Scuba diver goes missing off Catalina Island

[Tribes]

A story, in the early 80's my wife and I took a group to Grand Cayman. We were doing lots of local boat trips at the time and while we were gone we had a charter on the Altantis to San Clemente. My wife and I thought that we had the best DM's to run this trip. We had the headquarters staff from one of the local dive agencies. These were the guys that wrote the standards for how the world learns to dive, after all, so they had to be good...right(I had dove with some of them, so I knew they could dive, I just didn't know they couldn't count).
The charter made there first dive, did a roll call?? and moved to the second site. Mean while a buddy team surfaces to watch the boat motor around the headland and disappear. They started to swim to shore.
After the dive at the second site they found that they were missing two divers, the skipper looked at the air fill log and found that they didn't get air after the first dive and figured out that they were left at the first site(he didn't know for sure so he left his dingy and a crew member at the second site).
The boat rounded the headland, to find the buddy team sitting on San Clemente. It had taken them almost two hours to swim to the island and now they had to swim back to the boat.
On the boat they got no apologies, from the DM's or the boat , not even a free hamburger.
After that I stopped using this agency and stop using the boat and trained my own DM'S and we never left anyone anywhere, but back on the dock at the end of the day.
SO have we learned anything in the last 36 years ????

 

[sbijou]

My heart goes out to her family and friends. Although I have never met Laurel, this thread made me take a very slow breath and pause. As I approach the Chinese New Years in Thailand, I will make sure that I am more vigilant than ever for keeping an eye out for my team and others on our boat. Its truly a sad day.

Amen. I am saddened that in this forum there were some 250 posts about the situation, yet in Laurel's "Passings" forum , only 3 posts were made. I understand the importance of how and why this happened, but I also understand what a wonderful person she was and how much she contributed to California diving.

 

[dumpsterDiver]

That's one way to look at it. I look at it a little differently. A diver on the bottom that is overdue is no longer alive by definition. I would challenge anyone to find a diver alive in a situation that isn't lost in a wreck or cave. If a diver is on the bottom and overdue (overdue to me means 10-15 minutes past their due back time), the mission turns from search to recovery. There is no hurry to search on the bottom, and therefore we do not do that. We will search the surface. It is likely a missing diver is merely on the surface. Someone, however must be left at the entry point in the unlikely event that the diver does in fact return to the surface. That is typically the second boat, or tender.

I know in rescue class we all practice the scenario of rescuing the unconscious breathing diver underwater. In reality, has anyone ever seen such a thing? Especially an overdue unconscious breathing diver underwater?

In reality, I call the Coast Guard the instant I feel the diver is overdue based on previous dive times and depth of the dive site. I'd rather get them going early than miss someone in a current faster than I predicted.

I think we are in agreement.. I'm not sure if there is universal agreement on exactly what constitutes an over-due diver, but in this situation, the timeline was such that the diver would have been underwater (presumably on a single tank) for well past an hour from the time she should have surfaced. Of course notification should have went out as soon as they discovered her missing...

As you describe, it is much more important to conduct a surface search (with help as appropriate) ASAP... once the time has passed for a "hero recovery".. there should be no great rush to search for a body. If the vessel thinks they can enlist others to finalize the search on the surface, then it would be beneficial to recover/search for the body as soon as is practical - but as you imply- the priority is logically directed toward the potential to recover a live diver on the surface, rather than a dead one on the bottom.

To make a long argument short, I was critical of the decision to drop search divers BEFORE calling the USCG. We both agree the call should have been made sooner. In my post 75, I included this last decision (to delay notification of the USCG) which the capt made - to the list of other errors.

 

[Ken Kurtis]

PART 1 OF 2
Since Rex asked this of me directly, I'm happy to answer (and it's going to be a long one). I'm sure some of the posters who are comprehension-challenged will mangle and mis-interpret what I'm about to say but hopefully it may give some additional perspective to the rest of you:

Ken I understand your logic when a diver is missing underwater. But when a diver goes missing how do know for sure they are missing underwater or missing on the surface?

You don't and you certainly do do both searches.

A rudimentary surface search, at least of the immediate area, can be done fairly quickly with eyes (multiple people) and binoculars. You would also likely be hoping that a diver on the surface (Drifting Dan is a good example of this), alive and not unconscious. Also during a visual surface search, you may spot their bubbles and now know where they are and that they're alive. If the bubbles are moving (hopefully back towards the boat), then they're just overdue. If the bubbles are stationary, they're either not aware they're running late or they may be stuck/trapped. But now you know exactly where to go to find out what's happening.

