Old dive accident: 2001 student diver in Lake George, NY

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Regarding this story, I would say the reporting was pretty good compared to most such reports, but there is still not enough information to know what happened. The story said that the deceased diver panicked for an unknown reason, let go of the ascent line, and drowned. I can speculate a number of reasons that might have happened, but the important things is that when she let go of the rope, she descended, meaning she was negatively buoyant. This means it could be one of those cases in which dropping weights might have helped, but she should not have been in that situation to begin with, and if he was panicking, she would not likely drop the weights. During the ascent, she should have been roughly neutrally buoyant, in which case descending would indicate she was already helpless. She was probably negatively buoyant and pulling herself up by the rope, which is not good technique.

What follows is sheer speculation based on what I have seen in similar situations. It may have absolutely nothing to do with this actual case, but perhaps readers might find it helpful.

In dive instruction, students usually do hours of training in a swimming pool prior to going into the open water environment. They are often dressed in 3mm suits or less. (The dive shop with which I am somewhat associated is now using a pool so warm that they are not using wetsuits at all.) As they practice ascents, there is little change in buoyancy. Many instructors teach an incorrect ascent technique that is commonly used in warm water diving. They teach students to dump ALL their air from their BCDs prior to beginning the ascent. They should instead teach them to begin the ascent while neutrally buoyant and dump a little air at a time as they ascend so that they maintain control. In a swimming pool with a 3mm suit, the difference is negligible.

If they then go to a site like Lake George and use a 7mm suit (or worse, the typical 7mm two-piece common then), it is a whole different world. Because a 7mm suit loses buoyancy so rapidly upon descent, a diver needs much more weight to descend than is needed during the dive. Thus, at depth, anyone in a 7mm suit is overweighted, and dumping ALL the air out of the BCD may make it impossible for the diver to ascend without help--as by pulling on an ascent line. Letting go of the line will lead to an immediate descent.

Ascending with a thick wetsuit takes practice for a beginning diver. You must begin the ascent neutrally buoyant and dump air in little burps as you ascend. The wetsuit will become more buoyant especially in the last 15 feet, so you have to be careful to avoid a rocket ride to the surface. You don't want that, but neither do you want a plummet to the bottom. My first cool water diving was as a DM assisting classes while wearing a 2-piece 7mm suit. My job was to swim around the class doing their skills in shallow water to make sure everyone was OK. I was very surprised at how much skill that took for me--only a few feet of depth change made a huge difference in my buoyancy.
 
This is something I have mentioned in many threads. Yes, the vast majority of divers die with their weights on, but in all but a few of the cases, that is irrelevant.

People who die without getting to the surface usually are not impeded by weights; simply starting an ascent with a working BCD will get them to the surface because of expanding air. Most deaths are caused by medical events, such as a heart attack, with the diver quickly incapacitated, often unconscious. An unconscious diver cannot drop weights, and in most of those cases it would not matter if they did. In many other cases, divers made it to she surface and died there, and a DAN study found that the most likely reason in those cases is an out of control ascent, likely holding the breath, leading to a gas embolism. In such cases, dropping weights would definitely not be a benefit. In a surprisingly high number of cases, divers are either intentionally solo or separated from the buddy and are found dead, with no clear cause. It cannot be told if dropping weights would have helped. (A ScubaBoard friend of mine died that way; to this date there is no known reason for her death in shallow water close to shore.)

A few years ago I went through every description of fatalities in two annual DAN reports, and I could find only a handful of cases in which dropping weights might have helped. Some cases involved people who reached the surface with empty tanks and were unable to stay there, meaning not only that they did not remember how to orally inflate the BCD but that they were pretty significantly overweighted as well. In one case well discussed on ScubaBoard, a diver was diving a new BCD and was intentionally significantly overweighted to make it easier to dig out lobsters. When he ran out of air, he was unable to drop weights because he was unfamilar with the BCD. (The story did not specify why he had that problem; my GUESS from what was described is that he was using a Zeagle BCD and put the weights in the wrong pockets.) Sadly, that case was a double fatality because the diver who came to his rescue was using a rental regulator set with no alternate air source, so they tried to buddy breathe.

