Fatality at WKP

[Belmont]

A diver named Jim Miller convulsed and drowned at 200 feet, breathing on a 70 ft bottle.

He was brought back to the surface but could not be revived.

A sad day for all, prayers for his soul, his family and companions.

 

[TSandM]

Todd Leonard has been sharing what little info is available on the Cave Diver's forum. Apparently, a deep bottle was dropped at the 70' stop, instead of the 70' bottle. At 120, the switch was made onto the 70' bottle, and it was apparently breathed for about an hour before the seizure occurred.

What is really sad is that there are very methodical procedures to prevent this from occurring -- dropping the wrong bottle, yes; switching to the wrong gas, no. There is as of yet no description from the dive team as to HOW it happened, but I have my suspicions. I know what I have seen happen, even on our "little" tech dives, and that is that, with familiarity, gas switches are treated with less respect. On our last tech dive together, I was upset with my husband for rushing the gas switch, and not stopping to watch each other as we should. His response was, "We only had ONE bottle." I pointed out that we had both 50% and 100% bottles on the boat, and there was no guarantee that we had grabbed the right ones -- the final insurance against ox-tox IS the monitored gas switch, which is why we are taught to do it. An extra 60 seconds at switch depth is cheap insurance.

Another thing is that the gas was breathed for an hour before the seizure. One of the things David Rhea beat me up about, over and over again in my Cave 2 class, was failure to include my buddy and his state of affairs in my situational awareness sweep. I was missing little things like markers hanging out of a pocket -- but here is a case where someone noticing the wrong MOD on the bottle might have saved a life. (Of course, if he was tail-end Charlie on the team, that wasn't going to happen.) It's HARD to remind yourself to look at your buddy from time to time with a critical eye, especially when you know them and have total confidence in their competence. But it's important.

If there is any lesson from this death, it is that mistakes can be made, even by very experienced people, and we have to remain vigilant against complacency or letting procedures slide, even in familiar dives.

 

[Tortuga68]

A diver named Jim Miller convulsed and drowned at 200 feet, breathing on a 70 ft bottle

I'm guessing if he was on the 70' gas (50%?) that he was out of weaker mixes. I'd certainly breathe deco gas at any depth before I breathed water, but at those PPs you're not going to get away with it for long

 

[Adobo]

I'm guessing if he was on the 70' gas (50%?) that he was out of weaker mixes. I'd certainly breathe deco gas at any depth before I breathed water, but at those PPs you're not going to get away with it for long

I don't know anything about wkpp procedures or protocols but I imagine there is no reason for him to even have a 70 bottle at 200 feet. He would have dropped that bottle at 70 feet. If he found himself out of gas on his bottom stage and out of backgas and unable to get gas from his buddy (based on what i know from GUE training, this is only due to inadvertent buddy separation), then he would resort to breathing that 70 bottle at 3x its deco MOD. And at 200ft, he shouldnt have that 70 bottle anyway.

I count 3 or 4 major failures before what you are suggesting would take place. It just doesn't seem very likely.

 

[Ayisha]

At 120, the switch was made onto the 70' bottle, and it was apparently breathed for about an hour before the seizure occurred.

I'm guessing if he was on the 70' gas (50%?) that he was out of weaker mixes. I'd certainly breathe deco gas at any depth before I breathed water, but at those PPs you're not going to get away with it for long

Tortuga68, he apparently breathed the 70' bottle for about an hour, not simply to ascend, as you may be implying.

 

[Tortuga68]

I don't know why but when I made my post, Lynne's second post wasn't in the thread

The OP seemed to indicate that the switch was made at 200' hence my comment

Now it seems like the diver was unaware of what mix he was breathing?

 

[tstormdiver]

I am in the preparatory steps of getting ready to start into trimix (reading the materials, getting used to carrying multiple stages & asking lots of questions to my instructor). He has mentioned to me several times the importance of both team & diver validation of the correct stage bottle before its use. This very unfortunate accident really drives home the importance of these procedures. I will say, on my part the lessons of this tragedy have not been lost.

 

[fdog]

This is why I "go against the grain" and have every stage labeled for MOD - even those with bottom mix.

I can see how this could have happened, for example, being rushed by schedule or task loading. There was a move afoot a while ago for simple gas switches while scootering - like, from bottom gas to bottom gas - but we stopped doing this, and now have the pause that makes a switch safe.

Very sad, I will choose to honor his memory by learning from this and being safer.


All the best, James

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Todd Leonard has been sharing what little info is available on the Cave Diver's forum. Apparently, a deep bottle was dropped at the 70' stop, instead of the 70' bottle. At 120, the switch was made onto the 70' bottle, and it was apparently breathed for about an hour before the seizure occurred.

Firstly, thank you for another great post. This tragedy certainly knocked me cause it seems to have been avoidable, and yet a mistake so easily made.

I admit that I have a very limited understanding of cave diving or of the dive site, so my question is probably out of ignorance. I assume that the intention was to come back from a relatively deep / long dive with a first deco bottle from 120ft, then to switch to the 70ft bottle at 70ft on the way up. Therefore if the incorrect bottle was used for an hour, it is fair to assume that the dive profile included one hour to move from 120ft to 70ft? This seems very long in terms of any deco profiles that I would normally run.

Why would the dive have been planned with an hour to move the 50ft in depth? Is this normal for this dive site? Alternatively is my read incorrect and the diver confused a pony bottle of bottom gas with his deco gas?

 

[Blackwood]

The deeper bottle was likely either travel gas or a bottom stage.

It could have been a deco or bailout (not sure if this was a RB dive or not) bottle, but the way I read Todd's post, he was breathing it on the way in, so those both seem unlikely.