Diver missing on Andrea Doria

[Dr. Lecter]

I'll add a bit more. Divers can of course have any number of mishaps, particularly on difficult technical wreck dives. But if someone tells me that an experienced diver was suddenly lost after appearing to head safely toward the surface from 15 feet, I instinctively think somebody's head got whacked by the hull or a ladder and they were knocked unconscious. No way of knowing if that's what happened from the available data, but on a pie chart of possibilities I would suspect that would be a largeish slice.

The diver in question, however, often wore a cave helmet.

 

[KathyV]

This page lists information about divers that died on the Andrea Doria since 1980:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/shipwreckhunter/july-26ththe-andrea-doria-disaster/1141969935818519

List of divers who have lost their lives diving the Andrea Doria ..
1-John Barnett 1980 Sea Hunter I, recovery by Stan Smith & Gary Gentile, he was found expired lying in the promenade deck. John was diving since the early 70’s by many he would be called an accomplished diver. John was getting into shape to dive the Doria and made a trip on the Wahoo 2 weeks before his Doria dive, John had a problem surface behind the boat and needed assistance we sent a swimmer to assist John, when John came aboard the boat he was fatigued, and complain about becoming disoriented and could not find the anchor line and made a free swimming ascent, I suggested John not make his Doria dive as he not in condition to make the extreme dive at this time.
2- July 15, 1984. Francis Kennedy, 37, of Wrentham, Mass. Charter boat Wahoo. Francis ran out of gas during ascent after making a 230’ dive inside the wreck he was looking for Artie Kirhsner dropped china bag. down a stair well, his depth gauge read 230FSW. Wahoo, Captain Steve Bielenda
3 Aug. 1, 1985— John Ormsby 27, of Key West, Fla. died after being tangled in wire cables inside Gimbel’s hole in the wreck and drown. John was dive partners with Billy Deans, John broke the dive plan with Deans and the other partner he swam away leaving them and entered the China hole, he tangling in the hanging cables and became trapped at 210 fsw just under the entrance to the hall to the dining room. Wahoo, Captain Steve Bielenda
4-July 15, 1988. Joe Drozd, 42, Stonington, Conn. Dive boat Seeker. Diving with two buddies Joe freaked out became disoriented and would not take assistance; he spat out his regulator and drowned. Seeker
5- July 2, 1992. Matthew G. Lawrence, 32, of Miami Lakes, Fla. Seeker. Poor dive planning his tanks had inadequate mix for the dive he tried to make, he died 14 minutes into dive @ 260 feet trying to recover Rosary beads inside the wreck. Seeker, Captain Bill Nagel
6- July 15, 1992. Michael William Scofield, 36, of Soquel, Calif. Seeker, Captain Bill Nagel
7- July 12, 1993. Robert Santulli, 33, Port Jefferson. Coast Guard investigation found he had panicked after becoming disoriented inside wreck at depth of 210 feet, he struggled with his dive buddy Peter Haralobotas, being narced and distress in the struggle his regulator fell out of his mouth and he drowned. Sea Hunter III, Captain Sal Arena
8-1998 — Craig Sicola, Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell
9- 1998--Richard Roost AKA Scuba God, Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell
10- Vincent Napoliello all died diving on Andrea Doria. Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell
11-1999 Charles J. McGurr died of apparent heart attacks preparing for a second dive Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell. Coast Guard report
12- 1999 — Christopher Murley drown on the surface. Seeker, Captain’s Dan Crowell, John Moyer & Steve Nagiewicz. Official cause of death: The medical examiner listed the official cause of death as drowning. At some point while Chris Murley was being towed/pushed to the stern of the vessel, he became unconscious; causing him to lose control of his neck muscles and his face fell into the water. What caused him to lose consciousness is not known, however, the combination of his moderate arteriosclerotic heart disease, diabetes, obesity and hypertension may have contributed. Cardiomegaly, which is an enlargement of the heart, can also not be ruled out as a contributing factor.
13- 2002 — William Schmoldt died from rapid assent to the surface decompression sickness. John Jack captain/owner Joseph Terzuoli of Wall, N.J.
14-2006 — Researcher David Bright died from decompression sickness.
15-2008 — Terry DeWolf of Houston, Texas died during dive on wreck, cause of death undetermined, John Jack captain/owner Joseph Terzuoli of Wall, N.J.
16-2011 — Michael LaPrade of Los Angeles died during a dive on the wreck. John Jack, Captain Rich Benevento
17-2015--Thomas Pritchard, 64 .. no further information available at this time ..