You make an assumption that they are properly weighted and beginning an ascent makes them positive. That is often untrue and a 3 dive diver is often so severely over weighted with an empty BC parked on the bottom in class that they have to go up 30ft or more to become positive.
New OOA divers also sometimes dump their BC attempting to put gas into it as they kick up hard and panic. They reliably forget on the surface (if they do make it) to orally inflate their BC too. The fact that this woman sank back down after being assisted partly up suggests over weighting to me. Plus CO2 and panic or just plus - OOA both could have led to her unconsciousness and then drowning. Dropping her weights was/is the right call for a new diver "in trouble" like this far more often than not.
 
You make an assumption that they are properly weighted and beginning an ascent makes them positive. That is often untrue and a 3 dive diver is often so severely over weighted with an empty BC parked on the bottom in class that they have to go up 30ft or more to become positive.
New OOA divers also sometimes dump their BC attempting to put gas into it as they kick up hard and panic. They reliably forget on the surface (if they do make it) to orally inflate their BC too. The fact that this woman sank back down after being assisted partly up suggests over weighting to me. Plus CO2 and panic or just plus - OOA both could have led to her unconsciousness and then drowning. Dropping her weights was/is the right call for a new diver "in trouble" like this far more often than not.
Oh, I have no doubt she was overweighted. As I said, everyone diving a thick wetsuit (as is required in Lake George) is overweighted, and probably more than necessary. What I am saying is that being overweighted requires you to have more air in the BCD to be neutral, and a diver beginning an ascent should have added enough air prior to that to be neutral. In fact, if an oeverweighted diver has achieved neutrality by adding enough air, the real danger is an uncontrolled ascent.

There was a video clip popularly played on ScubaBoard a few years ago that people said showed the problem of panic. I think they missed the point, because I think it showed exactly what I am talking about. In that clip, you see a group of divers wearing heavy wetsuits. The clip scans the group, and everyone is neutrally buoyant. Then we see someone, likely an instructor, give the thumb, and people start to ascend. Then the film goes to one of the divers, a woman, who we had earlier seen was neutrally buoyant. At this point, though, she is negatively buoyant and kicking hard to keep from descending. Her panic grows. Eventually she fights her way to the surface, in full blown panic. To me it is obvious what happened. When she saw the signal to ascend, she dumped her air, as she probably had been taught (and I have seen that being taught). She then became instantly negative and could not ascend.

I led a dive trip to Belize a number of years ago, and our group was assigned a DM. Before the first dive, he gave his standard spiel on basic diving skills. He told us to be sure to drop every bit of air from our BCDs before starting the ascent. That works just fine in Belize; it will not work in lake George.
 
I came across this almost-20 year old dive accident while browsing through Newspapers.com archives - I found a few other articles that mentioned some additional details, but I'm curious if there is more information about what happened from a diving point of view (and, in the spirit of accident threads: how to avoid this happening to me or anyone in my dive party)

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Source: The Post-Star (Glens Falls, New York) · 15 May 2001, Tue · Page 1, and Page 6

The short version is that instructor had the students in the lake for the first time. Other articles I found mentioned that this was their third dive. They were down 60 feet deep and another article I found claimed that the issue that Fenn experienced at 60 ft that caused the instructor to want to surface was that Fenn's mask began to fill with water.

I found another article from August that states that the diver (Amy) was still in a coma after three months and the family was doing a fundraiser. I didn't find much information about her recovering. I found an obituary from someone with the same name from 2012, but the obituary is very brief and I'm not sure if it was the same person.

I'm assuming there may be others from the area who are more familiar with what happened?

I found another article that stated that both Fenn and Solaris were hospitalized for unrelated issues. That seems to imply it was more than just a flooding mask.

