Three divers lose their lives at Chac Mool in Riviera Maya. 2 Brazillian, 1 Spaniard

[Mark Derail]

My Mexican friend/cenote diver did not know the guide...and he knows a lot of them.

 

[rakpix]

I have spoken to a cavern guide here in Tulum. A lot of divers are taking this very personally. All I have heard is the following:

1) Ismael was a trained and experienced cavern guide.
2) Three bodies were recovered from Chac Mool early the morning of Friday, April 20th, 2012 between 0100 - 0200 CDT.

 

[TSandM]

Very little is known at this point. What is known does not at the moment point to bad air. If we wait just a bit, I think we might get better information.

 

[DandyDon]

No one is a bigger champion than I of busting bad air cases, I don't think - or at least not more vocal, but there is nothing in the information given to suggest that. True, you don't know unless you test your tank yourself, and it's good to be suspicious enough to test them all, but for this discussion - I don't see any connection.

When the news story described the guide as "The Spanish guide Ismael García Manzanares" did it mean that he was Spanish speaking, not that he was from Spain? The official language of Brazil is Portuguese.

This was on Cavediver:

<<Steve Gerrard posted this on facebook :

On Thursday, April 19th, 2012 a cavern tour dive guide from the Akumal Dive Shop - Ismael García Manzanares took two customers &#8211; a male and female couple from the Country of Brazil into the upstream cavern zone at approximately 4:00 P.M. They swam beyond the cavern line area to the upstream gold line cave diving line to tour the first &#8220;pretty&#8221; room that exists 100 feet + beyond the safe cavern zone. Apparently, they became disoriented and swam further into the cave area and ran out of air, though the female had 500 psi remaining. The bodies were located and recovered by a cave diving Instructor of the Protec dive store facility located in Playa Del Carmen. The Akumal Dive Shop is a member of APSA.

Am I reading that wrong, or as given - was that simply a major violation...??

 

[TSandM]

If, in fact, a cavern tour was taken past the signs, that was a major violation. We do not know that for sure at this point. And we don't know what happened that caused three people to lose their lives.

I desperately hope we will hear some good information about this accident. The cavern tours have an almost amazing safety record. Part of me hopes that there WAS a major violation of the basic rules of running these tours, because that would mean that the tours, as run within the rules, remain very safe.

 

[Michael Anthony]

When the news story described the guide as "The Spanish guide Ismael García Manzanares" did it mean that he was Spanish speaking, not that he was from Spain? The official language of Brazil is Portuguese.

Ismael was from Spain. I don't know about his Portuguese language skills. Myself and my friends in Playa chatted about that today. Even people that knew him well did not have an opinion on the Portuguese language skills. It came up and we left it merely as a question.

 

[DandyDon]

Ismael was from Spain. I don't know about his Portuguese language skills. Myself and my friends in Playa chatted about that today. Even people that new him well did not have an opinion on the Portuguese language skills. It came up and we left it merely as a question.

Ok, thanks for the clarification. Translations can leave me wondering at times. I suppose the Brazilian couple was sufficiently communicative in Spanish or even English maybe to be traveling the area, and it's also possible that Ismael might have been communicative in Portuguese as many often are in languages near their homes counties. I don't guess any of this matters to the accident tho....

 

[Michael Anthony]

The cavern tours have an almost amazing safety record. the tours, as run within the rules, remain very safe.

Statistics show that to be true. Come to Playa......dive the Cenotes (cavern dives), follow the best practices with a good guide (there are many great ones to choose from) and it is very safe diving.

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

Statistics show that to be true. Come to Playa......dive the Cenotes (cavern dives), follow the best practices with a good guide (there are many great ones to choose from) and it is very safe diving.

Thing is that those statistics of safe Cenote tours look just a little worse today.

From what I have read, three bodies were recovered from a part of the cave they should not have been in. Unfortunately we will probably never know the decision making process that put all three divers into that cave. Sounds like the dive guide knew what he was doing, but still somehow the tourists ended up in a bad place.

Thinking about it, I can see two scenarios;
1. The tourists didn't realize the risks and headed off on a cave tour on their own. The dive guide gave chase to turn them around; or

2. The guide violated standards and took the tourists just a "little way" into the cave.

Either scenario is heartbreaking and who is to blame probably is moot. The lesson in either case is no cave diving without cave training. Guided Cenote tours within the cavern zone remain safe for non cave divers.

 

[rongoodman]

Statistics show that to be true. Come to Playa......dive the Cenotes (cavern dives), follow the best practices with a good guide (there are many great ones to choose from) and it is very safe diving.

I got hooked on the caves by those guided dives--I loved them. Illustrated here is just how much of a "trust me" dive they are. As a client, you're literally putting your life in the hands of the guide, assuming he will go where he's supposed to, has adequate gas in his doubles, and otherwise conform the the current best practices. If he doesn't, or something goes wrong, as an OW diver you don't have the resources to get yourself out.