And for those who do not regularly dive California, bear in mind that we're frequently diving in kelp beds. The bubbles rising up through the kelp may dissipate. It's a lot harder to spot bubbles in the kelp canopy than in non-kelp area. Plus, if you've got any surface rippling, that complicates things too.

One other note for you non-CA divers: The diving style here is NOT like most tropical or warm-water dives where the boat may be relatively small, everyone jumps at pretty much the same time, everyone comes back at pretty much the same time (or at least is under the boat together as a group), and is led by a guide.

SoCal diving has anywhere from 6-36 divers on a trip, the gates are open for 30-60 minutes so divers can go in at any time, there may or may not be a "be back by" time, and you could be there long enough for a diver to jump, dive, come back, and jump again before the gate closes.

The point of stating this is to give perspective to some who have implied/wondered "How could they not know someone's overdue?" Say we get there at 9AM, the gate's open until 10AM, and the be-back time is 11AM. Say a diver goes in a 9:15. At 10:15 there may still be a dozen or more divers in the water around the dive site. So which set of bubbles should we think are those of the "missing" diver? Or where should be look if we think the diver's in trouble? Because it's not like every diver files a flight plan before jumping.

Back to the art of searching . . .

The underwater search I think is the more critical of the two because there's no question that if the diver is underwater and not breathing, we don't have a lot of time to find them. The odds of success are slim at best. In my 35 years of diving SoCal, I can't recall a single instance where a missing diver was found, brought to the surface, and survived. (I think Frank alluded to a similar experience in one of his posts.)

To underscore how difficult it is to find someone quickly, when I used to teach Rescue regularly, we did a drill during a beach dive (average viz 5-10 feet) where the class and I started on the surface. I would then submerge (they were on their honor not to watch my bubbles) and would swim a random pattern for five minutes. I'd then stop and settle to the bottom. (We also agreed that I wouldn't be deeper than X or shallower than Y.) Then the rescue class would submerge and had five minutes to find me. At the end of that time, everyone would surface. In all the times I ran that drill, I was never once found. It's really hard to find someone underwater in five minutes or less.

I think another misconception may be that if you radio in that there's a missing diver, help will immediately be on the way. Not necessarily. In the specific case of Ship Rock, yes they're close (Isthmus Baywatch). But that's the exception, not the rule.

We were at Santa Barbara Island one time (about 45 miles offshore for those not familiar with SoCal), and a diver on the surface after the final dive had an apparent heart attack while kicking back to the boat. My DMs were on him within a minute and got him back to the boat within another minute. The boat captain had radioed USCG and we started CPR. It was over an hour until the helicopter arrived to do the hoist. We continued CPR the entire time. (Additional info - [1] No, the diver didn't make it, and [2] No, we didn't get sued.)

When you radio in, it's not like they say, OK, we're on the way." First they're going to go through an entire checklist to get info about the diver. Most importantly, they're going to want to know if you're getting a pulse or not because they're not going to "rescue" someone who's already dead. Once they've got the info, they pass that over to their Flight Surgeon who makes a determination as to whether or not to authorize the helicopter to launch. Once that authorization is given (I don't know at what point in this timeline the helicopter crew starts prepping), then they've got to get out to your location. And even once on site, they've then got to co-ordinate with the boat captain so the boat's facing the right way for wind, the deck has to be secured, they need to lower their rescue swimmer on board, he will then do an assessment of what's what, a basket will be lowered, diver loaded in, basket hoisted, rescue diver hoisted, off they go . . . and then it's another 20-30 minutes (or more depending on where you are) until they reach a chamber.

So none of this is like you might have seen it on TV or imagined it in your mind.

[TOO LONG FOR ONE POST - PART 2 FOLLOWS]

 

[Ken Kurtis]

PART 2 OF 2

And if you don't know for sure if a diver is missing underwater or missing on the surface then it would seem prudent that you notify the coast guard and other boats as soon as possible to broaden a surface search.

I think that's a valid question/point to ponder. You also need to factor in that you don't want other boats searching for your diver and they end up running over the guy you're trying to save. Plus once you radio USCG, they may direct you to stay on-site and not do a surface search. That was actually one of the issues in Drifting Dan. The captain wanted to leave the second site and go back to the original site where he thought Dan really was and USCG directed him to stay ons-ite at the second (wrong) site until they arrived on-scene.

And with all of this going on and going through your mind (which is saying all the time "Please be OK. Please be OK. Please be OK"), you don't want to be crying wolf and you don't want to be wasting resources and setting all of this in motion and the diver's OK. That's just human nature (a reason as opposed to an excuse).

Two more stories and then I'm done.

