Two brothers die in Lehi (Utah?)

[Karl_in_Calif]

Skin Diver magazine once had a state by state article on what the best diving sites in each of the 50 states is.

In Utah, there is a natural cavern up in the foothills near Heber City called The Homestead. It is a warm water sink hole that goes down 65 ft. The water is crystal clear, and warm. The location is actually at a town called Midway, and you are right up against the ski resorts and mountains there. I would guess the altitude to be about 5000 ft. since its at the foothills.

I have been meaning to get over to Utah and dive this site in that state. I would like to try the other 49 as well.

For a landlocked state, Utah actually has a fair amount of scuba diving. Most of it is dive travel to Mexico etc. But there are local lakes that are fairly clear, where scuba training is possible.

Too bad about the kids diving the tunnel. With gumption like that they would have made great industrial hard-hat divers. If only they had lived through their immortal youth. They would have been better off diving at The Homestead in Heber City instead.

 

[aujax]

To BigJetDriver's reply above, can you help me understand how this would happen? I mean, these guys had a little experience, so I must assume they were looking at their pressure and depth guages regularly. Given this, i imagine they must have gotten so far from the entrance that they couldn't find their way back, or confused the direction of the entrance with the direction they were initially heading. I mean, from the diagram, it looks like a simple structure - a long pipe, pretty hard to get lost. I would think that any diver with a modicum of intelligence (and these guys didn't sound like they were your average mindless adventurers) would plan to begin their exit with at the very least 1/3 of their gas left, or between 1000 and 500 psi. (Cave divers begin their exit with 2/3, correct?). Even with little or no planning, you've still got your guages - it just boggles my mind...

 

[BigJetDriver]

aujax once bubbled...
To BigJetDriver's reply above, can you help me understand how this would happen? I mean, these guys had a little experience, so I must assume they were looking at their pressure and depth guages regularly. Given this, i imagine they must have gotten so far from the entrance that they couldn't find their way back, or confused the direction of the entrance with the direction they were initially heading. I mean, from the diagram, it looks like a simple structure - a long pipe, pretty hard to get lost. I would think that any diver with a modicum of intelligence (and these guys didn't sound like they were your average mindless adventurers) would plan to begin their exit with at the very least 1/3 of their gas left, or between 1000 and 500 psi. (Cave divers begin their exit with 2/3, correct?). Even with little or no planning, you've still got your guages - it just boggles my mind...

First, the problem here is that you know the "Rule of Thirds" and would expect it to be applied in this type of situation. We do not know for certain, but I would bet my next paycheck that the rule was not utilized by these divers.

Second, even if it was, in the darkness and, no doubt, rather chilly and murky water, as their air started to run out faster than they thought it would, the question would have been, "Which way out is shorter?" Factor in any current, and under mental pressure, the correct response to this is DEFINITELY NOT easy to come up with on the spot.

These were fine young men, and their families and community will miss them greatly. They just exceeded their training and expertise level by a large factor. It is, unfortunately, easy to do. In these conditions, there just was NO WAY BACK!;-0

 

[aujax]

so you're saying they had gotten too far from the entrance and had left themselves with too little air to get back (the current probably complicated this) and might not have known which way to go either...a lesson for the risk takers among us...

 

[Don Burke]

They may not have known about the grate on one end of the pipe.

My guess is they planned to barely make it through on the gas they had and had no reserve for backtracking.

 

[DandyDon]

That's a crooked tube, not a siphon - but the big thing is that it's over 1100 feet from one end to the other, in addition to descent and ascent. That's one heck of a overhead obstructed drift dive.

Newspaper stories are so undependable - I wonder if they were certified, trained at all, if they even thought to buy lights?

Glad the rescue divers didn't try it...

 

[pipedope]

In irrigation and piping terms a pipe that carries water up and back down is a siphon and one that carries water down and back up in an inverted siphon. Most people not in the business will call both a siphon.

Inside a pipe it is VERY EASY to get LOST. Remember, there is NO light. The pipe is 9 feet in diameter so you can actually swim across it. What often happens is that you travel in a spiral and do far more distance than needed. It is also easy to stop to check something and then start swimming back the way you came.

Working in these things we have a real nice guide in that little thing called the umbilical. The other handy uses for it are a nearly endless supply of gas and a comm link to the support people on the surface.

I find that any pipe bigger than 48" requires attention to track my location in the pipe and my direction of travel.

BTW, The flow was off so there would have been no current (flow) in the pipe.

With the small amount of gas and the lack of a guideline, they were in major trouble as soon as they reached the point where they could not see the light of the entrance. That might have been only a few feet if even that far.

 

[John C. Ratliff]

Pipedope said:

With the small amount of gas and the lack of a guideline, they were in major trouble as soon as they reached the point where they could not see the light of the entrance. That might have been only a few feet if even that far.

In fact, these two were in deep trouble from the moment they entered the water. They had not done the basics:

--Scout the dive path.
--Study the best approach to this dive.
--Determine safety measures needed.
--Equipped themselves for the dive.
--Developed emergency procedures, and an emergency plan (simply telling someone to come looking for them if they didn't return in two hours doesn't hack it).

They also made some assumptions that no one has mentioned. One is that all their instruments would work in this environment. I'm wondering whether they were depending upon a magnetic compass to keep them oriented. I don't know the composition of the pipe, but if it was steel, they could not use a compass inside it. The same may be true for concrete, as most concrete has rebar reinforcements. There would also be a lot of steel used in the construction.

In near-zero visibility, in darkness, with no compass, trying to feel one's way out of a cylinder with no clues as to direction, and a malfunctioning compass, you can see that their big mistake was to enter the water.

SeaRat

 

[ALAN243]

after reading many of the post here i decided to post again just to clear a few things up.
1) yes they were certified divers both brothers had taken a course and were ow cert between the 2 of them the had a combined dive total of less than 30 dives.
2) The pipe is square and made of concrete
3) the exit point with the grate was not blocked off and they could have exited there without any problems
4) this is purley a case where inexperience cost 2 young men there lives
5) they each had (1) 80cf rental tank with them there gear was over 10 yrs old.

I was in the "siphon" today its dry so I decided to walk it just to see there is no debris in it but lots of sedimentation on every surface cause of death was drowning, I know boys brother in law and they both were advised not to do this by everyone including the lds and there father! The water was probably about 40 deg at the time and was not moving so there was not a current.. it's too bad that this happened but these boys were into the "extreme" sports and testosterone got them killed. I live only 5 min from this I pass it every day and I would have never thought about diving it..

 

[Epsilon514]

That sucks way bad. I can see that same Micron building from my backyard. I've been to the same canal they died in.... that's kinda creepy