 

[Doppler]

I'll add a bit more. Divers can of course have any number of mishaps, particularly on difficult technical wreck dives. But if someone tells me that an experienced diver was suddenly lost after appearing to head safely toward the surface from 15 feet, I instinctively think somebody's head got whacked by the hull or a ladder and they were knocked unconscious. No way of knowing if that's what happened from the available data, but on a pie chart of possibilities I would suspect that would be a largeish slice.

And I will add even more.

It is possible on a CCR executing the final decompression at the end of a dive such as this one, in the ocean, wanting to clear as much inert gas as possible, that a diver would conduct one or more -- perhaps several more -- oxygen loop-flushes. Something I might do myself.

It is also possible that at the end of a dive such as this one, that the volume of oxygen remaining was at the seeds and stems level. If this were the case, a couple of oxygen loop-flushes could easily drain the cylinder.

No oxygen, diluent with low oxygen percentage, a requirement to surface from 1.6 ata to 1.0 with surface current.

There are a thousand possible scenarios.

Bottom line is that Tom was good people. An excellent bloke with a truly wonderful spirit. And he's gone. Until someone gets to sit down with him and listen to his side of the story, all we can do is grieve and guess.

RIP mate.

 

[SeaCobra]

This page lists information about divers that died on the Andrea Doria since 1980:

https://www.facebook.com/notes/shipwreckhunter/july-26ththe-andrea-doria-disaster/1141969935818519

List of divers who have lost their lives diving the Andrea Doria ..
1-John Barnett 1980 Sea Hunter I, recovery by Stan Smith & Gary Gentile, he was found expired lying in the promenade deck. John was diving since the early 70’s by many he would be called an accomplished diver. John was getting into shape to dive the Doria and made a trip on the Wahoo 2 weeks before his Doria dive, John had a problem surface behind the boat and needed assistance we sent a swimmer to assist John, when John came aboard the boat he was fatigued, and complain about becoming disoriented and could not find the anchor line and made a free swimming ascent, I suggested John not make his Doria dive as he not in condition to make the extreme dive at this time.
2- July 15, 1984. Francis Kennedy, 37, of Wrentham, Mass. Charter boat Wahoo. Francis ran out of gas during ascent after making a 230’ dive inside the wreck he was looking for Artie Kirhsner dropped china bag. down a stair well, his depth gauge read 230FSW. Wahoo, Captain Steve Bielenda
3 Aug. 1, 1985— John Ormsby 27, of Key West, Fla. died after being tangled in wire cables inside Gimbel’s hole in the wreck and drown. John was dive partners with Billy Deans, John broke the dive plan with Deans and the other partner he swam away leaving them and entered the China hole, he tangling in the hanging cables and became trapped at 210 fsw just under the entrance to the hall to the dining room. Wahoo, Captain Steve Bielenda
4-July 15, 1988. Joe Drozd, 42, Stonington, Conn. Dive boat Seeker. Diving with two buddies Joe freaked out became disoriented and would not take assistance; he spat out his regulator and drowned. Seeker
5- July 2, 1992. Matthew G. Lawrence, 32, of Miami Lakes, Fla. Seeker. Poor dive planning his tanks had inadequate mix for the dive he tried to make, he died 14 minutes into dive @ 260 feet trying to recover Rosary beads inside the wreck. Seeker, Captain Bill Nagel
6- July 15, 1992. Michael William Scofield, 36, of Soquel, Calif. Seeker, Captain Bill Nagel
7- July 12, 1993. Robert Santulli, 33, Port Jefferson. Coast Guard investigation found he had panicked after becoming disoriented inside wreck at depth of 210 feet, he struggled with his dive buddy Peter Haralobotas, being narced and distress in the struggle his regulator fell out of his mouth and he drowned. Sea Hunter III, Captain Sal Arena
8-1998 — Craig Sicola, Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell
9- 1998--Richard Roost AKA Scuba God, Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell
10- Vincent Napoliello all died diving on Andrea Doria. Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell
11-1999 Charles J. McGurr died of apparent heart attacks preparing for a second dive Seeker, Captain Dan Crowell. Coast Guard report
12- 1999 — Christopher Murley drown on the surface. Seeker, Captain’s Dan Crowell, John Moyer & Steve Nagiewicz. Official cause of death: The medical examiner listed the official cause of death as drowning. At some point while Chris Murley was being towed/pushed to the stern of the vessel, he became unconscious; causing him to lose control of his neck muscles and his face fell into the water. What caused him to lose consciousness is not known, however, the combination of his moderate arteriosclerotic heart disease, diabetes, obesity and hypertension may have contributed. Cardiomegaly, which is an enlargement of the heart, can also not be ruled out as a contributing factor.
13- 2002 — William Schmoldt died from rapid assent to the surface decompression sickness. John Jack captain/owner Joseph Terzuoli of Wall, N.J.
14-2006 — Researcher David Bright died from decompression sickness.
15-2008 — Terry DeWolf of Houston, Texas died during dive on wreck, cause of death undetermined, John Jack captain/owner Joseph Terzuoli of Wall, N.J.
16-2011 — Michael LaPrade of Los Angeles died during a dive on the wreck. John Jack, Captain Rich Benevento
17-2015--Thomas Pritchard, 64 .. no further information available at this time ..

