Fatality Off Miami Beach - Florida

[Griffo]

She was a Chinese tourists and spoke no English, via the news this morning..... WHy did she take off her bcd

Where I did my first dives, you had to take off the BCD in the water to get into the boat. Belt off, hand to crew, BCD off, hand to crew, climb over side of boat. Maybe she learnt the same way but forgot the belt ?


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[diverrex]

I would guess that she didn't really have a true buddy but perhaps someone nominally assigned her as a "buddy" who may have sort of dived near her.

 

[danvolker]

As it was said you are making many assumptions with that statement. If your going list fact list all of the facts or don't list any. Even authorities don't now exactly what went wrong.


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What follows is from Ari, with the "forward" ---that she was underwater and not able to comment on whether the crew saw the woman dogpaddle back to the boat....this comment was from one of the guys that did cpr on the Chineese lady.... Also, there were 45 divers on the boat!!!!!
Ari: "This is what I know:


There were many people on the boat. The Dm tried to take role call and match divers with numbered medallions to keep track of who would be in the water. Between people talking while she called names, and illegibly written names, she had a hard time. I know the family name of the victim because the DM kept calling,"L?" I noticed two Asian women who were not paying attention and suggested it might be them who were not responding to the role call."L" was the victim.


The victim's intended buddy, "C***ie," was all the way in the front of the boat, port side. My student/ buddy, D****, was next to her, then my other buddy, then me. De**** and I noticed that C***** wasn't so sure how to setup her gear so we watched her. She asked D***** if she and her buddy could stick with us, b/c she didn't want to dive alone (she was clearly inexperienced and I think she had never dived there before. I wasn't too crazy about having 2 more inexperienced divers to keep track of, but I didn't want to say no after D****had told her yes. I don't know if C***** every told "L" that we would all dive together. "L" did not speak English, so C***** was the only one on the boat who could talk to her. Other than noticing her briefly during the role call,enough to notice she was a slim Asian woman, I didn't see what she looked like.


When we arrived at the mooring ball, the captain announced, "It is 1:45, beback on the boat at 2:45." Since we were at the front of the boat, we had to wait some time to take a turn on the platform to jump in. P**** jumped infirst with his huge camera. Then I jumped in and then D****. We waited forC****, who took a while. The current was pulling her fast, so I reached out to grab her hand, pulled her to the granny line and waited for the other woman. We saw her still on the boat. It was already 2pm. During this time, p**** was struggling to come back towards the boat with his huge camera with the current pulling north away from the boat. I was starting to worry that if we didn't descend soon, P**** would become too exhausted.


When I looked for "L" again, I saw her on the ladder of the boat. She appeared to be climbing back into the boat. She didn't signal us, or respond when we tried waving to her. We assumed she had aborted the dive, and not wanting the other three with me to keep struggling against the current, we signaled to descend.


I signaled P***** to ask if he was OK, then looked up for D****** and saw him swimming towards me holding C******s hand. I was worried that he might be helping her descend and stay down, and that he didn't realize he should not have done that in case she was not heavy enough and might shoot up if he released her hand. I didn't know if he was only holding her because she was nervous, so I left them alone. We looked around near the boat underwater for about 10 minutes and then I noticed P***** was not holding C******* any more.Later, C****** said she went back to the boat with 2000 PSI because she thought "L" was on the boat and she wanted to make sure she was OK.


I started diving south, as the captain had said we should do, against the current. A couple of minutes later I noticed D***** was not with us, so I turned back to find him. I swam up to each group of divers to see if he was with them.I say this because when I did this, I did not see "L" in the water. We did a 50 minute dive, spending the last 5 or more minutes close to the boat where most of the other divers still in the water were doing skills or exploring.


I was at the front of the boat when I heard the dive master ask C******, "Why weren't you with your buddy?" C***** explained to her that we thought she had stayed on the boat. The DM did a role call, and when we were sure "L" was not on the boat, we started searching for her. We did a slow perimeter tour and eventually found her inflated BCD floating on the surface, with 2300 PSI init, the buckles were all opened. We searched some more for the body. We were hoping that she had gotten onto another boat and was heading back, and that since she didn't speak English, she just didn't tell the other boat's captainwhich boat she had been on.


