Worst diving incident?

[dshorwich]

Were those 6 deaths on the Spiegel Grove at the same time? What happened?

The 6 on the SG is the total over the years, not a single incident. I don't know the answer to the OP's question - offhand the worst I can remember hearing about is a quadruple fatality in a cave in Italy back in 2012, but I doubt that's the worst ever.

 

[gekodivebali]

would you include divers on an island for diving purposes? cf Phi Phi 2004...

 

[krawlings]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ac...9-7-divers-missing-off-indonesias-island.html
How about this more resent dive incident

 

[Wookie]

17+3 is apparent its talking about crew. It dossnt matter a bit if your getting paid to be on the boat or not. Human life is human life.

The OP asked about diving accidents. Usually the crew of a livaboard aren't considered to be divers, they are considered to be crew. I know this. It's what I do for a living. I would consider a diving liveaboard on a dive charter with diving passengers paying to be there and diving a diving accident. The OP doesn't consider it to be so, so no sweat to me.

 

[doctormike]

Kind of an odd question, since the question is usually posed for aviation accidents or for ships lost at sea. The reason why numbers are notable in these sorts of incidents is that the lives lost are all usually lost because of the same event.

For example, the MV Wilhelm Gustoff was an ocean liner being used by the Germans to evacuate civilians and military personnel late in WW2, and was packed to the rafters when hit by torpedoes from a Russian submarine. 9400 people were killed in that attack. In aviation, the record was set when two 747s crashed on the runway on the Spanish island of Tenerife in 1977, killing 583 people.

When we think of diving accidents, its rare that a single event or mistake leads to multiple deaths with the exception of things like the Italian cave diving accident where a bunch of people followed someone into an overhead environment. The biggest losses of life numerically would be things like the Wave Dancer, but it's a matter of semantics whether or not you consider that a "diving accident". I would not, even though those people wouldn't have been in harms way if they weren't divers. I would call that a maritime disaster. The term "diving accident" has a pretty specific meaning to this community...

 

[koozemani]

To clarify, I was referring to a single incident. The 4 in Italy was the worst I could think of. The current Bali thread was starting to look like it would surpass. Thankfully that is not the case. I understand the argument for the wave dancer, however I was thinking more along the lines of divers in the water.

i realize this is a wee bit morbid, but curiosity got the better of me.

i just remembered the 6-7 commercial divers that were lost when their ship went down while they were decompressing in the bell. Maybe 2 yrs ago or so.

 

[doctormike]

To clarify, I was referring to a single incident. The 4 in Italy was the worst I could think of. The current Bali thread was starting to look like it would surpass. Thankfully that is not the case. I understand the argument for the wave dancer, however I was thinking more along the lines of divers in the water.

i realize this is a wee bit morbid, but curiosity got the better of me.

i just remembered the 6-7 commercial divers that were lost when their ship went down while they were decompressing in the bell. Maybe 2 yrs ago or so.

I guess a good way of defining a diving accident would be to say that it is an accident caused by a diver error, failure of dive equipment, or possibly as a result of the diving conditions. So a overstaying NDLs and skipping deco, a blown low pressure hose or down current might be considered causes of diving accidents.

Being left behind by a dive boat in the ocean would depend on the circumstances - if the diver was lost because of heavy currents and no signaling device, then yes, at least part of the responsibility is on the diver. If it was a headcount thing (like in "Open Water" and the accident that it was based on), then not really. Not sure that I would put marine wildlife accidents into the diving accident category, but again - semantics.

 

[diversteve]

http://www.scubaboard.com/forums/ac...9-7-divers-missing-off-indonesias-island.html
How about this more resent dive incident

They found 5 of them.

Five Japanese divers have now been found alive more than three days after going missing near the Indonesian resort island of Bali, a disaster agency official says.

Five Japanese divers found alive 3 days after going missing near Indonesian resort island of Bali - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

 

[DeepSeaDan]

In 1982, I was part of a saturation dive team working in the N. Atlantic, where we "stored" ( living in the pressurized chamber complex ) at a gas pressure equivalent of 710 fsw. At one point during the 35-day dive, a "Telex" was "locked-in" for us to read - it was from our parent company's head office in Aberdeen. It told of a saturation diving accident in the N. Sea that had just occured, where 4 divers in saturation & one topside Tender were killed. The divers died of explosive decompression when the diving bell accidentally separated from the saturation complex. The 12 ata of system pressure vented out a 24" dia. hole in seconds, as the hatchways in the system were all open. The Telex urged us to insure that all of our interior hatches remained dogged-closed after transitting thru a hatchway. I recall looking over to see that we had every one of our hatches tied open!

I can assure you I wasn't long in de-rigging those lines & closing those hatches.

And yes, sat. divers have perished when the vessel they were working from foundered in stormy seas. There is no quick "out" of a saturation environment - it is usually a multi-day deco. process to slowly de-sat back to surface, thus the reality of having to "go down with the ship" is a fact of life that sat divers understand. Fortunately, such events are very rare, but the danger exists.

Regards,
DSD

 

[billt4sf]

In 1982, I was part of a saturation dive team working in the N. Atlantic, where we "stored" ( living in the pressurized chamber complex ) at a gas pressure equivalent of 710 fsw. At one point during the 35-day dive, a "Telex" was "locked-in" for us to read - it was from our parent company's head office in Aberdeen. It told of a saturation diving accident in the N. Sea that had just occured, where 4 divers in saturation & one topside Tender were killed. The divers died of explosive decompression when the diving bell accidentally separated from the saturation complex. The 12 ata of system pressure vented out a 24" dia. hole in seconds, as the hatchways in the system were all open. The Telex urged us to insure that all of our interior hatches remained dogged-closed after transitting thru a hatchway. I recall looking over to see that we had every one of our hatches tied open!

I can assure you I wasn't long in de-rigging those lines & closing those hatches.

And yes, sat. divers have perished when the vessel they were working from foundered in stormy seas. There is no quick "out" of a saturation environment - it is usually a multi-day deco. process to slowly de-sat back to surface, thus the reality of having to "go down with the ship" is a fact of life that sat divers understand. Fortunately, such events are very rare, but the danger exists.

Regards,
DSD

This is off-topic, but I have never heard of "saturation diving" before. What do you do on such a long dive -- construction types of things? Oil rigs, bridges, and the like?

- Bill