Wilmington Incident - 16 Oct

[dumpsterDiver]

Let me just mention-- I also was present on the boat, and even we on the boat do not know what happened. Amy was spotted without gear floating face down about 75 yards off the bow. Everything else is conjecture at this point. Rescue attempts were done by the book, nothing more could have saved her.

Amy was one of those really really good people you meet in this life. I will miss her greatly.

My dive computer recorded a depth of 109 ft there.

Was she using a pony bottle or any redundancy like doubles?

Was she using atypical recreational scuba unit?

Was the scuba unit recovered? Was it empty or show obvious signs of damage?

 

[DennisS]

Yes, I was there. I have no issue with discussion of this issue, but feel that without all the facts it is only speculation and serves no purpose. No different than idle gossip. I only ask that everyone has the class to wait for the investigation to be finished so that this can be discussed properly.

Accidents and Incidents is about speculation and seldom has all the facts needed to make a definite conclusion

Where was his buddy
He should have checked his gauges
It could have been carbon monoxide poisoning.........etc

A lot of the speculation is generic, repetitive from thread to thread. I've always thought there should be a cut and paste A&I speculations template.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Accidents and Incidents is about speculation and seldom has all the facts needed to make a definite conclusion

Where was his buddy
He should have checked his gauges
It could have been carbon monoxide poisoning.........etc

A lot of the speculation is generic, repetitive from thread to thread. I've always thought there should be a cut and paste A&I speculations template.

The more facts that are released the LESS speculation is made.

 

[Thalassamania]

Dumpster has it right, the more facts the less speculation. In the absence of hard data all one can do is try to draw on logic, past incidents and personal experience. Permit me to do the latter (with a dash of the former).

If you are prepared for it, and you take a full breath, a 110 ft free ascent is no big deal. However, if you suddenly find that you've no gas and can not inhale, things get a bit more hectic, ascent rates get rather high, knowing when to start exhaling and doing so to the surface becomes problematical. Safety stops are doubtful and decompression stops are out of the question.

The victim was a pretty experienced diver so I tend toward the problem of, "you've no gas and can not inhale." I wonder what happened to her gear and where her buddy was.

 

[ahava]

I wonder what happened to her gear and where her buddy was.

I was not there but since these dives are spent looking through the sand and around coral heads they are usually done solo with some type of redundant system.

 

[Shot a man in Reno...]

The word going around NC is that Amy's husband was on the same dive and was serving a 30 minute deco commitment and did not know that she was having trouble.

This has lead people to assume that her husband was her dive buddy. And many questions along the lines of: if he served a 30 minute deco, how could she be out of air unless she had a catastrophic failure. I would not assume that her husband was her buddy. I would also not assume that she had a similar set-up to her buddy.

I was diving on the fossil ledge that day with another dive operator. Visibility was 10-15ft.
People generally start with a buddy, but it is common that you lose your buddy. Once 20 people start hitting the bottom searching for fossils, visibility can drop rapidly. Because of this, back up systems (twins/pony bottles) are common.

At this time I feel that there really is not enough information out there to know what precipitated Amy to surface without her gear. We have heard that she was out of air, and surfaced without her gear, but have not heard if her equipment was functioning properly. The fact that she surfaced 75 yards off of the bow does lead one to believe that she was not near the anchor line when she did her ascent.

 

[openmindOW]

This has lead people to assume that her husband was her dive buddy. And many questions along the lines of: if he served a 30 minute deco, how could she be out of air unless she had a catastrophic failure.

Was he on the dive with her? Did they enter the water at the same time? If so, did they descend along the Ascent-Descent Line in a traditional NC diving manner?

Did either or both have a scooter?

What kind of gear was she wearing?

Did she have a redundant breathing system?

Was she wearing a mask when she surfaced?

People generally start with a buddy, but it is common that you lose your buddy. Once 20 people start hitting the bottom searching for fossils, visibility can drop rapidly.

True. That's what a lot of people don't realize about NC Meg Tooth diving. Sometimes those dives are essentially solo dives. I'm not defending that practice, but I've done NC tooth dives. I either had doubles or a stage bottle.

 

[snowmaker]

As others have said diving the ledge out there is tough to do as dive buddies. You may try and stay close but that can be difficult. You can plan to meet back on the line after a set time limit and ascend together but doing the entire dive with a buddy next to you is unpractical.

On these dive you may have good vis when you start but by the time you turn to head back to the line it will be crap. Everyone uses a real to tie into the line. Everyone is in the sand looking for teeth. This often envolves digging and brushing sand away to find the meg teeth. Thus vis goes to crap very quickly.

 

[RAD Diver]

From what I have heard she was NOT diving with her husband, nor was she solo. She signaled her buddy she was heading up, he followed 15 min. later & found her gear in close proximity to the anchor.
With scope of line coming straight up would put you 70-100 ft in front of the bow. My calculation anyway. Of course current could change it but not by too much.

 

[Thalassamania]

My questions then are:

1. Air in tank?
2. Regulator working?
3. What sort of back-up supply, full or empty, function?
4. Mask on or off?
5. Reel present?
6. Reel attached to rig?
7. Reel clipped to anchor?