Finnish diver missing in Swedish mine

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Source: Finnish Divers Federation website (and Google translate)
Sukeltajaliitto ry - Uutiset - Tapahtumakuvaus 7.1.2018 Tuna-Hästbergissä, Ruotsissa sattuneesta sukellusonnettomuudesta

GOOGLE TRANSLATE
note: all divers are "he" in the translation, just read it as he/she

Published 17.1.2018
Event description for the diving accident in Sweden on January 7, 2018 in Tuna-Hästberg

At the wish of their own and of the participants, the Finnish Diving Association publishes an event description of the accident. The event description has been published on Kuopio Sports Companions website on January 16, 2018.

EVENT DESCRIPTION 7.1.2018 DIVING DIVING, TUNA-HÄSTBERG, SWEDEN

Time: 7.1.2018, morning
Location: Tuna-Hästberg, Sweden

The three diver group had traveled from Finland to Tuna-Häberberg to dive. They participated in about 20 diver events from 5th to 7.1.2018. In an accident on January 7th, 2018, the deceased diver should be number one, the number 2 behind him and the last number 3.

The event was reached on January 5, 2018, and diving started in good spirits. During the first day, the trio dived together making 2 dives. Diver 1 pulled the first dive with the beginning of the route identical to the accident dive. The trio took the first dive on 6.1.2018 together. At that time, they left in the same direction as in an accident crash, but then started off on a different route. For the second dive the day was divided so that diver 2 and 3 dived together. Diver 1 left for another dive with two Norwegian divers. Because he was one of the most experienced, he worked at the top of the group. Their dives went again in the same direction as in the case of an accident crash. After diving, diver 1 was a bit annoyed when their dives had been shorter than his normal dives.

All dives used nitrox with oxygen about 27-29%. The maximum diving depths were about 36 meters. The dives had agreed to follow the 1/3 gas rule. All had bottles of 2x12 l bottles and as stages 80cuf bottles.
The Day of the Accident Day was supposed to be the last trip, after which a home trip would begin. At the beginning of the dive, the team made routine checks, gases ok (D12 -> 210 bar EAN 29, 80 cuf,> 195bar EAN 29), lights ok, bubbles ok and all the other ok. Even the previous night there was an agreed route and dive sequence as described earlier in the text. The beginning of the route was in the same direction as before, but then to go up the staircase to the so called " Rabbit direction and dive a route new to them, which would join with the end of corridor familiar to them close to Mirror-named route.

Diving started as before, calmly moving without any problems. On the way, before the accident, there are a couple of slightly narrower places. There was no problem with them and everything went normal. The team climbed the ladder up to about 6 to 7 meters deep and headed for the Rabbit Hole. After diving for about 28 minutes, diver 1 started began moving into the about 2 meters in diameter Rabbit Holen, diver 2 to the place behind him and provided light. Diver 3 was next to Diver 2, behind and at a diagonal. When diver 1 had gone about two feet, he suddenly began to back up, using hands, pushing heavily. As he reached the mouth opening, diver 2 noticed that there was air in the feet of diver 1, but the legs had not risen to the ceiling of the corridor. He noticed that everything was not OK when the diver 1 kicked with the legs all the time without the kicks being effective. At the same time, one fin of diver 1 came off. Diver 2 pressed the feet immediately down and took the air away from the feet. At the same time, he took Diver 1 from his hand and with his other hand grab the rock to hold them in place. Diver 3 monitored the situation and picked up the dropped flip. He was able to help Diver 1 get his fin back on foot. Diver 2 landed in front of the diver 1 and tried to calm him without touching diver 1. Very quickly Diver 2 noticed, that the second leg fin had fallen off. At that time, he made the decision to rise to the cave roof. He filled the vest of Diver 1. At the bottom of the cave, visibility had weakened to almost zero. Diver 3 stayed to search for the dropped fin and lost guide line at the bottom while Diver 2 rose with Diver 1. When they reached the roof of the cave at a depth of about 2 meters, the diver 2 turned the clearly in panic Diver 1 into the right position and settled in front of him, keeping all the time holding from hand with eye contact.

Once Diver 3 found the fin and the guide line he rose to others. He tried to put on Diver 1’s fin, but diver’s this strong kicking continued and the flippers did not stay on the legs. They both tried to calm down the situation by keeping diver 1 from the hand and trying to soothe the diver. The situation continued for a long time. Divers 2 and 3 communicated that they will start to bring diver 1 to the surface. They could only go a few yards forward when diver 1 convulsed and became lifeless. Divers 2 and 3 found that diver 1 was lost. The dive time was 47 minutes. At this point, the diver 2 had found the guide line in the null visibility and caught it. He was able to advance slightly to better view and started to give a sign to the diver 3. Diver 3 had taken his own reel and drew the string to the diver 1. Diver 3 pulled the rope toward the diver 2 and drew the string to the guide line. Divers 2 and 3 started their return journey at a fast pace. The dive ended 70 minutes after it started.

