Youth Drowns During Scuba Class in St. Thomas

[PositivelyBuoyant]

Looks like this happened yesterday.

16-Year-Old Boy Drowns During Scuba Diving Class At Buck Island In St. Thomas

16-Year-Old Boy Drowns During Scuba Diving Class at Buck Island in St. Thomas

viconsortium.com

 

[wetb4igetinthewater]

My condolences to friends and family. I can't imagine the grief the parents are suffering.

 

[ROUS]

Sad deal.

 

[scubadada]

How do things like this happen during classes??

 

[Belzelbub]

How do things like this happen during classes??

It really shouldn’t. I really have a hard time understanding how things could get so sideways while under the watchful eye of an instructor.

I can’t imagine what the parents are going through. Presumably, they were on vacation in the Caribbean. What should have been a time of happy memories suddenly turned tragic.

 

[L13]

It really shouldn’t. I really have a hard time understanding how things could get so sideways while under the watchful eye of an instructor.

I can’t imagine what the parents are going through. Presumably, they were on vacation in the Caribbean. What should have been a time of happy memories suddenly turned tragic.

I didn't see any description of anything "going sideways" or any other ways. There was such a lack of information in the article, I don't know how anyone is commenting yet about what should or shouldn't have happened "under the watchful eye of an instructor." At this point, for all we know, this could been an unrelated medical event made more serious by occurring during a dive. Maybe it was equipment failure. Maybe it was aliens. Maybe the instructor was negligent. We don't know.

Wait for info before commenting/judging. If you have info share it along with your comment/judgement.

 

[Rollin Bonz]

How do things like this happen during classes??

This may be like a "class" my family of four did, at my insistence, on a Caribbean cruise. We had zero experience. Did some confined water drills, reg recovery etc. Then, after a 15 minute boat ride to another cove, they basically turned us loose in 30 or 40 feet of water. Daughters 6 and 9 and wife tapped out after a few minutes. I stayed in the water the entire time, after 30 minutes, I was the last one back on the boat. It's where I fell in love with scuba diving.

It was also where any one of us could have died at any time during the "class". It was another 10 years or so before I got certified.

Knowing what I know now, I should have never put them in that situation.

 

[RedSeaDiver2]

For all we know it could have been something like undeclared asthma - unfortunately that does happen.

 

[Belzelbub]

I didn't see any description of anything "going sideways" or any other ways.

Something definitely went sideways as a 16 year old ended up dead.

There was such a lack of information in the article, I don't know how anyone is commenting yet about what should or shouldn't have happened "under the watchful eye of an instructor." At this point, for all we know, this could been an unrelated medical event made more serious by occurring during a dive.

At 16, a medical event is much less likely. Not out of the realm of possibility, but certainly way down the list.

 

[Brett Hatch]

My sincere condolences to the family. What a tragedy, I cannot imagine what they are going through.

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

I have cleaned up a dozen or so posts in this thread. Folks, keep in mind that the Accidents and Incidents forum has special rules. A young boy died yesterday, we're all going to have some feelings about this, but wild speculation about dive op quality is not appropriate here. The family of the deceased may read this thread some day, post with care.

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