promocop
Contributor
onlyhalcyon...we await your report. Dive Safe.
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I usually hate to conjecture on these types of incidents, because of my sensitivity towards the victims' families. Sometimes it seems like pouring salt into an open wound.
On the other hand, this incident reminds me of an experience I had working on a liveaboard many years ago (mid 90s). We had a gentleman come out on the boat that we had to warn about diving deeper than 130' because other guests had reported him diving too deep. We approached him about it and he denied it. The guy also drank a whole lot (each night, after the diving day had concluded).
One evening the guy (very intoxicated) confessed to the captain that he had come out on the boat to commit suicide. His business had failed, his wife had left him, and he wanted to end it all doing what he loved most. The captain spoke with him at length and explained that he was done diving for the week. The captain had us confiscate his dive gear and made sure the night watch crew knew where he was at all times. The guy actually turned out to be pretty cool the rest of the week, and I know the captain had heard from him about a year after the cruise, so hopefully he got his life together.
Is it possible the victim was attempting suicide? It would explain fighting off the DM. It might also explain the media blackout (here in the resort area I live suicides are never reported, although they do occur). I absolutely hate to bring this up as a possibility, but since I had experienced this type of behavior first-hand, it is always in my thoughts.
.....
No newspaper has run anything? I find it hard to believe that neither a Bahamian news source nor any local (to where the diver was from) news sources have run anything at all on this.
It's been alleged before here in Accidents and Incidents that some vacation areas may have a tendency to not want to publicize problems that may scare tourists.
Further searches have returned nothing (not to say nothing exists) so I have to come back to the fact that CDNN is not a trustworthy source.
cappyjon, I also had wondered about that but then thought, why would she do it in front of her husband?
I bet many of us thot about it Cappy, but that's a wild speculation even for a what-if discussion - with little possible take-away knowledge to be gained for any reader. Let's not discuss that one folks, OK?
Yes, it's common for dive tourist destinations to try to keep news of accidents from getting out. Glad we have some input from divers who were there. I'm packing for a dive practice weekend, looking forward to additional info from onlyhalcyon, and going to try to avoid fueling speculations here further.
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