29 Dec 10 Fiji Diving Incident (Amy O'Maley Fatality), Part I

[nimoh]

I returned a couple of weeks ago from a lengthy trip to Fiji. During that trip I burned 12 tanks with Bega Adventure Divers. With each of my dives with them they went over the safety equipment on board and did a dive briefing that included drawing a map of the dive site on a dry erase board as well as max depth expected and bottom time (although expected bottom time was often exceeded by some divers that still had plenty of air while the others boarded the boat). They are not a mom and pop shop and operate two purpose built dive boats. I would gladly dive with Bega Adventure Divers again. With that being said, I am not surprised at all that there was no ambulance waiting at the dive shop. I was in Fiji for nine and a half weeks and I strongly suspect you wont see an honest to goodness ambulance outside of Suva, Nadi, or Lautoka. I could be wrong, but it would greatly surprise me if any real ambulance could reach Pacific Harbour in less than 45 minutes to an hour. I can not judge how the dive staff would function in an emergency situation as I did not see them in those conditions. However, I do know that many of them have been diving for fifteen to thirty five years and working as dive professionals on nearly a daily basis for the vast majority of that time. I love the Fijian people. However, I must say that there were many, many times when I found their responses to questions to be far from what one would expect when asked questions within their supposed area of expertise. I did not have that happen with dive staff but I did have it happen with taxi drives, retail sales people, and also with people working in the resort/hotel industry. Questions that people in those industries in the USA could handle in their sleep were met with blank expressions in Fiji and no amount of explaining elicited acceptable answers, even though English is the official language of the country. Fiji is a fantastic place to vacation and especially for a dive vacation, but make no mistake about the fact that when you are there it is a different world. Dont expect things to run like they do if you are in the states or Oz or Canada etc etc. Some people just dont seem to grasp this concept. As an example, while on an Nacula Island at what is nearly the farthest point out in the Yasawas, there was a fire that burned for more than two days over the majority of the island and for a time threatened two of the resorts on the island. One diver, while watching the island burn from the dive boat we were on, indicated that they just couldnt understand why they didnt just drop a water bomb or two on the fire. It took three of us other divers quite some time to convince her that those kinds of resources were just not available where we were.

sounds like Beqa has stepped up their safety procedures, presumably as a result of this incident. Although this is good to see, obviously better if it doesn't take an incident like this to spark the increased awareness of safety. I wonder how long they can keep it up before resorting to their former ways.

I don't think the o2 kit and AED were the problem (although I think all operators should strive to have these on board), it sounds to me like the problem was in their dive planning, which seems to be rectified...at least temporarily.

 

[RonFrank]

The problem was this diver had no business doing this dive, or maybe any dive. When you are diving, and you run low on air (750psi) you surface. Be back on the boat or at least on the surface with 500psi is a rule that is taught. Running a tank dry at depth is a huge nono.

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but what was this girl thinking? In any event safety equipment on a dive boat is a good thing, but not necessarily what one can count on in Fiji. Hey in Key Largo a girl was killed when the boat sank due to improper maintenance! That is the USA so I'd say Fiji is looking good!

 

[cbm32]

To me the problem seems a bit more complex than it appears to be a first blush. During my recent trip to Fiji I did about 70 dives. I saw divers do their OW and two days later start their AOW. They completed their AOW with a total dive count that was extremely low to be considered advanced at anything dive related (at least in my opinion). At least one of them was still a poor enough diver I would hesitate to call them even OW capable. But, that diver passed all the tests and performed all the skills necessary to get that AOW certification. Now, put yourself in the shoes of a diver operation like Bega Adventure Divers. You are running two tank morning boat dives seven days a week and an additional two tank boat dive on most of six days a week (they dont run an afternoon boat on Sunday) at a minimum. They have two boats and some days both boats are active. The boats go out with anywhere from 1 to 12 (I think that is the max for the bigger boat) for each of those trips. That is a TON of people folks. Now, you are running boats out with a TON of people every month and each of them presents their cert card and fills out paperwork. No way in hell you have time to do a check out dive with each of them and so you have to assume that if they have the cert they actually deserve to have the cert. If they dont it is on the instructor that provided it and not you. I am not a DM or instructor but, from what I have seen, guiding some of these groups of divers is like herding cats. You ARE going to have one lose contact with the group from time to time and if that one happens to not really deserve to have their cert...........bad things can, and sometimes do, happen. Now lets look at the diver just a bit. Some have suggested that a diver that is uncomfortable with a dive should opt to stay on the boat. How many dives did YOU do before you really felt completely comfortable and confident going into the water? For me it was probably in the area of 20 to 25 dives before I didnt have butterflies the size of pterodactyls before hitting the water on the first dive of the day and it probably would have been longer if I had continued to only dive a few dives before having a long lay off. So if I thumbed every dive I wasnt comfortable doing, I would NEVER have reached the point where I was comfortable and confident hitting the water. I dont have all the answers. I am not sure anyone does have all of the answers....at least not answers that are affordable for most folks and lend themselves to having the industry grow and prosper. It can be a dangerous endeavor and sometimes chit is going to happen, even when everyone does what they should be doing. To think that you can eliminate all accidents from the world of scuba is like the NFL thinking they can eliminate all serious injuries from the game of football. Pretty naive.

