Diver dies in BVI

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

alashas

Contributor
Messages
276
Reaction score
1
Location
Charlottesville, VA
# of dives
100 - 199
A brief blurb in link below about a 53-year-old American tourist who died while diving near Green Cay and Little Jost Van Dyke on Wednesday, Dec. 19. Our prayers for his family and friends.

Sincerely, alashas

The BVI Beacon
 
I've called 2 diveshops in the BVI and details are still few at the moment. Person was apparently diving from a private charter boat.
 
Just read in the local paper that his body was recovered. I have no other details, very sad.

Rachel
 
I received an E mail from a long time diving companion--the diver was his next door neighbor in Fort Meyers.

Details of recovery need not be published--be satisfied that he body was recovered on the surface.

sdm
 
We were in the BVI then, in fact we were on a Dive BVI (the local Dive company that we dove with from Little Dix Bay all week) boat preparing for a dive at "Project Ocean Survey" (or POS) at Cockroach Island (just a few miles from the fatality site) at the time of the loss. It was about 1500 local time and we were listening to the US Coast Guard with Paul and Rudy from Dive BVI (and very cool guys) as we were gearing up. It wasn't until a day later that we heard the awful news that the man was found dead. We have no special information on this, but felt a bit of a connection being in the same water at the same time. Our best thoughts for strength at this horrible time go out to the family and friends of the Johanning's.
 
There is a good story about Wayne here: Body of Fort Myers diver who went missing in Virgin Islands found : South_Lee : Naples Daily News

Blessings to his family and friends, alashas
Sorry to hear of the loss, of course - warmest wishes to the family. I'm sure his son/dive buddy was frantic at losing his on dad in the water, searching thru the dark night, and such.

No wish to try to place any blame on anyone here, but only to seek learning and emphasis previously accepted safety procedures, that last story you linked had two bits of info that bothered me...
"Johanning apparently drowned some time after surfacing with one of his sons, said Phil Aspinall, coordinator for Virgin Islands Search and Rescue. The two came up together, but his son went back under to look for the third diver with them. Johanning was gone when the others resurfaced." I hate 3 diver teams. I've done them, but usually felt simply twice as challenged at watch out for both of them, while less secure that either was watching out for me. Looks like the accident started when the team broke down, only to have an experienced diver die after surfacing. We do not know if he had air in the tank or had dumped his weights, do we? If he'd dumped his weights, I don't guess his body would have been found on the sea floor?

And I have been the one who went back to look for a missing diver while the one I suface with left the water. I have to wonder why the 3 did not surface together, but only speculating and questioning here as I don't know the conditions. My incident was surfacing thru a crowd of divers in Santa Rosa NM, losing sight of one, not finding him on the surface. I used my pony to search, while the other diver exited not having enough air to descend - only to learn later than the missing diver had left the water alone. He also left the site immediately, and we have not spoken in over two years since.

"Authorities believe Johanning had to swim against a strong current through choppy water to reach a dingy that the men took to the dive site. One theory is that he went back under to avoid the rough water and couldn’t make it back up." This seems to be yet another accident where no one stayed on the boat, with that becoming critical to the situation. I have done that once with a couple of nice SB local divers, but was concerned enough to discuss the approach in detail - agreeing we would stay together first and foremost, and what our exit stradegy would be if we could not get back to the boat. Both of these dives were very close to land with houses on Puget Sound - much tamer than their location, I think.

Dive team failure and untended boat in a remote location. Any differing thot...?

JVD seems to be just east of Tortola, with Green Cay and Little JVD between...
 

Attachments

  • Screen10_edited (Medium).JPG
    Screen10_edited (Medium).JPG
    85.2 KB · Views: 393
Being a newbie on this board and meaning no disrespect, it seems inappropriate to me to address causation/fault so close to this experienced diver's passing. Additionally to provide opinions or thoughts in response to a newspaper's account of what "Authorities believe" or of "one theory" seems a bit reckless, as it does to presume that the boat was unattended. I just don't know if that's the case or not. I would be interested in the views of this board's most experienced divers relative to the facts when they are released. I have read annecdotal comments involving current, sharks, heart attacks, etc. Again, I mean no eye-poke, but I'm choosing to wait for facts, assuming they surface publicly.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/perdix-ai/

Back
Top Bottom