Going to 60 feet on the first open water dive and third overall dive seems unusual based on how I was trained, but maybe it was common practice in 2001? Maybe it's still common practice in some are

I was curious because it's relatively close by and the lack of any analysis in the papers left my wondering what the heck happened. Yes, it's old... But it was new to me.

I guess I was secretly hoping someone from that area is on scubaboard and would chime in: "I was there that day... " or maybe "I worked at the dive shop near there and heard about this... Here's what I heard..." - because you're right, the details the paper might report are filtered through the reporters sense of "what makes sense" and might not make sense from a diving point of view

... And I don't want whatever happened there to happen to me! (Which is part of why I read through lots of dive accident reports... I used to do the same thing with climbing or mountaineering accident reports when I was more actively involved in those sports)

I'm guessing she must have been over weighted if she suddenly couldn't ascend? I'm very new, but we are ascending we are always letting air out to avoid going up too fast - maybe she dumped too much air and then started to sink? Didn't think to drop weights as she started to descend (that would have been covered in the pool before going into open water I assume?)
very late to the game but I was there that day.
 
I led a dive trip to Belize a number of years ago, and our group was assigned a DM. Before the first dive, he gave his standard spiel on basic diving skills. He told us to be sure to drop every bit of air from our BCDs before starting the ascent. That works just fine in Belize; it will not work in lake George.
What was the point of such a recommendation? Just to insure that newer divers would be forced to fin up to the surface and not lose control of their buoyancy?
 
What was the point of such a recommendation? Just to insure that newer divers would be forced to fin up to the surface and not lose control of their buoyancy?
Yes.

I was shocked not long after that to hear the Course Director at my shop tell students the same thing. It works for people, like that DM and my Course Director, who never dive in water below the 80s F and thus never wear anything thicker than a 3mm suit.

Not long after that I was assigned an AOW student, a young woman, and we did the dives at the Blue Hole in New Mexico, wearing 7mm suits. At the end of our first dive, we were at about 70 feet, and I gave the thumb. She immediately dumped her air and started to plummet. I caught her quickly, but the bottom was not far anyway. On the surface, she confirmed that she had been taught in her OW class to dump all air before ascending.
 
Yes.

I was shocked not long after that to hear the Course Director at my shop tell students the same thing. It works for people, like that DM and my Course Director, who never dive in water below the 80s F and thus never wear anything thicker than a 3mm suit.

Not long after that I was assigned an AOW student, a young woman, and we did the dives at the Blue Hole in New Mexico, wearing 7mm suits. At the end of our first dive, we were at about 70 feet, and I gave the thumb. She immediately dumped her air and started to plummet. I caught her quickly, but the bottom was not far anyway. On the surface, she confirmed that she had been taught in her OW class to dump all air before ascending.
I was taught the same in cold water, for what it’s worth. I still dump some so I can swim but gently. Gives me a bit more time to dump as I go up.
 
My open water dives were in May in Lake George. Man was that cold! We had actually done some skills in the indoor pool to get acclimated to the difference from t-shirt diving we did for class. Weight checks were done in advance of the trip. Man was it hot in an indoor pool in 1/4" farmer john and beaver tail wetsuits along with hoods and 3-finger mitts....
 
What was the point of such a recommendation? Just to insure that newer divers would be forced to fin up to the surface and not lose control of their buoyancy?
It is poor advice in any situation. If you have a thick suit and are deep, it could be VERY bad.

If you are weighted properly in warm water, with little wetsuit, then ideally, the recreational diver should not have a lot of air in BC at depth. So in that case, initiating the ascent (from any considerable depth) is NOT going to bring about a rapid and significant change in buoyancy (assuming the diver does not dump air at the start of the ascent). Of course, some slow venting will be needed on ascent, but NOT on the bottom.

It is OK to tell new or unskilled divers to try to stay a tiny bit heavy on ascent -which allows them to kick very gently upward and helps reduce the chance of a run away ascent. But dumping all air from a BC prior to initiating the ascent is not good advice (in my opinion) in any dive scenario.

The fact that this advice is still apparently being disseminated is clear evidence to me that dive instruction is not what it should be.
 
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