On the surface, the divers aroused help. Emergency staff and police arrived very quickly. Divers are satisfied about how things were organized on the spot and how quickly they got help in this accident. It is possible that we will never be able to know, what started series of events that ended in the most sad way. It is known that the locals did everything they could and as they were trained to work.

Kuopion Urheilusukeltajat Ry
 
Does this account of events lead to another diagnostic concerning what went wrong?
 
Does this account of events lead to another diagnostic concerning what went wrong?



It does not lead to anything else or futher. The statement seems to be all information available at this time. I noticed that now, a good week later, they write that the cause of the panic might never be known. That sounds a lot like nothing clearly wrong or deficient for example, with gear, etc. has since been noticed by the folks that wrote this.
 
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It may be the google translation: but what caused the fins to go away from the diver, why air in the feet - I guess he was diving with a dry suit, why convulse. Also we spoke about a female and the text says: "he". :facepalm:
 
It may be the google translation: but what caused the fins to go away from the diver, why air in the feet - I guess he was diving with a dry suit, why convulse.
I was wondering that as well. Seems odd for a certified cave diver to be repeatedly losing fins on a dive. I'm guessing something else going on that wasn't explained or a translation failure.
Also we spoke about a female and the text says: "he". :facepalm:
I think that's just a google translate fail. @FinnMom mentioned it above.
 
It may be the google translation: but what caused the fins to go away from the diver, why air in the feet - I guess he was diving with a dry suit, why convulse. Also we spoke about a female and the text says: "he". :facepalm:

Finnish has no separate pronoun for he or she, both use the same word. So the original text literally says he/she.
Fins lost due to the "strong kicking", also described as ineffective kicking. That seems to have been the first signs of unusual behavior/distress.
Yes drysuit, no other possibility, esp. in January. Air in legs because if you stop paying attention to maintaing proper profile, for example, not keeping knees bent, air tends to gather in the legs and feet.
Convulsing - no idea, none whatsoever.
 
Finnish has no separate pronoun for he or she, both use the same word. So the original text literally says he/she.
Fins lost due to the "strong kicking", also described as ineffective kicking. That seems to have been the first signs

How do you know if a person is talking about a he or a she??

Fins lost due to the "strong kicking", also described as ineffective kicking

Wasn't he/she the most experienced one in the group? This seems VERY odd to me irrespective of the he/she were the most experienced or not. Jut being a certified cave diver, he/she should know the most basic of skills they teach in the rest of the world, appropriate fins kicks suitable for this type of diving. Something here doesn't add up.


Yes drysuit, no other possibility, esp. in January. Air in legs because if you stop paying attention to maintaing proper profile, for example, not keeping knees bent, air tends to gather in the legs and feet.
No excuse and no reason to lose control of the fins with buddies helping at all. Even the least experienced but properly trained drysuit and cave diver would know how to handle the situation without too much stress.

The whole thing just doesn't add up at all.
 
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The whole thing just doesn't add up at all.
We don't have any info about what triggered the (assumed) panic attack. And when panic hits, all rationality exits through the nearest window, no matter which floor you're at.
 
And when panic hits, all rationality exits through the nearest window, no matter which floor you're at.

No kidding? I didn't know that and I never seen that in my 40+ years of diving and 32+ years of teaching.
 
How do you know if a person is talking about a he or a she??
I don't know if it's common in other languages, but usually we know who we are talking about. So no need to seperate he/she.


Wasn't he/she the most experienced one in the group? This seems VERY odd to me irrespective of the he/she were the most experienced or not. Jut being a certified cave diver, he/she should know the most basic of skills they teach in the rest of the world, appropriate fins kicks suitable for this type of diving. Something here doesn't add up.
It doesn't say she was the most experienced. It says that couple days earlier she was leading a dive and the day before she was leading some norwegian divers, because she was the most experienced of that group.


No excuse and no reason to lose control of the fins with buddies helping at all. Even the least experienced but properly trained drysuit and cave diver would know how to handle the situation without too much stress.

The whole thing just doesn't add up at all.

In one moment she was leading the dive. Shortly after she was using her hands to back her off. And at that time she had already lost the control of herself. She had panicked for a reason unknown. I don't what there is to add up.
 
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