First story: We had a Reef Seekers trip to Farnsworth and Catalina's backside. We were on the final dive at West End Cove (right around the corner from Land's End). Gorgeous day, lots of kelp. Boat is anchored. We had a fixed be-back time. At said be-back time, our dive slate showed one diver still out. We did a roll call (it was actually me personally that did it) and confirmed everyone else was there. Diver is now maybe five minutes overdue timewise. We cannot see any bubbles. I go up to the wheelhouse on the second deck and let the captain know. It was a diver we knew, but didn't know well. But he had no issues on the first two dives, he had been underwater (based on the time we had him jumping off the boat) a little under an hour. But we couldn't see any bubbles. The captain and I were debating whether or not we should radio USCG and whether we should put divers in the water. I said no to the second one because we'd have no idea where to look. (This is a fairly large, fairly flat dive site.) At this point the diver is maybe 15 minutes past the be-back time. Because there had a been a recent fatality, we were just about to put in the radio call when . . . we spotted bubbles. And right after that, the diver surfaced, perhaps 100 yards from the boat, and gave an OK. (He later said he got disoriented, was trying to find his way back to the boat, lost track of time, and when he realized he was late, surfaced to see where he was and so we wouldn't worry.) But we were glad we hadn't set everything in motion - perhaps depriving someone who REALLY need help of getting it - for a diver who wasn't in actual trouble.

But in talking with some First Responders, they always go, "Activate EMS. You can always cancel it." Fair enough. But still, you want to have a really good reason to do so.

Second story: We're out diving the Huntington Beach Oil Rigs, which are about 10 miles offshore. I dive with a buddy of mine on the first dive. No issues. When it's time for the second dive, he says he's not feeling 100% and is going to sit this one out. I dive. For the third dive, he again demurs and says he might be a little seasick. I dive. When I come back from the third dive, I see he's sitting on a bench and is on oxygen. The captain comes over and tells me that my friend had requested the O2 while we were all under and so he was given it. I talked to him and he seemed to have no other symptoms other than not feeling well. But there's also a suggestion that once you put a diver on O2 because you suspect something is wrong, get someone with a higher level of authority to decide to take him off. We were heading back to port anyhow (about a 45-minute run) and the captain said, "What do you want to do?" With the voices of my First Responder friends echoing in my ears, I said, "Let's activate EMS and call the Coast Guard."

So we did. We explained all the symptoms over the radio, gave his condition including BP (we had a ciff on board) and heart rate. USCG said, "What do you want to do? Shall we have LAFD meet you at the dock for further evaluation?" I said yes and told them our ETA at that point was about 25 minutes. So far, so good.

But shortly after that we noticed a Long Beach Baywatch boat racing towards us with lights and sirens going. They pulled up alongside (we were still moving) and transferred an EMT on board. They had monitored the radio call and decided to respond. Their EMT (a diver) checked all the vitals, looked for symptoms, and radioed back that the diver did not appear to be bent and that we'd continue back to port. (The EMT was staying with us.)

At that point, we noticed that now two more rescue boats, with lights going, had fallen in behind us. As we reached the mouth of LA Harbor (Angel's Gate), two MORE rescue boats were waiting there for us, bringing the total to five. As we pulled into our dock, there was a full contingent of LAFD (seven or eight guys) waiting for us, plus the enormous Fireboat 2 was idling in the water right by us.

The LAFD guys did another exam (interesting that when the LB guy handed them his stuff, they essentially said, "Yeah, that's nice. We've got it from here" and tossed his paperwork aside.) LAFD strongly suggested that my guy be further evaluated at a local hospital and ordered an ambulance to transport him there. After another couple of hours in the ER and being poked and prodded, plus a consultation with D.A.N., they reached a conclusion: He was likely seasick and might have a slight cold.

In my opinion, this represented a nightmare scenario of first responders with nothing to do and all eager to jump into action to find a problem to solve. It's like that old saying that when your only weapon is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.

So yes, while it seems like "Call the Coast Guard, what's the big deal" should be a valid comment, given the level of response you might get and given that it's all going to take time in a situation where time is of the essence, many times the immediate thought is to see if you can resolve this locally on the boat with your own divers, and then call in the cavalry.

Sorry for the length (like ChrisM politely said: verbosity) but I'm done. I'll retreat back to my Lurking Cave now . . .

- Ken

 

[dumpsterDiver]

I've been through MANY over due divers in drift diving situations. We tend to call after about 30 minutes of surface searching. A valid concern is the fear that the other search boats might run over and kill a diver, but where we dive, we generally all have an SMB.

