Diving incident at Eagles Nest Sink

[Kevrumbo]

Well . . .paralleling the premise on Cavediver.net, the only reason to remove a working backmount rebreather and push the passage no mount on an open circuit cylinder is if the restriction (at Revelation Space in the Room of Dreams) looks like it's so tight that there is no other way to fit through. There is a relevant incident on the IUCRR website reporting a fatality of this extreme technique: Rebreather Incident

And so the speculation begins regarding what happened at that restriction where Victim2's CCR with "loop closed and appearing to be fully operational", and a full 95 bailout cylinder was found (per Charlie Roberson's report). . . Worst case maybe they both went into the restriction no mount, and only one was able to find their CCR and remaining bailout cylinder along with the back-up scooter in a following zero viz Halocline & silt-out exit from the restriction.

Towed via the single back-up scooter, they make it back through the Downstream Tunnel to the vertical shaft leading up to the Pit Restriction , with three 95cf cylinders, two of which are nearly exhausted supplying open circuit gas to Diver2. As last resort they look for the AL80 safety at 270ffw, "but was not easily seen on the way out" (per Charlie Roberson's report) and don't find it. They ascend the narrow vertical shaft and exit at the far end of the Pit Restriction and drop the two empty 95cf bailout cylinders (found later by the Recovery Team).

They now have only one remaining 95cf cylinder which is likely at half tank pressure at most, which Diver2 breaths open circuit on the long hose, and Diver1 has already plugged into via QC6 as offboard diluent supply -his own onboard diluent cylinder long ago emptied during the stressful extended return through the Downstream Tunnel. They have five minutes of gas left to negotiate the massive broken Boulder Field of the Pit Restriction, before scootering onward to find the AL80 safety tanks just before the Lockwood Tunnel jump . . .but ultimately get delayed by deteriorating viz and they perish.

 

[diver0008]

Dark, cold, deep and things go wrong. Just horrible. Impossible for me to imagine or understand.

I can however understand the intense desire to know what happenned, as I can the anger towards it from those closely involved.

People just aren't supposed to die doing such a beautiful thing. It's confusing, and trying to figure it out and yearning for information is hard to control.

The people that execute the rescues and piece it all together help us all, and are at the pinnacle of our community.

We're all divers. We all care.

 

[hroark2112]

1. It is only the 3rd divers word that they planned on diving upstream. All bottles were positioned for a down stream dive.

2. No dil means the diver can't dilute the pure O2 for his loop volume; It means he is breathing pure O2 at 200+ feet.

3. Ditching gear means panic? Possibly. Seeing claw marks or other signs might point to the degree of panic if there was any. The diver could have honestly believed he could't get through the restriction and removed his gear by choice. Given how everything was removed, and both divers were found so far away from the restriction. Diver obviously had an accelerated breathing rate, but doesn't point to full blown panic in my mind.

No diluent does not mean you're breathing pure O2. It just means you have no onboard means of lowering your PO2 with the exception of ascending (which is not always possible with overhead). As long as you do not descend and you do not vent your loop, you can finish a dive with no diluent. You can also drop your PO2 by bailing out to offboard gas and adding that gas to your loop when you go back to it.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Can someone explain if there is a really tight restriction to exit and if they were past it or not?

Why no light?

 

[KevinNM]

Here's a video that seems to show at least part of the path they would have taken and some of the various restrictions with labels, possibly correct labels - I don't know. Note that these are very deep, so any issue will burn through OC gas and rack up deco time fast.

AJ did one too, but doesn't have labels

And no, I'm not a cave diver and have never even seen the pond.

 

[Kevrumbo]

Scary videos -Overhead Diver's Worst Nightmare that deep 300'/90m & that far in at 1200'/360m from open water should something go wrong. . .

. . .Why no light?

Yeah . . .Diver1's Primary Light Head and E/O Cord was found detached at the exit of the Pit, but victim did not show signs of back-up light deployment according to Charlie Roberson's report. Post Mortem after the fact -Light Head could have snagged on a rock and disconnected the E/O as the body floated upward. . .

 

[Kevrumbo]

Ok here's the report originally posted by Charlie Roberson on CDF:

"Cave diving has a long history of accident analysis, which can be healthy and productive. Unfortunately, modern forms of communication and the twenty-four hour news cycle have trained us to expect up-to-the-minute reporting and rapid release of information. This is a reality of the modern world and without facts people are left to speculation and misinformation. The following statement of facts has been reviewed by those involved in the search and recovery efforts. That being said, there may be errors; however, these are the relevant facts as we know them.

