.

 

[dazedone]

The suggestion of making each and every diver, place his or her initials, on a roster upon returning to the vessel, is probably the simplest, easiest, and most effective way I have heard of to keep track of divers.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one.

Amen. If a sign-in system was in place on our trip, this situation would have never happened. Even with the bad buddy procedures that took place. You can bet there will be that (and more) on the next trip that shop does. If there is not, then they are just plain stupid and I know the owner of that shop personally and he is no dummy, to say the least. I'll be very interested to hear his thoughts when I stop in for an air fill later this week.

 

[Cudabait]

Too many "he should have", "he could have", "I would have", remarks. Fact is we do not have all the facts. We do not know what was happening on the boat, who answered role calls, or how many distractions were taking place. I will not defend those involved in this event; however, I will not vilify the DM either. If a system broke down, and in this case it clearly did, then the DM is only one part of that system. The fact that no one died is a great relief, most especially to those involved in supervising the outing. The only question I would have is what is being done to prevent this from ever happening again. The suggestion of making each and every diver, place his or her initials, on a roster upon returning to the vessel, is probably the simplest, easiest, and most effective way I have heard of to keep track of divers.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the right one.

PT40.....Good response!!

The USCG SAR team will probably file a report of findngs regarding the matter. Knowing that is probbaly forthcoming, I will not comment one way or the other. I'm just happy for the diver and all those dear to that diver that he/she is safe.

Regards,

 

[DennisW]

Counting heads doesn't work, counting buddy teams is worse. There are only a couple of sure fire ways to make sure you don't leave anyone. 1) I like the sign the roster rule. 2) A real roll call where each person has to answer for him/her self. Anything else is just asking for a disaster.

I remember a trip where we (a bunch of Diverlinkers) insisted on a roll call to the point where we did the roll call ourselves and the DM got pissed. He also didn't get many tips. I believe it was Walter that actually made the roll calls and I think it was on the D/L 1999 trip.

 

[Gary D.]

Counting heads doesn't work, counting buddy teams is worse. There are only a couple of sure fire ways to make sure you don't leave anyone. 1) I like the sign the roster rule. 2) A real roll call where each person has to answer for him/her self. Anything else is just asking for a disaster.

I remember a trip where we (a bunch of Diverlinkers) insisted on a roll call to the point where we did the roll call ourselves and the DM got pissed. He also didn't get many tips. I believe it was Walter that actually made the roll calls and I think it was on the D/L 1999 trip.

I remember that

Gary D.

 

[CelticRavenVA]

Was just at club med and they had two types of dive groups on the boat. The Dive master led groups and the buddy teams. Verbal role call was called for EVERYONE on the boat even if you weren't diving, you had to answer for yourself, no exceptions. They even woke one girl up who didn't dive the second dive to respond.

Second, if you were a buddy dive team, they logged your entry time and exit time on the roster, as well as your max depth and time acording to your computer which was required for buddy diving.

I think if someone responded for me at a role call regardless of procedure or what they thought, I might break there legs. If it was truly an honest mistake, I might settle for making them buy drinks for the boat.

The simple fact is, when you exit the water, most people move to imead get out of there gear and don't always check on there buddy and make sure he is out. So they don't know I got smacked in the head by the ladder and am laying off to the side of the boat.

Just some thoughts.

 

[michaelp68]

I'm newer to diving.

I just find it absolutely outrageous and unforgiveable for a boat to leave without one of its divers. I don't think there is any excuse.

I understand that good people like this divemaster/instructor can have a bad day, and mistakes happen. I also understand that the diver who was left behind and the buddies might have contributed to the problem. We just don't know right now from the information in the thread.

I'm glad to see ideas in this thread for how to prevent this from happening again, and that so many other dive operations have tighter procedures.

Maybe I'm just reacting too strongly. But, I really don't think this is excusable or foregiveable in any way. It's too big of a screw-up. I'm just glad that the diver kept cool and was lucky to be found.

 

[IndigoBlue]

I'm newer to diving.

I just find it absolutely outrageous and unforgiveable for a boat to leave without one of its divers. I don't think there is any excuse.
...

I agree, there is no excuse. Unfortunately it still happens from time to time.

The best way to be prepared yourself in case it actually happens to you is to do the following:

Make sure you have a signalling device (whistle, mirror, safety sausage, light, or all 4)

Make sure you have a snorkel

Make sure your B/C-wing floats you high enough out of the water for comfort and safety after you have ditched all of your ditchable weight (weight belt, weight pouches, or both)

Consider ditching your tank when it is completely empty, at which point it does you no good anymore. You can tell the boat where you left it, if they find you later. You can also tell them what to do with it, if they find it again!

 

[roakey]

I've always liked how Truth Aquatics (http://www.truthaquatics.com/) does their roll call before they move the boat during the day: By name and they look at everyone who answers. You get in BIG trouble if you try and answer for someone else. Then they go downstairs and, knowing you bunk, verify that you're present if you're not above. They warn you up front that they may have to wake you up and I've never heard a single complaint.

At night they enhance this by actually signing you out and back in.

Roak