Serious accident at Silfra - Iceland

[DandyDon]

Foreign diver in serious accident at Silfra

A foreign man has been helicoptered to Iceland’s main hospital in Reykjavik after suffering what has been described as a “serious accident” while diving at the Silfra site at Þingvellir.

The accident occurred at lunchtime today, and police and paramedics from South Iceland and Reykjavik were dispatched, along with a helicopter from the Icelandic Coast Guard.

There are as yet no details as the exact nature of the accident, but fire brigade sources confirm that the ICG helicopter landed at the National University Hospital in Reykjavik with the injured man at around 2 pm.

 

[Jumana Ameeri]

Hope all goes well for him

 

[JohnnyC]

I wonder what happened. The site is super shallow and the dive is very short. 30 minutes, 3 meters average depth. I would be surprised if it was actually dive related, and not just coincidental.

 

[DandyDon]

I'm afraid that she died: http://icelandmonitor.mbl.is/news/news/2016/01/28/silfra_diving_accident_victim_dies/

The 26-year-old woman who suffered a serious accident while diving at the Silfra site at Iceland’s famous Þingvellir earlier this week has died.

The victim, a US resident of Chinese nationality, was diving at Silfra fissure with her husband on an organised tour.

The cause of the accident is not yet known, but the diver may have been caught in some sort of current just below the surface of the water.

According to Deputy Chief Inspector of South Iceland Police, Þorgrímur Óli Sigurðsson, the woman sank to a depth of about 30 metres and was underwater for around ten minutes. It is not known whether she had a functioning oxygen supply for the whole time.

Neither is it known whether there was some kind of failure in the equipment, but a piece of the diver’s gear appears to have detached and fallen to the bottom of the fissure.

The diver was helicoptered to hospital in Reykjavik on Tuesday and pronounced dead today. The victim’s family has been informed.

 

[JohnnyC]

That's just super weird.

 

[Johanan]

That's just super weird.

Indeed. Normally there is only a very mild current and 30m sounds unlikely for Silfra. If memory serves, to get that deep one should penetrate through rocks which are stuck in the fissure and form a kind of bottom. National Park rules do not permit dives deeper than 18m. Loose rocks are the only "external" danger I can think of in Silfra, as the place is volcanically "alive". The water is very cold, too. God have mercy.

 

[archer1960]

I wonder if the "piece of equipment" that got detached was her weights? I.E. maybe she ditched her weights, but it didn't help. Just speculation, of course...

 

[Rob Phillips]

Touching two continents at silfra is a bucket list thing for me. I don't know much about it, having never traveled to Iceland, but I never really thought of it as a dangerous site, other than the water temperature.

Condolences to her loved ones. I only hope her passing was without suffering.

 

[Gareth J]

Having dived the site in the summer, I am confused by the statement of 30m, 30 feet yes. None of the three dives in the crack that we did where we able to get deeper than 14m. We touched the bottom in each section. It may be possible to get deeper in the caves, I don't know, these are off limits.

If you are an experience diver, I would also recommend the dive in Pingvallavatn lake. We did a crack in the lake, the visibility was truely outstanding, benefitting from the fact that it is almost never dived. (The popular five is the crack.)

My Sympathy's to the family.

Gareth

 

[VMLee]

Johanan, JohnnyC, Gareth...

Would you mind reaching out to me at victormlee[at]gmail[dot]com? I have some questions about this that I'd like your perspective on. I knew the diving victim.

Thanks,
Victor