MODERATORS - feel free to split off as you see fit.
A ScubaBoard Staff Message...
A copy of this post and answering posts specific to the practice has been created. Do not respond to this post in this A&I thread. Do not go to the new thread to discuss the accident and diver loss from this thread in A&I. Here is the link to the discussion with regard to split dives:
The Wisdom? of Split Dives Discussion
I am going to share some information related to the incident that, while it has zero bearing on what precipitated the incident and caused the fatality, I believe it is definitely interrelated, definitely had an impact on response, and will likely be the one tangible teaching/learning moment to come out of this horrible event.
On the day of the incident, the team of divers with Joe Citelli (the deceased) conducted a "hot drop" that was also a "split drop." What is a split drop? This is where the boat has two different groups of divers, in this case, recreational and technical. The boat on that day was headed to the CAPTAIN DAN. But it also dropped a group of divers on the LOWRANCE that included Joe Citelli. The distance between these two wrecks is roughly 0.30 nautical miles or 1,900 feet. That is, the boat dropped a group of divers on the LOWRANCE, and then planned to head over to the CAPTAIN DAN to splash in a group of recreational divers on that wreck. This is not an uncommon practice in South Florida, and sometimes the distance between dive sites can be greater than this example. But, this practice is definitely unwise (read as stupid) IMHO. In conducting a split drop, it is viewed as a manageable risk, but it is obviously an unnecessary risk. I have had discussions with Joe about how stupid this practice was, and he agreed. Which is why it hurts to say that on the day in question, Joe personally requested the split drop from the captain of the dive vessel.
Again, this has nothing to do with what caused the incident. Unfortunately, we may likely never know what caused the incident given the typical findings of the coroner. I hope I am wrong in this instance. But, knowing this was a split drop, the incident happened approximately two minutes into the descent before reaching the wreck, and the team ultimately surfaced with an unconscious diver and no support boat on site definitely impacted the response time in rendering effective aid. This is not a slight on the divers with Joe at all. They observed something was amiss, attended to him, and got him to the surface; they did what they could. But upon surfacing and having no topside support, their efforts to aid and resuscitate Joe were hindered. They had to flag down a fishing boat to relay information to the dive boat on the CAPTAIN DAN with divers in the water, and it took precious time to get them back on site at the LOWRANCE and get Joe onboard the dive boat and attempt to resuscitate with CPR and an AED.
I am not saying that the outcome would have been any different had the dive boat been directly on site. But I am emphatically saying it definitely could have helped -- or -- it definitely wouldn't have hurt. Immediacy of treatment/aid for an injury or incident is typically a critical component to rendering successful treatment/aid. In this case, there was a delay in the ability to render efficient CPR because the dive boat was not directly on site to respond immediately to the incident.
This is a dumb South Florida practice that needs to stop. Folks have long believed that this (split drops) is a manageable and acceptable risk. This incident should serve as evidence that it's not an acceptable risk in technical diving operations. I freely admit I have been on split drops myself. This is the "what if" scenario no one thought would happen. Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up call for local technical divers and dive operators.
