Las Vegas man dies in diving accident

[robertarak]

ReviewJournal.com - News - IN BRIEF

A 40-year-old Las Vegas man died Sunday while participating in a dive in the area of a submerged flying boat that crashed into Lake Mead in 1949.
The man, whose identity was not released, died about 3 p.m. after rangers with the National Park Service could not save his life with cardiopulmonary resuscitation, said Roxanne Dey, spokeswoman for the Lake Mead National Recreation Area.
The victim was doing a technical dive with three other Las Vegas men when he apparently had a problem with his air supply, Dey said.
Technical divers typically dive in water more than 130 feet deep. They use breathing gas mixtures other than air and have to ascend slowly with decompression stops, she said.
The park service is investigating the death, which was the first for the popular diving site in the Boulder Basin part of the lake, she said.
The Navy flying boat was converted for civilian use when it took off for a test flight from the Boulder City Airport on Oct. 24, 1949. Failing landing gear caused the boat to flip, burn and sink when it was making a test landing.

 

[Shawley]

air problem?
where are his buddies?

 

[Gilldiver]

I was there on that plane on 1/14.

The depth is 175' and the vis was like Long Island Sound, about 10-12 feet, and the plane is in two sections with cave line running from the bouy/up line to each section and a line running between the sections.

I can see someone getting off the line from the bouy to the aircraft sections and getting lost.

 

[lamont]

"problem with his air supply" is sufficiently vague that it might mean anything after having been transmitted first from the divers that were there, to knowledgeable surface support, to the reporter to and editor sitting in an office somewhere with zero understanding of diving, much less technical diving, who re-wrote it in order to make it 'more understandable' to the general public.

could have been an OOG problem, could have been a hyperoxic mix problem, could have been a hypoxic mix problem, could have been a CO problem or other contamination, could have been a rebreather, could have been mechanical failure of the regulator, could have been scrubber breakthrough, etc, etc, etc, etc...

and given the accuracy of news reports it may have had nothing at all to do with his gas supply...

 

[Trwmodela]

Technical divers typically DO NOT use the buddy system.

 

[fdog]

Technical divers typically DO NOT use the buddy system.

Please don't do this. The thread doesn't deserve it.


All the best, James

 

[tridacna]

Technical divers typically DO NOT use the buddy system.

Wow! Are me and my buddy unique? That's quite a (misleading) statement around here.
:no

 

[Bismark]

Technical divers typically DO NOT use the buddy system.

 

[Hank658]

Technical divers typically DO NOT use the buddy system.

OK, just to get it straight- I am not (yet) tech-level certified, but most of the people I dive with are. While the 'buddy system' does not mean the same as it does to recreational divers, the amount of planning, preparation and cooperation that goes on between the team, and that can be divers, surface support, etc, puts the average buddy team planning to shame. While you are trained to handle unexpected events by yourself, be assured that most team members know what the plan is and what is going on around them.
Perhaps some qualified tech divers would care to share their practices in this thread and thanks to those who do. Maybe we can all learn something here.

 

[jbd]

Technical divers typically DO NOT use the buddy system.

What information are you basing that statement on???