Peacock Fatality Accident Analysis

[SuPrBuGmAn]

yes, rules were broken, absolutely. yes, they are there for our safety & i'm not saying it's ok to break them. but don't get into the trap of 'i don't break the rules so i can never get in trouble'. if your buddy freaks out for whatever reason, the fact that you have a jump line or haven't broken thirds might not be enough. then what are you going to do?

Stack the cards in your favor and hope for the best, don't setup more pitfalls in your path.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Thats an interesting thought.

I've only dived Peacock once. As I recall the arrows on the goldline at the Crossover jump on P1 line point towards Olsen. i.e not towards the main entrance.

If she did get confused and "forget" which gold line she was on,she may have "known" she was doing the correct thing by going against the arrows ? ?

That is correct ... the Crossover jump off the Mainline is only about a coupla hundred feet from Olson, and the arrows on the mainline point toward Olson ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[BabyDuck]

mat, i totally agree with you on stacking things in your favor.

i'm just trying to make people think about what to do if your buddy becomes panicked. following the rules doesn't prevent a panicked buddy or similar problem, though it sure helps you get out.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

i'm just trying to make people think about what to do if your buddy becomes panicked. following the rules doesn't prevent a panicked buddy or similar problem, though it sure helps you get out.

I hear ya. I just think the jumpline would have made a big difference in which way the panicked diver would have bolted to, this is where we disagree.

 

[LiteHedded]

I hear ya. I just think the jumpline would have made a big difference in which way the panicked diver would have bolted to, this is where we disagree.

exactly
the previous dive and this entire dive would've reinforced that she was headed the right way.
they would've picked up lines and cookies that THEY THEMSELVES placed and the team verified every step of the way.

the voices that dismiss this confuse the hell out of me

 

[BabyDuck]

why, when hundreds of previous dives in the same area didn't?

 

[Dive-aholic]

The surviving buddy has posted on CDF that they did indeed break rules. She was Intro and they did not place jump reels/spools.

I have over 200 dives in JB with over 80% in the mapped passages and more in the unmapped passages. I have come into passage that is very familiar to me and not recognized it immediately because I came into it from a different approach than usual. While situational awareness is introduced into training at the cavern and intro level, it's not something that gets a lot of attention. There are too many skills to focus on. This is one of the reasons we have the gas limitations. Situational awareness is focused on much more at the cave level. There are specific skills incorporated into the courses to test students' situational awareness. It doesn't matter how much experience she had in Peacock at the Intro level. She still didn't have the proper training to do the dive she was doing, even if she had done this exact dive previously. She violated rules. She panicked and started swimming back. Had they put in a jump line, she would have seen it on the way back. The Crossover Tunnel line is about 30-35' away from the main line and on the floor on that side. It would have been very easy to miss. She apparently swam back, missed it, then started swimming the other way again because Larry found her body at 800', the same place the buddy said they separated. Let's learn from this and use it as a check on complacency. I always place jump spools every time I go off the mainline into another passage, even in very familiar cave. Not doing so saves less than a minute of time and it's just not worth the possible consequences.


Lynne -

The red is the route they swam. The yellow dots are the jumps. The blue dot is where the panic started and where the body was found.

 

[LiteHedded]

The surviving buddy has posted on CDF that they did indeed break rules. She was Intro and they did not place jump reels/spools.

I have over 200 dives in JB with over 80% in the mapped passages and more in the unmapped passages. I have come into passage that is very familiar to me and not recognized it immediately because I came into it from a different approach than usual. While situational awareness is introduced into training at the cavern and intro level, it's not something that gets a lot of attention. There are too many skills to focus on. This is one of the reasons we have the gas limitations. Situational awareness is focused on much more at the cave level. There are specific skills incorporated into the courses to test students' situational awareness. It doesn't matter how much experience she had in Peacock at the Intro level. She still didn't have the proper training to do the dive she was doing, even if she had done this exact dive previously. She violated rules. She panicked and started swimming back. Had they put in a jump line, she would have seen it on the way back. The Crossover Tunnel line is about 30-35' away from the main line and on the floor on that side. It would have been very easy to miss. She apparently swam back, missed it, then started swimming the other way again because Larry found her body at 800', the same place the buddy said they separated. Let's learn from this and use it as a check on complacency. I always place jump spools every time I go off the mainline into another passage, even in very familiar cave. Not doing so saves less than a minute of time and it's just not worth the possible consequences.

the jumpline would've been in her/his pocket if they had followed the rules. it wouldn't have been there either way

why, when hundreds of previous dives in the same area didn't?

because it would've happened on the same dive MINUTES earlier?? every step of the way they would be picking up reels and cookies verifying they were going the right way.
this is why we run these lines. because 'learning the cave' is bull****. it's why we don't do progressive penetration or any such nonsense. familiar cave can look quite different depending on your perspective.

 

[cerich]

there is no such thing as familiar cave, you can turn your head and look back and a cave area you have been in dozens of times can look unfamiliar until you find a reference, then it all snaps back into place....

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

Wow ... five more minutes of kicking would've gotten her to that slope in the Breakdown Room, and she'd have known exactly where she was ... that's a landmark that's tough to miss ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)