Does anybody else think this story doesn't quite ring true?
To begin with, a HP hose leak can't empty a tank the way the OP describes. HP hose leaks leak very little volume. If the OP had 500 psi when he saw the leak, and came up on someone else's gas, he wouldn't have had an empty tank at the surface. Look at Curt Bowen's numbers on leak rates: Life Ending Seconds • ADVANCED DIVER MAGAZINE • By Curt Bowen An HP orifice leak emptied about .9 cf/min; if the OP was an on Al80 with 500 psi, he had about 12.5 cf in his tank, and therefore had at least 13 or more minutes before the tank would have been empty from the leak.
And as bad as I think dive instruction can be, I simply cannot imagine an instructor being callous enough to ignore a student who a) panicked; b) did an uncontrolled ascent, and c) ended up on the surface coughing up pink foam. This sounds like a case of immersion pulmonary edema, causing dyspnea at depth, but it could conceivably be pulmonary barotrauma. I have seen instructors abort a dive and refuse to allow a student back in the water for a nosebleed. I have a difficult time imagining an instructor allowing a student who had to be placed on oxygen to reenter the water.
Something just doesn't smell right here.
There are way to many things here raising red flags.
First off...
We went down again to about 30ft and practiced the skill where the instructor turns off your air, and you swim like crazy to the surface, and manually inflate your BC.
Anyone ever heard of this skill? I guess I have failed as an instructor because I don't make my students do a Buoyant Emergency ascent. Oh Wait, nobody makes students do this.
I have had a line blow at the SPG, it takes a long time to drain a tank. not minutes but 10's of minutes.
I almost don't know where to start with this one...