And how does this help the current discussion?

 

[Wookie]

And how does this help the current discussion?

Adds some clarity, earlier someone said that most fatalities were on the John Jack, implying somehow that the choice of boat or crew may have contributed to the problem, when in fact most fatalities over time happened on or off the Seeker, which in no way should be a reflection of Bill or Danny.

It just goes to show that when folks know nothing, they blather on to make themselves heard, as if it adds anything to the conversation. No boat or Captain gets a free pass when offering/conducting dives at this level.

 

[bada3003]

The diver in question, however, often wore a cave helmet.

Depends on the helmet. If it's the popular LM cave helmet, it's good for mounting lights/gopro, but impact protection is not that great. If it's a converted skateboard helmet which tend to be more heavy-duty, then odds are improved. But even so, if I got whacked by the hull/ladder I'd be at best disoriented, more likely, worse.

 

[KathyV]

The diver in question, however, often wore a cave helmet.

Depends on the helmet. If it's the popular LM cave helmet, it's good for mounting lights/gopro, but impact protection is not that great. If it's a converted skateboard helmet which tend to be more heavy-duty, then odds are improved. But even so, if I got whacked by the hull/ladder I'd be at best disoriented, more likely, worse.

This is the link to the missing diver's facebook page, and (if I am reading the entries correctly) it shows a picture of him and his gear when diving the Doria a year ago. Of course that doesn't mean that he was wearing the exact same gear for his last dive.

Tom Pritchard Andrea Doria, July, 2014.
https://www.facebook.com/tom.pritchard.923?fref=ts

He seems like a nice, smart, family man, who loved diving - and I am very sorry for him and his friends and family.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

Adds some clarity, earlier someone said that most fatalities were on the John Jack, implying somehow that the choice of boat or crew may have contributed to the problem, when in fact most fatalities over time happened on or off the Seeker, which in no way should be a reflection of Bill or Danny.

It just goes to show that when folks know nothing, they blather on to make themselves heard, as if it adds anything to the conversation. No boat or Captain gets a free pass when offering/conducting dives at this level.

Pritchard would be the seventh person to die in the past decade while exploring the Andrea Doria, an Italian luxury liner that sank in 220 feet of water after it was broadsided by the Swedish liner Stockholm in 1956.

​

He would be the sixth diver from the John Jack to die since 2002 while exploring the wreck.


​

The text above is from the earlier article posted in this thread. I don't think that asking a few questions about this information is implying that the boat or the operator is at fault.

We have since heard that there are only 2 boats who go there. A higher mortality rate can have many reasons, including more aggressive dives being performed from one type of boat, the boat doing more diving there than anyone else or there could be many other reasons, including poor attention to safety by the boat operator. I never implied that the latter was the case and made several comments to make it clear that I was completely unfamiliar with the boat where the latest fatality occurred.

 

[The Kraken]

I don't have any dog in this fight, but I would make an analogy that blaming the boat captain for a diver death would be the same as blaming a taxi cab driver for the death of a free climber if he were to take him to the climbing site.

Isn't it the diver who is responsible for the planning and safe execution of the dive?

Safe dives . . . . . .
. . . safer ascents !

the K

 

[Wookie]

Pritchard would be the seventh person to die in the past decade while exploring the Andrea Doria, an Italian luxury liner that sank in 220 feet of water after it was broadsided by the Swedish liner Stockholm in 1956.

​

He would be the sixth diver from the John Jack to die since 2002 while exploring the wreck.


​

The text above is from the earlier article posted in this thread. I don't think that asking a few questions about this information is implying that the boat or the operator is at fault.

We have since heard that there are only 2 boats who go there. A higher mortality rate can have many reasons, including more aggressive dives being performed from one type of boat, the boat doing more diving there than anyone else or there could be many other reasons, including poor attention to safety by the boat operator. I never implied that the latter was the case and made several comments to make it clear that I was completely unfamiliar with the boat where the latest fatality occurred.

Sorry, and I was not calling you out specifically, more like the writer of the article who implied that perhaps the JJ had something to do with this. I know you better than to think you would blame anyone for another diver's failings. My sincere apologies.