Russian diver dead; Brit diver injured

[DandyDon]

From: Brit in Intensive Care After Record Dive in Russia | Russia | RIA Novosti

British diver Martin Robson has been placed in intensive care after making a record 209-meter dive in Blue Lake in Russia’s North Caucasus on Thursday, the lake's diving center said.
At 258 meters in depth, Blue Lake is considered to be the third largest lake with only underwater tributaries in the world and the second largest in Europe. An international project to explore the depths of the lake is currently underway.
“The record immersion continued for about nine hours. Robson successfully resurfaced from a depth of 209 meters but later became ill and was taken to the republic’s hospital in Nalchik,” a spokesman for the diving center said.
One member of Robson’s support team, Russian diver Andrei Rodionov, 39, died on January 13 during one of the first dives.
Researchers believe there is a very deep cave system in the lake.
One of the project objectives is to locate, penetrate and explore this cave system, and to prove that Blue Lake is the deepest karst spring in the world.

More on the lake and the project here: Blue Lake Project « TecRec Blog

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Couple of random thoughts as we highly unlikely to see much more on this;

Extreme dives equals extreme risk. A few will take on these risks and while I am not one I respect the endeavor.

A expedition (albeit extreme) where there are two separate incidents on what sounds like two separate days leads me to question planning. Extreme dives equals extreme contingency planning. Would love to know if plans were registered with DAN. Would love to know what (if any) changes to the plan were made after the first death.

An expedition with two separate incidents on separate days leads me to question what build up dives were for the team.

Although an extreme dive, I don't understand why the author calls this a record breaking dive. Maybe a new site or personal depth record, but so what?

[Jim Lapenta]

Why would they register plans with DAN? No reason to. Perhaps report them after the dive with any notations on effects of a 685 ft dive but DAN would have no reason to see the intial dive plans. DAN has no jurisidiction over anything and likely would be hard pressed to make recommendations on a dive like this. Better source would be the Navy Experiemental Diving Unit if that or the Russian equivalent.

Why would changes be made after the first death? Perhaps a medical issue or simple diver error on the part of the deceased. If either of these the only change would be to find another support diver or possible change in roles of support divers. No need to cancel the expedition.

Build up dives info would be interesting but at those depths 100 practice dives could mean little with a single error in judgment or small gear issue would negate and previous preparation. You are either on your game or your dead.

It may very well be a record breaking dive. The article did not note what record is being broken so the description is fine. Does not matter what record as long as record is broken. Would be nice to know which one though.

If there is more on this it is unlikely it will be reported here. Better chance of more info on the Deco Stop or some of the European and Russian Tech forums.

[Jim Lapenta]

Martin's blog : Martin Robson's Blog

One russian paper is also reporting the support diver had an equipment failure. It is a Russian deep record by the way. Google is your friend just use the right search terms and you can wade thru the same news story that is just repeated.

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

DAN will not insure a dive below 330 ft unless you preregister your dive plan with them. Their requirements are actually quite onerous and include numerous contingency planning details. You also need your surface marshal to call DAN as you start your descent and upon return. If you are going to do extreme diving insurance is a good option. I know of a number of 400+ ft dives that have been covered. I am not aware of a 600 ft dive that they covered.

If my back up diver kills himself on a dive, at a minimum I have a hole in my dive team that may need to be filled. That in itself is a change to a complex dive plan. A simple diver error killing my backup would certainly give me something to think about regarding my backup team choice.

Agree that at these depths a 'simple' issue can be a major problem. That's why we don't go straight from 300 ft to 680 ft. Doing 100 dives to 650 ft is over the top, but does go towards getting you comfortable with both the depth and how your body feels through the deco.

I admit I tend not to follow the Russian or European forums. If anyone sees anything please post.

[Tigerman]

Its Europe/Asia (think the lake is in the Asian part of russia?) and DAN is by no means as much represented here in Europe as in the US, not sure about Asia..

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Thanks for your link. Martin Robson looks to be super experienced. Looks like they were on Inspirations.

Equipment failure killing a back up diver is concerning because that is what the redundancy equipment, back up divers and plans were for.

[ianr33]

DAN will not insure a dive below 330 ft unless you preregister your dive plan with them.

Not my understanding,at least in the U.S.
http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/insurance/compare.asp

Preferred and Master plans have "No (depth) Limit"

[Jim Lapenta]

Yep so you plan for a diver to drop out or not be able to go for some reason. And they may not even have had DAN insurance so again why file a plan with them? DAN is a great organization and I personally would not dive without it. But once you get into expedition diving of this type you set up other contingencies that bypass even DAN. This expedition was supported by:

Team of scientistsfrom Perm Science Institute, headed by the rector of Perm Science Institute (Russia), Doctor of Geological and Mineralogical Sciences Nikolai Maksimovich.


Italian geomorphologist, professor of Verona University, Giovanni Badino.


A special detachment from the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. I'm sure these guys had a team and plan in place to handle things better than DAN


Director of Research Center“Blue Lake”, the champion of Russia in deep diving Igor Galaida.

Dives of this type need to be thought of outside the realm of what recreational divers think of when talking of support. Not even in the same state, let alone ballpark. I suggest as a primer to pick up Tom Mount's "The Tao of Survival Underwater" for a beginning look at what expedition diving is.

[kouras]

Its Europe/Asia (think the lake is in the Asian part of russia?) and DAN is by no means as much represented here in Europe as in the US, not sure about Asia..

hello to all, I hope Martin will get well soon. This lake is really dangerous, many local people died in there.

no, its in european part of Russia. Just because Russia is not in European Union does not make it asian. Im 30 minutes drive away from that lake

Why wouldnt people just use an advanced camera to see the bottom of the lake?