 

[alibi 2]

Wow, very scary and intense, thank you for sharing...we dove Bega and it was an awesome and rural experiance...you had to be a self suffecent diver for sure as it would be a long way to a chamber...but that was part of the adventure..

Strong currents in these reef areas can come up suddenly,..we had times where current lines were thrown out and I was happy to use them...we also had only 2 dms and everyone was given the options of diving their own plan or following along with the Dm's but they were not Babysitters. Everyone was certified which meant we were not solo but were independant divers...every diver needs to ask themselves before each dive if they feel qualified and comfortable diving in the current conditions..if they don't they should not dive...

Where i dive conditions often change and the water is very cold...a diver will have a very difficult time swimming against a 1knot current..even a DM will struggle in that current...and based on there condition each diver will use air at a faster rate depending on exertion...every diver has the responsibility of monitoring their air..there is no excuse for running out of air...all divers should plan on being on the surface with 500 psi...

From what you discribe of the frothy blood it sounds like a uncontrolled accent, from what you discribe probally a out of air ...Very tragic ending to what should have been a dream vacation...Diving is a high risk sport...we are out of our element in an enviroment where we can not breath and have all the pressure issues...like sky diving ,,accidents do happen...outside of gross negligance of intentional murder...pre existing medical conditons or cardiac events...it is usually diver error....I really hope that if i ever make a mistake that the DM 's are not blamed for not taking care of me...I take the responsibity of knowing my limitations and recognizing the conditions and adjusting for them or calling off my dive.

Even in great conditions i have lost friends and we will never know ,,no matter how hard we try exactly what happened to cause the deaths other than drowning...which usually happens when underwater...

 

[Dan G]

I love the Fijian people. However, I must say that there were many, many times when I found their responses to questions to be far from what one would expect when asked questions within their supposed area of expertise. I did not have that happen with dive staff but I did have it happen with taxi drives, retail sales people, and also with people working in the resort/hotel industry. Questions that people in those industries in the USA could handle in their sleep were met with blank expressions in Fiji and no amount of explaining elicited acceptable answers, even though English is the official language of the country.

I would really like to hear an example or two of what you are describing here. I've traveled quite a bit, and I find cross-cultural communication very interesting.

 

[kdsmithjr]

i agree with your analysis 100%

 

[buddhasummer]

To me the problem seems a bit more complex than it appears to be a first blush. During my recent trip to Fiji I did about 70 dives. I saw divers do their OW and two days later start their AOW. They completed their AOW with a total dive count that was extremely low to be considered advanced at anything dive related (at least in my opinion). At least one of them was still a poor enough diver I would hesitate to call them even OW capable. But, that diver passed all the tests and performed all the skills necessary to get that AOW certification. Now, put yourself in the shoes of a diver operation like Bega Adventure Divers. You are running two tank morning boat dives seven days a week and an additional two tank boat dive on most of six days a week (they dont run an afternoon boat on Sunday) at a minimum. They have two boats and some days both boats are active. The boats go out with anywhere from 1 to 12 (I think that is the max for the bigger boat) for each of those trips. That is a TON of people folks. Now, you are running boats out with a TON of people every month and each of them presents their cert card and fills out paperwork. No way in hell you have time to do a check out dive with each of them and so you have to assume that if they have the cert they actually deserve to have the cert. If they dont it is on the instructor that provided it and not you. I am not a DM or instructor but, from what I have seen, guiding some of these groups of divers is like herding cats. You ARE going to have one lose contact with the group from time to time and if that one happens to not really deserve to have their cert...........bad things can, and sometimes do, happen. Now lets look at the diver just a bit. Some have suggested that a diver that is uncomfortable with a dive should opt to stay on the boat. How many dives did YOU do before you really felt completely comfortable and confident going into the water? For me it was probably in the area of 20 to 25 dives before I didnt have butterflies the size of pterodactyls before hitting the water on the first dive of the day and it probably would have been longer if I had continued to only dive a few dives before having a long lay off. So if I thumbed every dive I wasnt comfortable doing, I would NEVER have reached the point where I was comfortable and confident hitting the water. I dont have all the answers. I am not sure anyone does have all of the answers....at least not answers that are affordable for most folks and lend themselves to having the industry grow and prosper. It can be a dangerous endeavor and sometimes chit is going to happen, even when everyone does what they should be doing. To think that you can eliminate all accidents from the world of scuba is like the NFL thinking they can eliminate all serious injuries from the game of football. Pretty naive.

