Austrian diver fatality- Natal South Africa

[jfe]

Sorry to say, but from reading all this it was an accident waiting to happen. You do not improvise for faulty equipment. I've you've had problems on prior dives and as experienced you should know not to dive. The operating company rep should have also not allowed him to dive knowing he had a range of life threatening near misses already.
This is all making for terrible reading, this is not something that should have happened (yes yes always better in hind sight) but with the report given above this was 100% avoidable.

 

[Hou s4m]

A lesson to us all then.
Im still considered pretty new wt scuba and could not avoid having some level of fear when diving and dont mind aborting at the sign of trouble. Just the other day a friend blew his oring and had to surface. There was 2-3 seconds of pause from everyone but luckily he got help and it ended wt no one getting hurt.
Condolences to the family of the deceased.
Stay safe every body.

 

[bubffm]

@DandyDon

Maybe about time to correct the sensationalist and totally wrong headline of this topic?

1.) the effected diver was NOT German but Austrian

2.) the diver was almost certainly NOT KILLED BY A SHARK.

I believe it would be responsibility of the the admins to keep this thread reasonably factual. There are plenty others serving sensationalist reporting patterns.

thanks
bubffm

 

[DandyDon]

@DandyDon

Maybe about time to correct the sensationalist and totally wrong headline of this topic?

1.) the effected diver was NOT German but Austrian

2.) the diver was almost certainly NOT KILLED BY A SHARK.

I believe it would be responsibility of the the admins to keep this thread reasonably factual. There are plenty others serving sensationalist reporting patterns.

thanks
bubffm

You know, I don't write these news stories. I just try to post relevant ones for discussion. I did screw up on this one originally noting it happened in New Zealand I think, don't know how I got confused on that, some of the initial news story links wouldn't open - but some nice moderator fixed that for me.

If you want to go after all of the news agencies who have since reposted this story in various forms, they are easy to find online, now. If you want the thread title changed, try to Report button as I have no abilities in that. Posts can only be edited for a short time, and titles cannot be edited by the thread originator.

Keep in mind rule #1 for this forum: This forum is only intended for learning and not assigning blame.

And you can complain directly to the big boss there: Input on our Accident and Incidents Forum... What do you want? How do you want it?

 

[bubffm]

thanks -

 

[KeithG]

Actually, there is already a thread on that subject, but I don't have the link ATM.

Why don't "club trip divers" use buddy teams?

What are the responsibilities of a DM/Guide

 

[leadduck]

There's a statement by the dive base: http://www.afridive.com/db350/april.html (English: http://www.afridive.com/eb350/april.html )

 

[leadduck]

From the interview I hear that the victim was an experienced diver but 68 years old and was mentally unfit. He had severe issues on the previous dives. He couldn't control his buoyancy, didn't know when and how to get air in and out of the jacket, bolted to the surface from 40m and didn't understand why. On the surface he couldn't say what's his problem, communicating with him was difficult on the whole trip, he had difficulties speaking.
The group members and the dive guide knew that very well. Yet they dove deep with him in a group, fed sharks and peeked into caves. Visibility was 15m but they lost him and didn't notice until starting the ascent.