The captain called the Coast Guard. They arrived pretty quickly. They searched the area where the gear was found, we returned the original dive spot. The DM and another instructor held onto the ladder and had the boat pull them so they could look down and search for the body. My maximum depth during my dive was 27' so they could see the bottom that way.


I asked the captain if he wanted me to relieve the DM for a turn searching holding on the ladder, because she was in a bikini and I was in a dry suit and she was probably freezing. He said, "Thank you, but you are not insured on our boat, so you can't."


A couple of minutes later, the DM saw the body. She free dove and grabbed her.The victim was wearing a wetsuit and HER WEIGHT BELT! The DM dropped the weightbelt and brought up the body. She was brought onto the boat with ONLY a wetsuit. She had dropped her fins, mask, snorkel, BCD/ tank/ regs!


There were two anesthesiologists on the boat. They supervised CPR. Another diver andP***** took turns doing chest compressions, all of the way back to shore. They had applied oxygen under the supervision of the two doctors. They cut off her wetsuit and covered her with dry towels. Another instructor held up a towel to coverher face so the other divers on board would not see.


P****and the other CPR helpers said sea weed, lettuce, and salt water came out ofher mouth. There were not visible signs of distress--no surface wounds.


During the police interviews (we were held for several hours), other divers said she had doggie paddled back to the boat after jumping in and looked a littlestressed. That her mask was on her forehead and when they told her to put it onher eyes, she didn't seem to understand so one of them motioned for her to doit.


I don't know when or why she re entered the water completely alone. I can assume she got caught int he slight current, but why she would dump her floatation andfins and mask and NOT her weights, we will never know.


I know she has two teenage children, from what C***** said, and that she was 41years old. C***** only met her a day or so before, so she didn't know her well either. The divers sitting next to her said she didn't seem to know how to setup her gear or use her computer. NO one spoke to her because she did not speak English.


I think it was a very sad accident that happened due to lack of experience and lack of communication.


I was told that she was certified in China and not though PADI. Someone said she was SSI, but I do not know that for a fact. The dive shop where she rented her gear may know more about her because they must have taken her dive ID card and credit card information. That is Tarpoon. I think her only connection to themis that she rented gear from them. She never asked any professional to look outfor her. She only asked C**** to dive with her that day, but as I said, she didn't communicate with anyone about why she was going back to the boat, so everyone assumed she was aborting the dive.


P****and I were interviewed by several news channels and I said I was worried that the media would dramatize it to make people think that diving was so dangerous.I said it was not dangerous if you followed the rules that EVERY dive organization taught. I tried to stress that there are many safety protocols andthat that is what you learn if you are certified. They had me bring my dive bagto explain to them what the pieces of equipment are and what they do. According to a friend who saw the interview on the news, all they showed was that I said it was unusual for a diver to drop her fins and then they showed my fins."




ArianeDimitris

 

[Pedro Burrito]

Key Biscayne: Woman's body found with weights strapped to her waist but no other underwater equipment | Mail Online

A Chinese tourist in her 30s mysteriously drowned on Sunday during a group scuba diving trip off the coast of Miami Beach, Florida.

She was found with a weight belt still strapped around her waist, but had no other equipment on her body, leading police to launch an investigation.

The woman, who has not been named, failed to surface after a group of 40 divers went into the water near Key Biscayne.


One theory is that the woman failed to understand safety procedures and ditched the wrong equipment while panicking under water.

A shocked diver, who was part of the group, Ariane Dimitris, said scuba divers are taught to jettison the weight belt that keeps them under water.


"I've never heard of anyone taking off even their fins. It's very strange," Dimitris said.

"And normally if someone panics you're supposed to drop your weights and keep everything else on you because that was her survival."
Divers believe keeping the weight belt on was the woman's fatal mistake.


They compared it to grabbing onto an anchor in the water, instead of a life preserve.

The woman was declared missing after the group did a roll call and she was not there.