STATEMENT OF FACTS

1. Chris Rittenmeyer and Patrick Peacock started a dive at Eagle's Nest around 2:00 p.m. on Saturday, October 15, 2016. They were on JJ-CCRs with 95cf sidemount bailouts. Each diver had a scooter and an AL80 safety. They also towed a backup scooter. They had placed all their deco safeties in the cave the day before.
2. Chris and Patrick were both fully trained as Full Cave, Trimix, CCR, and DPV divers. Both divers had years of ocean and cave diving experience.
3. When the divers failed to return to deco at the anticipated time, their surface support buddy checked every 30 minutes until they were several hours overdue. Their buddy called Cave Country Dive Shop around 6:00 p.m. and spoke to Jon Bernot, who immediately loaded his vehicle and started driving to Eagle's Nest. While enroute, Jon called around and activated a response team of qualified and available cave divers.
4. Search Team 1, of Jon Bernot and Charlie Roberson, got underway around 11:00 p.m. to search the upstream passage, which was the dive plan according to the buddy. Team 1 checked the habitat and spotted three O2 bottles at 20 ffw, four 50% at 70 ffw, and two 120 bottles on the top of the mound, all of which were untouched. Team 1 noticed that the 120 bottles were on the downstream side of the line but decided to go ahead and check the upstream since that was believed to be the dive plan. Team 1 scoured the entire upstream all the way to the far reaches of the Green Room, King's Challenge, and all the large passage and rooms. When Team I failed to find anything upstream, they proceeded to check the Lockwood tunnel to no avail. Team 1 surfaced around 3:30 a.m.
5. Search Team 2, of Ted McCoy and AJ Gonzales, got underway around 3:45 a.m. and headed downstream. They immediately found the two bodies on the exit side of the Pit in approximately 220-230 ffw. Team 2 fully documented the scene and took detailed notes for about 45 minutes before exiting.
6. Diver 1 was wearing his CCR but his bailouts were not in place. One empty 95 bailout was beside him and attached to his rig via a QC6 and the long hose was deployed. His loop was open and out of his mouth. The inhale side of the loop was crushed. He had 300 psi of O2 but no onboard diluent remaining. He did have a 13cf inflation bottle with gas remaining. He had no primary light head and his backup lights were not deployed. There was a single scooter near Diver 1 but it was unclipped and turned off.
7. Diver 2 was only wearing a drysuit, mask and fins and was positively buoyant. He had a backup light clipped off and dangling out of his pocket. No other bottles were nearby.
8. A full AL80 safety was located just on the exit side of the Pit restriction in 270 ffw but was not easily seen on the way out. The primary light head with e/o cord was also located on the exit side of the Pit restriction. Their other full AL80 safety was located beside another team’s full safety just downstream of the jump to the Lockwood tunnel.
9. Two 95 bailouts were located just on the far side of the Pit. Both were empty.
10. Recovery Team 1 brought both bodies to the top of the Ballroom and Recovery Team 2 brought both bodies to the surface on Sunday afternoon.
11. Diver 2's CCR, a 95 bailout, and two scooters were located on Monday morning just outside the restriction to Revelation Space in the Room of Dreams. The CCR loop was closed and appeared to be fully operational. The 95 bailout was full. Diver 2 had video lights for a GoPro plugged into his canister light.
12. The gear recovery team of Jon Bernot and James Draker removed all the gear from the cave and turned it over to law enforcement on Monday, October 17, 2016.

The nature of accident analysis is that it's critical of those involved. However, friends, family, and those involved in the recovery have many raw emotions regarding this loss. I ask that you keep this in mind as you proceed with a thorough and professional accident analysis.

Safe diving,
Charlie Roberson"

Luke Alcorn's video showing some of underwater topography place names listed above:

1:11 "Into the Pit"
3:53 "Entrance to Revelation Space
4:05 "Through the First Restriction Into the Halocline . . .303 feet Deep"
4:44 "Up to the Second Restriction. . ."
5:40 "Revelation Space"

Map:
EAGLE'S NEST - Association of Underwater Explorers

 

[The Chairman]

Can someone explain

Dude... be patient. We've gotten more than we almost ever get at this point. Be patient. Even better, this has been answered in the narrative, so read it again.

 

[kensuf]

I want to make a brief final statement on this topic. This will be my last post in this thread. There's a very good chance this will be my last post on Scubabored, I'm so sick of this place right now.

Between Saturday evening when the team was first alerted about the missing divers, and Monday evening when the final piece of equipment was recovered, over a dozen divers were involved in the search and recovery for this tragedy. All of us gave a part of ourselves to this effort; one diver suffered a minor DCS hit, another diver had been sick with the flu and was vomiting in the parking lot prior to his dive, and all of the remaining had to take time away from friends, families, and jobs to work this effort.

With the exception of the four recovery divers that removed the bodies of the deceased, no other dive team actually knew what the scope of their dive and/or mission would be prior to getting in the water. They had no idea what they would find around the next corner, and how long it would take them to deal with the unforeseen circumstances that they might encounter. Think about the logistics of preparing to do dives down to depths of 280-300’, with no idea of what sort of run-time you should expect, now prepare to do that dive with just a few hours notice.

Those of you that were on the internet on Monday or Tuesday clamoring for facts need to understand that no single member of the recovery team had all of the facts of the case. Every individual had their own piece of the puzzle, each puzzle piece fit into the whole picture, but it was a unique piece depending on the role of each team member and what that person saw first-hand. No member wanted to put out misinformation and speculation, even though we heard some whoppers of rumors from the gossip line.

Only once each member had completed their individual statements could the process of assembling the facts into a report begin. I understand the desire to know all of the facts quickly and timely, but you guys need to understand and accept that sometimes it will take a few days and you do not have a right to instant information. None of us performs body recoveries as our full time job, we volunteer as a service to the families of the deceased. None of us are reimbursed for diving gas, sorb, gear, fuel, lost wages from work, etc. All of us had to juggle the demands of our families, work, school, around the circus that this event unfolded into.

I am really ashamed and disappointed in the behavior of some of the people that I considered friends. Several of you are “leaders in the industry” and could have been a calming voice of reason asking the general public to give us time to complete our tasks, but instead you were on the front line demanding answers before we even had a time to get them together ourselves. You should be ashamed.

 

[Kristi@CCDS]

Well stated Ken, and I will leave those divers with this:

em·pa·thy
ˈempəTHē/
noun

1. the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.

My husband, as you read was one of those individuals....not only that, these were friends of ours. Can you imagine potentially having to recover two of your friends? Possibly some of you have... perhaps now you can see why my earlier rant.