I was on this trip with Steve, and here's an excerpt about the accident from my trip report, which
@Dan so kindly referred to in an earlier post in this thread.
We had successful diving on November 27th & 28th, but on November 29th, there was a fatal accident at the beginning of the first dive of the day. I saw the news article in the Accidents and Injuries forum, but the article is not quite accurate. The diver’s name is correct, Steve, but the date of death is November 29th, not November 30th. He was found floating at the surface at approximately 8:30 a.m.
The dive briefing was thorough. For each dive, they send the tender boat to the site for a guide to jump in to check the current. If it’s too strong, we move to another location or drop in ahead of the current in order to ride with it. That’s what happened on this day. For about an hour after our scheduled drop-in time, we finally landed on a site. Just for some context, when the dive briefing starts or it's meal time, there's a big bell that's rung outside. So I waited in my air-conditioned room rather than in the heat to hear the bell. For some reason, I didn't hear the bell or maybe they didn’t ring it because everyone was ready to go anyway. So when I came to the dive deck to check on the status, everyone was gone, so I literally missed the boat by five minutes. There were nine divers and three guides in the water and we lost one diver.
What I tell you here is from what I have learned from other divers’ accounts and what I saw when the tender boat came back with Steve.
Within the first 15 feet of dropping in, there was a down current so strong that it took everyone down for a rapid and uncontrolled descent, 90-137 feet in less than one minute. That day, everyone was on 29% Nitrox. The depth each diver reached varied by their computer. As soon as the dive started, it was clear it needed to be aborted, but nobody could control their descent. One diver dropped her weights, emptied her BC, and still could not fin up. She ended up at 137 feet before one of the dive guides was able to stop her descent and helped her to the surface. Steve, another diver, and a guide were able to make it to the wall to at least hang onto something, but they were still being forced down. A guide was a little farther away from Steve and the other diver and seemed to be out of the worst of the down current. Steve and the other diver were at 90 feet and about six feet apart on the wall. The other diver was able to climb the wall at a rate of 1.4 feet per minute. He told us the physical exertion was enormous and he could not hang onto the wall anymore, so he pushed off. His fingers were shredded from hanging onto the wall. He was not wearing gloves.
Steve was also trying to climb the wall but was making less progress than the other diver. The last time Steve was seen alive was when the other diver and Steve locked eyes with that “I’m going to die” fear as the other diver pushed off the wall to survive. We think he probably had a heart attack from the extreme physical exertion and drowned or perhaps the force of the down current knocked his regulator out of his mouth. His regulator was not in his mouth when he was found on the surface. His mask and everything else, including his camera rig, was still attached. The other diver’s dive lasted 4 minutes from drop in to surface.
Another diver said he saw his bubbles going down and sideways but not up, and it was so confusing for him and he didn’t know if his brain was playing tricks. He could barely keep his mask on and regulator in because of the force of the down current. That diver got to 90 feet before he got out of it and was able to slow his ascent around 60 feet, then 30 feet, then did a safety stop. His dive lasted 11 minutes.
We just happened to have two instructors on this trip, so there was a lot of discussion in the aftermath, and there was nothing that could have been done differently. This was just a really bad accident. The diver that was with Steve on the wall (instructor) and the other diver/instructor got Steve on the tender boat with all his gear and tank still on. It was a heroic effort and took immense strength to pull him onto the boat. One of the instructors was the first to give him rescue measures, and he said his pupils were fixed and dilated, and there was no pulse or heartbeat. Steve was being worked on for at least 20 minutes. Since the shortest dive time was four minutes, he may have been on the surface for less than five minutes.
What I saw personally was from the time the tender boat made it back to the mothership. The first tender boat came back with Steve and the people that were trying to resuscitate him. The second tender boat had the remaining divers, but there were two guides missing. Once all the divers were accounted for, the staff immediately took off to look for the missing guides. They were gone for what seemed a long time, and we were all very concerned for them, but, eventually, they were found quite far away and were safe and not injured.
From what I saw, Steve was obviously dead from the look of his body. His eyes were open and he was a bluish-gray color. Chest compressions got water out of his lungs, but the rescue efforts continued without success. He was then respectfully wrapped in a sheet and placed in the camera room.
I am being very factual and matter of fact, but this was a horrific event to have been involved with. The trauma to everyone, including the crew, has been difficult. I only knew Steve for a couple of days, but he was a member of the good-guy club. He was a genuinely kind man and had a true passion for diving and photography, and he died doing what he loved. We dived together the day before, and his enthusiasm for diving was infectious. He was a very experienced diver, and he took the time to point things out to me. May he rest in peace and his soul be free.