Divers used a buddy system but the women did not speak English and left her partner, WSVN.com reported.
The US Coast Guard sent a boat to join in the search for the woman who was found after two hours.

"We brought her back up, I did CPR, I'm an EMT," said diver Kevin Galloway, who was on the boat.

"There were also two student doctors on the boat. We did what we could but she was gone."

The victim had taken part in a scuba dive organised by RJ Diving Ventures of Miami Beach.

 

[Aquabot]

I did hear the stoty from a PADI unstructor that was on the boat....but yes, much is likely to remain unknown, even after an investigation....
The one assumption unlikely to change, would be that if she had been buddied up to a "real buddy", a very different outcome would have been possible , if not probable....That is, unless you believe that the standard PADI or NAUI Rescue Classes would be useless.

Never have taken a padi course but if I did I would compare those standards to others to insure I'm getting the highest quality training I can. And as far as the "real buddy" goes, for all we know things may have just gone past the point to where any help they provided would have been null. Whatever the reason tho I still feel for those involved and the families. But basically bashing someone who is no longer with us is just plain low.


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[danvolker]

Never have taken a padi course but if I did I would compare those standards to others to insure I'm getting the highest quality training I can. And as far as the "real buddy" goes, for all we know things may have just gone past the point to where any help they provided would have been null. Whatever the reason tho I still feel for those involved and the families. But basically bashing someone who is no longer with us is just plain low.


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Wow. This is a place where we try to discuss issues that can kill divers, so that more don't die or get badly hurt....There is no bashing going on at all. I think this death was terrible, AND that such a death should be avoidable.
In this thread, we are actually talking about what each of us SHOULD DO, if we were to see a diver clearly at severe risk. Some posters insist it is essential we do NOTHING. Others think that there is a proper response.....I think this is a discussion that Scubaboard can facilitate, that should help pave the way for needed changes at the diver Education level--in how we interact with divers we consider at severe risk.

 

[chillyinCanada]

Sounds like she fell off the ladder. Fins already off to climb ladder, bcd undone maybe? Again, she may have been used to an integrated weights bcd. This is so fricken sad.

 

[InTheDrink]

I wonder how much weight she was wearing. I'm just back from the Red Sea. Was wearing 3 kg's with single tank and 5mm semi-dry. I was overweighted and I'm not slim slim but quite a whale just yet.

So many divers seemed so loaded with weight. I think it makes diving both much harder and significantly more risky.

John

---------- Post added February 25th, 2013 at 11:26 PM ----------

I wonder how much weight she was wearing. I'm just back from the Red Sea. Was wearing 3 kg's with single tank and 5mm semi-dry. I was quite overweighted and I'm not slim slim but not quite a whale just yet.

So many divers seemed so loaded with weight. I think it makes diving both much harder and significantly more risky.

John

Attempting edit on tapatalk. Challenging.

 

[Aquabot]

Wow. This is a place where we try to discuss issues that can kill divers, so that more don't die or get badly hurt....There is no bashing going on at all. I think this death was terrible, AND that such a death should be avoidable.
In this thread, we are actually talking about what each of us SHOULD DO, if we were to see a diver clearly at severe risk. Some posters insist it is essential we do NOTHING. Others think that there is a proper response.....I think this is a discussion that Scubaboard can facilitate, that should help pave the way for needed changes at the diver Education level--in how we interact with divers we consider at severe risk.

It was how it had been perceived when I had read your first post on the incident, so if that was not the case I apologize for being mistaken. Scubaboard does a fine job of facilitating educational media, believe I can't begin to describe how much I've learned from the time I began to lurk . And thank you for posting the extra info on that accident btw it seems that a communication break down was the the culprit there


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[diverrex]

Sounds like she fell off the ladder. Fins already off to climb ladder, bcd undone maybe? Again, she may have been used to an integrated weights bcd. This is so fricken sad.

While it's strange a diver can somehow "disappear" within a group of 40 divers I have never been on a boat where someone could fall off the ladder without the crew noticing so I doubt that happened. Of course I've also never been (and never will be) on a boat with 40 divers.

I wonder where and when they found her BC and tank, assuming it was found.