2 Dead, 2 Injured in German lake

[DandyDon]

From Dutch scuba divers found death in German lake | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Two Dutch scuba divers who had been missing since Saturday afternoon in a lake near the northern German town of Hemmoor were found dead on Sunday afternoon 50 metres under the surface, police authorities said.

The dead were part of a party of six Dutchmen who had gone diving in pairs in the 60-metre deep Kreidesee. It’s still unclear what exactly went wrong during the dive.

Two of the divers managed to return to the surface without any problems. Another pair had to be rescued and were admitted to hospital with internal injuries. Both divers are in a stable condition, police confirmed.

The Kreidesee, some 50 kilometres south-east of the German fishing town of Cuxhaven in Lower Saxony, is popular among scuba divers because of its relatively clear waters.

 

[Lemna]

Some more information: 5 of them were part of the same dive club. The two victims are described as very experienced instructors; the other 4 had a lot of experience as well. One person sustained injuries, probably due to a rapid ascent.

Sources:
duikeninbeeld.tv
Delta Duikteam Alkmaar

 

[Dive Choice Mexico]

Here is the link of the website of the dive shop where it happened.
This is the story from the divers it states.
I am sure you can translate it with Google.

Duikvereniging Delta Duikteam

I knew 1 of the divers while I still was living in Holland.
He was a very active diver in the handicapped dive sport and we organized many events with Diving with Handicapped.

You will be missed by many

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks DCM. The google translate is not clear. Sounds like one out of air, one unconscious, one could not release weights or escape kit, but hard to follow. No mention of depth.

 

[VooDooGasMan]

Don your post mentioned found 50 meters.

 

[Dive Choice Mexico]

I am reading the dutch news and papers at the moment to get the whole story

 

[Lemna]

Rough translation of the story as told by the survivors:

We (Daniel, Eelco, Bart, Co, Fred and Nico) arrived well prepared in Hemmoor on Friday 30 September. On our first day we did two nice dives. The water was clear, the weather excellent and diving circumstances were ideal.

On Saturday we considered doing a deep dive, since the diving was this good. We planned the dive, agreed on new signs to make it an even safer dive and went through all technical aspects that are necessary to perform a dive like this safely.

We descended according to plan: Daniel and Eelco, Bart and Co, Fred and Nico. After we arrived at the bottom, we gave the sign to ascend.

Daniel and Eelco ascended indirectly, while Bart and Co ascended directly to the first stop. On that stop, Bart noticed that Fred asked him to come over, so he descended some 2 meters to Fred. Fred then indicated that he was out of air. Bart offered his alternate and they both shared air from Barts tank. Bart had enough air to finish the dive.

While sharing air they both descended slightly. Bart noticed this and inflated his BCD and drysuit, but both descended even further. When they reached the bottom, Bart saw Nico lying still, without any sign of life. Bart and Fred tried to remove Freds weights but did not succeed. Next, while unsuccessfully trying to remove Freds BCD, Fred suddenly got detached from Bart and Bart rocketed to the surface.

At the surface, Bart and Co alerted someone on the shore who immediately called the emergency services. Those arrived within a few minutes. Bart was transported to a deco tank in Kiel by helicopter. Co was taken to an ICU by ambulance.

The same day the search for Fred an Nico started, but their bodies were not recovered until the next day. After one day, Bart and Co were allowed to leave the hospital in Germany. Bart will continue to receive treatment in the Netherlands.

Considering what happened the four survivors are faring pretty well. They appreciate all messages they received and ask not to be contacted by the media.

On taucher.net an eyewitness reports that both victims were using single 12L tanks and semi-dry suits. One victim was found with an empty tank, while the other had 65 bar left.

 

[japan-diver]

Sounds like another deep air/single tank dive that ended in a tragedy.

 

[Ayisha]

It does sound like another deep air/single tank dive gone wrong. Do we have any indication of the depth they went to or how deep the lake is?

-Has there been any CO testing of the tanks? (Although there's no mention of sickness in the story).
-We're hearing again about weights that could not be removed in an emergency.
-The adding air and still descending sounds strange. Bart rocketed to the surface when he lost contact with Fred, so he had enough lift for himself but it sounds as though Fred's BC was not inflated and/or he was overweighted. Fred was out of air, so he (or Bart) would have had to orally inflate Fred's BC when they were sharing air.

It sounds like the four that survived were lucky that they started ascending when they did. The two injured of those four survivors were lucky to have gotten EMS so quickly. Hopefully they make a full and swift recovery.

 

[japan-diver]

The first post days they were at 50 meters and that the lake is 60 meters.