The thing is that this is no secret and although I agree that each diver must take responsibility for themselves I do also think that the dive operators and DMs or Instructers leading the dives also have some responsibility and duty of care, they after all are dive "professionals". It's fairly common knowledge that it is possible to be an "advanced" diver having completed very few dives and consequently be relatively inexperienced. So when choosing a dive spot the inexperienced diver may not know that this particular site is possibly beyond their skill level, you don't know what you don't know, right. When leading dives with new customers I always ask what level, what conditions they have experience with, how many dives they have done and over what period and when was their last dive. I also tend to keep an eye when people are gearing up as this can be telling. This information will figure when choosing sites.


Dandy- when diving overseas I ALWAYS ask if they have and where is O2.

Agree with others, save catastrophic equipment failure at depth, there is no reason to run out of air and even if it happens you've got a buddy right.

If any dive operator is going to charge 1st world prices for diving then they should at least have O2 on board and adequately trained staff. Sure if your diving with a locally owned and run operater in a "3rd world" country paying meagerly then expectations as to training and safety equipment should be adjusted accordingly. But agree with others it's your job to find this info out and it is the risk you take diving outside more developed countries.

My condolences to Amy's family. Very sad.

 

[cbm32]

........I do also think that the dive operators and DMs or Instructors leading the dives also have some responsibility and duty of care, they after all are dive "professionals"........ Of course I agree completely with this statement. However, at least from the many threads I have read here on scubaboard, I think that the duty of care that most posters call for is just not reasonable when you have one or even two DM's in the water with a lot of divers. I am sure that number of divers a DM can handle and provide what appears to be the duty of care that people seam to expect varies with the DM but when you get six or eight or ten or more divers in the water two DM's just can not be expected to be able to hold everyones hand. If the DM gives a good, accurate dive briefing and monitors the air and performance of those that stay with him well, that is about as much as one can expect. If you hit the water expecting a DM to keep track of you every minute, you better have hired a DM to be your buddy. If not, he is going to be busy leading the dive and finding interesting things for divers to see and NOT checking your air every two minutes or constantly counting heads to make sure that someone hasnt wandered off on their own. I am NOT a dive professional and have never lead a dive (I have been asked on occasion to tail the dive) and I am not expressing my opinions based on any kind of self preservation or ulterior motives. It is just that I have been on dives where divers lag far behind or sprint off in one direction or another to see or photograph something and for a time they are paying no attention at all to where the DM and/or the group is heading. Heck, I have had instabuddies that made keeping track of them a full time job for ME. And that is ONE person that is supposed to be my buddy. I cant imagine trying to keep tabs on everyone in the group as if they were my buddy. THAT seems to be what people expect and that is the duty of care it would take for a DM to 100% prevent any accidents (if 100% is even possible).

 

[buddhasummer]

I try to figure out as best i can a divers level BEFORE embarking on a dive, particularly if they are relatively new. Four divers is the max number I will lead if they are newer/ recently certified. Accidents do and will happen but I try as much as is possible as far as I am able to minimize that possibility. I can only imagine the effect that having a fellow diver die on a dive would be, it's always in the back of mind whether leading a dive or fun diving with my friends. The more experienced I've become the more careful I've become. When I'm diving out of local I don't expect a DM to hold my hand, this is not their job, but I do expect them to have good local knowledge of dive sites and choose accordingly based as close as possible to the divers level and that they have recieved training to deal with an emergency and know how and who to contact. But again If your're trained/know what to do in an emergency, pick sites with care, ask some questions about divers experience/skill level then the possibility of something going wrong is reduced. Perhaps I am overly cautious or perhaps I am just selfish, if a diver died on a dive I was leading died Im sure would feel at least some responsibility, the psychological trauma associated with that I'd rather not experience. Yes selfish.

 

[padiscubapro]

Bert, I lean toward the yellow color (with reflective strips) because it stands out better against a dark sea. One other thing to look for is a lanyard or wrist strap. I had to deploy mine one time, the winds were around 20 knots the tide was running hard. The wind took my SMB from my hand in an instant and there was no way I could catch up with it. The crew in the boat noticed the float on the water and then spotted me. I had to ditch my wieght belt to try and get higher out of the water but it was a good learning experience.
ZDD

I would recommend carrying TWO surface markers, one being orange or red the other being Yellow.. In many places Yellow is a sign of emergency and need assistance immediately, while the red/orange one is.. "I'm here.. and I'm ok"