Six Divers Trapped on Sea Bottom

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How crappy would that be. Stuck in a chamber pressurized to 60 feet, underwater at 225 feet, no tender, in sat. There is lots of emergency air, right over there. Can't blow and go because you're in sat, and you're gonna get bent.

I hope it was quick..... I'm afraid it wasn't.
 
All the DSVs I worked on had Hyperbaric lifeboats.

Theoretically it should be possible for all of the divers in sat to move to the lifeboat provided all the divers were in chambers at the same pressure, however it would also require some external assistance in releasing the lifeboat from the DSV.

Knowing how things work out here in the Middle East where there is no concept of maintenance I would not hold too many expectations that they will survive.
 
In 1991 MeDermott Diving barge DB29 got caught in Typhoon Fred and the chamber went over in 225 feet of water with what I think I read was 12 divers in sat. All died, later found 4 of them floating at the surface. Man what a way to go. It was inevitable they were going to die!! Hope they can get these guys up.
 
An article with a bit more info:

Divers trapped underwater in pressurized chamber after support ship sinks in Persian Gulf - The Washington Post

Divers trapped underwater in pressurized chamber after support ship sinks in Persian Gulf
By Associated Press, Updated: Friday, October 21, 3:13 PM

TEHRAN, Iran — A team of six Indian divers conducting underwater pipeline installation were believed trapped in a diving chamber nearly 200 feet underwater with dwindling oxygen supplies on Friday after their support ship sank in the Persian Gulf, Iranian officials said.

The divers were among 13 people, including five Iranians and eight non-Iranians, still missing after the Koosha-1, a diving support ship, went down in stormy seas Thursday afternoon, Iran’s semi-official Isna news agency reported. Out of 73 people on board, 60 had been rescued, Isna said.

The diving chamber was onboard the ship when it sank, but the divers were inside because they stay in the sealed environment to avoid having pressurize and depressurize for their dives.

“We hope their oxygen has not run out,” said Pirouz Mousavi head, of the Pars Energy Zone in southern Iran, quoted by Isna. “We have deployed divers to save those who are trapped in the chamber,” which he said was about 180 feet (60 meters) underwater.

The chamber can hold 72-hours worth of oxygen, said Z. Hussain, a manager at Adsun Offshore Diving Contractors Pvt Ltd, the Mumbai, India-based firm that employs the divers. But he said he did not know how much supply there was when it went down.

“The ship sunk in a matter of minutes and the six men in the chamber were trapped underwater,” he said. “They’ve been underwater, it is almost 24 hours,” he said.

Other rescue teams were searching for the other missing. Mousavi spoke of 13 still missing, with no confirmed deaths, but a local, official, Ahmad Moradi, said the bodies of six had been found, including an Indian and an Ukrainian.

Calls to Dubai-based Dulam International that is leading the rescue operation were not immediately returned.

The Iran-flagged Koosha-1 had left Thursday from offshore oil rigs near the underwater South Pars gas field, the largest in the world that is shared by both Iran and Qatar. The ship had been involved in installing underwater pipelines. It sank in the Persian Gulf some 15 miles (25 kilometers) off Iran’s coast.

___

AP correspondent Ravi Nessman in New Delhi contributed to this report.
 
Six divers trapped on sea bottom after ship sinks off Iranian coast
by: From correspondents on Lavan Island
From: NewsCore
October 22, 20119:07AM


SIX divers were trapped 70 metres (77 yards) below the surface of the sea overnight after a ship carrying 72 people sank in bad weather off the coast of Iran.

The diving support vessel Koosha 1 is thought to have sunk at around 5:30pm local time Thursday, off the Persian Gulf island of Lavan.


Rescue teams saved 60 lives, while five people drowned and one is unaccounted for, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.


The vessel apparently went down nose first with such speed that the crew did not have chance to issue a distress signal.


High winds were hampering efforts overnight to save the trapped saturation divers, who have been underwater in a hyperbaric recompression chamber that is bolted onto the deck for more than 18 hours.


Their survival depends upon the seals remaining intact and a continuing supply of the mix of oxygen, nitrogen and helium that they breathe.


The Koosha 1 is owned by the Iranian marine salvage group Darya Koosh. It is believed that the team planned to recover an abandoned crane and other machinery from the seabed.

Nigel Dixon, the diving manager of Dubai-based Dulam International, which is leading the rescue operation, said the rescue team was searching for the wreck using sonar but was faced with bad weather.


"The wind is 30 knots, and it's blowing like hell out there," he said. "It does not look good. They have been down there for 18 hours without life support, so CO2 levels will be very high. The chamber was only pressurized to 60 metres, so there is also a danger that the seals may have ruptured."


He added, "The divers could not be evacuated in time -- the accident happened instantaneously. There is an oil slick at the location, which we believe is from the wreck. We will send down our own dive to try and retrieve the chamber."
 
Thoughts and prayers going out today!
The divers in the chamber know all to well what circumstances they face.
Hope and pray for their survival never discount the human spirit in the struggle of life!

CamG
 
Update from Mikhail Voitenko, Editor and owner of online maritime edition Maritime Bulletin

Koosha 1 rescue operation: confusing reports; more details about sinking from chief engineer

Confusing news on rescue of six trapped in chamber divers. Most media christened chamber or camera as “life pod’ – it is said, that rescue divers were able to haul chamber from a depth of 77 meters and now transport it to the shore, hoping people inside are alive. No clear statement was made yet, whether there are people inside or not, how many and what is their condition – different agencies say different stories. Meanwhile, I’ve got a new e-mail from chief engineer of Koosha 1: There were two chambers on board of the vessel, one was found to be flooded. There is a small chance the divers are in another chamber. 59 crew who was able to leave the vessel were rescued by local fishing dhows, chief engineer praises them as fantastically skilled seamen. About 10 people were hauled from water, others were in life rafts, including chief engineer. Chief engineer said there was among crew an Indian oiler, a real hero, he made it to life raft and then hauled to raft 6 other crew, to save one of them, unconscious, oiler dived from raft in rough sea.
 
Hopefully they are abe to recover them, it would be a miracle if they can get them up before thier oxygen is depleted.
 
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