What can and should be done.. after maybe 30 -40 minutes of fruitless surface searching is to "make the call" and for our areas with strong currents... we would rig a current drogue. A large boat fender or float from which a weightbelt is hung from a short 3-4 ft rope. A towel is tied to the weightbelt. You let the thing drift in the area where you think the diver should be, monitor for 10 minutes and then with the GPS you determine the surface drift velocity and then do mathematical extrapolations from the estimated time of surface of the diver versus elapsed time to generate a widening search envelope.

The float, weightbelt and towel, should be a decent approximation of a diver on the surface, whose head and shoulders may be driven by wind and the remainder of the body would be driven by the surface current.

 

[Johnoly]

...... after maybe 30 -40 minutes of fruitless surface searching is to "make the call" and for our areas with strong currents... we would rig a current drogue. .

That is exactly what we do and about a perfect text book response. We all know each others or tell the captain what our expected dive time is for that site and when they should see our smb. Just seconds before we backroll we alway's call out >>What time is it? and then splash. All of us carry palm held folding binoculars ($40) in our dry bags. A diver won't get away from 4 palm folding binoculars if they are on the surface. It's so cheap and really good insurance to help the captain with some longer range eyes to yell out " I've got their flag !!" I can easily see 1.5 - 2.0 miles and spot a flag with them which is more than they can "normally" drift in 2 hours timeframe in our waters.

Your timeframes and procedures are spot on!

 

[BMC-9]

You mean that the members of Isthmus Baywatch do not wear red swim suits and run down the sandy beach? Really thought all of California was just like on TV.

 

[LACounty4806]

I've been through MANY over due divers in drift diving situations. .

Ship Rock isn't a drift diving location. Boats anchor there. This boat anchored there. The 500 mile rule comes into play.

 

[Wookie]

And for those who do not regularly dive California, bear in mind that we're frequently diving in kelp beds. The bubbles rising up through the kelp may dissipate. It's a lot harder to spot bubbles in the kelp canopy than in non-kelp area. Plus, if you've got any surface rippling, that complicates things too.

One other note for you non-CA divers: The diving style here is NOT like most tropical or warm-water dives where the boat may be relatively small, everyone jumps at pretty much the same time, everyone comes back at pretty much the same time (or at least is under the boat together as a group), and is led by a guide.

US diving is US diving. Liveaboards, whether in Texas, California, or Florida tend to be "bunk boats" which would not survive in other places. Diving is unguided, because we all share an insurance company or companies who advise us not to put guides in the water. We tend to dive rougher water than a fancier boat, "too rough to make the crossing" from Grand Cayman to little Cayman are just not words any US based boat would say.

Yes, kelp is an issue I had not considered. I have heard that folks get tangled in kelp, like they would in a wreck or cave. I had not considered this when I stated that I would not search the bottom, so I would have to modify my response somewhat. Although I can't imagine being tangled in kelp and dying (I've been hung up in trawler net underneath a trawler, solo, and had to abandon my gear to survive), but it happens, therefore, it must be a thing.

I think the response in calling the Coast Guard speaks strongly to the morals and attitude of the operator. But then, this entire event speaks volumes about the morals and attitude of an operator. In my opinion, my job is to bring every single diver home in the same condition that they went offshore in. That is, standing, talking, and hopefully, happy, but happy is a distant third to the first two. That doesn't mean that I want anyone to have a miserable time, but if they are healthy and walking at the end of the trip, I've done my job. Whatever it takes to do that is the key. If I were worried about how much trouble I could get in for (whatever), then I'm doing it wrong and need to go do something else. Those divers are my responsibility from the moment they step foot onboard until the moment they step off. Hopefully multiple times per day. Nope, I don't feel any responsibility for their diving unless they are putting themselves or others in danger. I'm not going to lead them, show them around, or keep them alive. That's on them. But I'm sure going to pay attention to know when they are due up, or overdue, because that all leads back to taking them home healthy, and if they get lost, hurt, or dead, I can't accomplish my first goal.

We send divemasters out in the tender to recover drifting divers. I know from long experience that from the dinghy I can see a head from about 10 feet away in choppy seas. I can see an SMB from 100 feet. From the boat I can see a head 1/2 mile, and an SMB (depending on it's age) 2 or more miles. I imagine a Coast Guard helo or Falcon or C-130 can see an SMB from 10-15 miles away. I am asking for all of the help I can get as soon as I realize I have a problem. I have no idea how far Ship Rock is from anything, but I operate in places where help may be hours (and calls to embassies) away. I am going to activate EMS (as it were) the instant I get that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Any operator (IMO) who sees it differently through actions or words is no one to trust to get you home safely.

As far as bottom searches go. Conducting a bottom search is no place for passengers. Again, when the search turns into a recovery, passengers don't need any part of that, and there is no great hurry anyway. You're going to need help, and it needs to be professional.