The Wisdom? of Split Dives Discussion

[aue-mike]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

This post has been copied over from another thread in A&I. Answering posts to this post from that thread have been deleted there and will be brought over here. This thread is for the discussion of the specific practice of running split charters/boats. Do NOT discuss HERE, the accident and diver loss found in A&I. If you do, you will be deleted.

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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.

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

A reminder, this thread is specific to discussion of the practice of split charters. Any further specific mention of the accident found in A&I will be deleted.

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[doctormike]

Thanks, Michael...

That's a really helpful observation. Hopefully people will change that practice.

 

[Belzelbub]

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.

Thanks for the explanation. I hadn't heard of this practice before, but it definitely leaves me shaking my head. It's only a manageable and acceptable risk if the dives all go according to plan. If there is any issue, one group is left without surface support.

 

[jadairiii]

...."split drop." ....This is not an uncommon practice in South Florida, .....Hopefully this will serve as a wake-up call for local technical divers and dive operators.

No expert will ever tell you that delay in any kind of First Aid is good for the patient. This topic should not be split off, since it is clearly related to the ultimate outcome of the victim here. Just as if the dive shop knowingly sold Joe bad gas, or fake absorbent.

Dive operators that conduct Split drops are putting profits over safety. Split drops, IMHO, are beyond "gross negligence" (which the diver usually waives in the Waiver they sign) and should be consider an "intentional tort". The dive boat operator knowingly and intentionally leaves the divers to make more money. Would any shop sell a RB diver cat litter for absorbent even if the diver wanted it and knew it was not real absorbent?

All of us have read, Blue Print for Survival, a dive boat abandoning a team is just one more factor to be considered when evaluating an accident.

 

[johndiver999]

Not sure how you can say that this is a "what if " situation that nobody could foresee? There are dozens of problems that can be envisioned that would be better handled if a boat were on site. Leaving people a half a mile away and drifting in a current is a considerable risk, but it does save a good bit of money.

It was apparently a risk that people were willing to accept. I wonder what the hierarchy of responsibility/support was between the recreational and technical groups?

I assume it was dump the tech divers off the boat, wait 5 minutes for any problems, then run a good way away, drop the rec divers and STAY with them for their entire dive and handle any of their problems and wait till they are all picked up before chasing down the tech divers who have been diving/drifting for the full duration?

If the current is running and the tech divers mis the wreck or come up early, they could be on the surface a long way from the wreck. I guess you could mitigate that danger by carrying a radio and asking the captain to abondon the rec. divers and drive a half a mile or a mile away and retrieve the tech divers who arrived on the surface early. Of course this leaves the rec divers alone with no support. I wonder if the rec divers understood the consequences of dropping two groups?

Seems like a risky thing for the captain to do, when you think about all the minor and major problems that can occur, not to mention the ever present issue of getting run over by a fishing boat while drifting.

Did the tech divers carry a radio?

 

[aue-mike]

Not sure how you can say that this is a "what if " situation that nobody could foresee? There are dozens of problems that can be envisioned that would be better handled if a boat were on site.

For the sake of clarity: that's not what I said. There is a difference between "would" and "could." Of course it's easy to foresee what "could" happen, but it apparently it is also easy to rationalize the likelihood of those scenarios happening are so remote they "would" not happen. Or at least it was easy up until this incident. This is an example of normalization of deviance.

 

[Vicko]

Whenever I see a "Split drop" being done I see the first group of divers hurrying not to inconvenience the others or even worse being hurried by the others.
Still do it all the time, even though the risks vs reward is not even close.

 

[johndiver999]

I think it becomes a judgment call about how much of a split is safe and how much isn’t. It also probably depends on if the two groups are both drifting or doing Rex

 

[jadairiii]

I think it becomes a judgment call about how much of a split is safe and how much isn’t. It also probably depends on if the two groups are both drifting or doing Rex

Leaving one set of divers to go some place else is not a "judgment call". But the South Florida dive boat industry is so full of greed and stupidity, split drops start to seem logical. Hell, compared to split drops, leaving the boat running while retrieving divers seems almost "safe".

 

[txdamselfish]

I did not know split drops were even part of a dive boat charter. Unless it is a drift I assumed the boat always stayed with the divers. I will ask about this moving forward on all my reservations.

This split drop would be a no go.

May this divers family and friends have peace as they work through the trauma of their loss.