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

Please register or login

Welcome to ScubaBoard, the world's largest scuba diving community. Registration is not required to read the forums, but we encourage you to join. Joining has its benefits and enables you to participate in the discussions.

Benefits of registering include

  • Ability to post and comment on topics and discussions.
  • A Free photo gallery to share your dive photos with the world.
  • You can make this box go away

Joining is quick and easy. Log in or Register now!

From FB page of Cave Diving Safer Guidelines:
thee Divers Drown in Cenote Chac Mool.


Apparently, they became disoriented and swam further into the cave area and ran out of air, though the female had 500 psi remaining.


I wonder if the reference to the 500 psi remaining was just from the pressure gauge that was attached or any testing after. We know pressure gauges can be off, especially in the last 500 psi. If not, who knows what happened to make her stop breathing before her tank ran out. The possibilities could be endless.

Condolences to all the families and friends of the three deceased.​
 
It took me a while to do the translation and post it, and I see that Don beat me to a translation, but I find the Google translation a tough slog to understand! My own rough translation that I hope is a bit more readable:

Criminal negligence caused the deaths of a pair of newlywed divers from Brazil and one dive guide of Spanish origin, because they ran out of air in their tanks, entered off-limits areas, and did not obey the safety signs that marked hazardous areas of the Chac Mool cenote, a popular dive site visited by locals and tourists. Some locals attribute the tragedy to a curse of the ancestors of the great Mayan civilization.

Around 16:00 pm on Thursday, the three divers went into the cenote located 20 kilometers south of Puerto Aventuras, on the federal highway Tulum-Playa del Carmen. Other members of the group became aware that they were missing, spent several hours searching in vain for them until 21:00 hours, and notified the authorities. The lifeless bodies were found at midnight, 120 meters from the edge of the cenote, and were recovered at 01:00 am on Friday.

Personnel from the Institute of Civil Protection, from the Preventive Municipal Police (PMP), from the Public Ministry of Common Law (MPFC), and from the State Judicial Police (PJE) provided assistance at the scene. And Expert Service personnel would deliver the corpses to the Forensic Medical Service (Semefo) for the autopsy and subsequently return of the bodies to their families.

Note that the Public Ministry is trying to establish why authorities were not notified and were called to the site only several hours after the event, when the bodies were found in a decomposed state.

Near midnight on Friday, it was reported that three people were missing and presumed drowned inside a cenote known as "Chac Mool" located near the federal highway Tulum Playa del Carmen, at kilometer 268 +600, when staff of the cenote requested the presence of PMP, Judicial Police and Medical Examiner, reporting the death of three people who were still lost inside the sinkhole.

Thus, the authorities arrived at the scene to confirm the tragic event that three people had drowned while scuba diving inside the cenote. Irregularities became apparent through the investigation. Ismael García Manzanares, 34, of Spanish origin, was named as the divemaster employed by the company called "Dive Shop" located in Akumal. He led a pair of newlyweds, Brugnaro Jose Neto, 34 years old and Renata Alves Costa Brugnaro Quirino , 36, both from Brazil on a tour into the cenote, where they entered the water at 16:00 hours but had not emerged by closing time at 17:00 hours.

As a result, divers spent several hours until 21:00 hours undertaking an arduous search through each of the caves, ending only late at night. Searchers were unable to locate the three missing divers. It was not until nearly midnight when two specially trained divers managed to penetrate to 120 meters from the edge of the cenote, where they found the body of Joseph Brugnaro Neto. Five minutes from the man were found the bodies of his new wife and of the guide, who were 3 minutes away from each other.

The cenote staff remained until after one o'clock, when the bodies were recovered. The preliminary cause of death has been listed as drowning as all three ended up with no oxygen in their tanks. Investigators are trying to determine what happened inside the cenote, which has a depth of 14 meters or 25 feet according to experts, that prevented the divers from emerging, leaving them in an impass where they died, to be found approximately 6 hours later.

At that time the authorities arrived and restricted access to the locale to officials from the PMP, Judicial Police and ministerial officers and forensic services. The three bodies were to be taken to the Forensic Medical Service offices to perform the autopsies to determine whether any injuries that would provoke death had taken place at the scene.

And according to findings by the authorities, the couple and their guide penetrated beyond the security lines, marked as a dangerous area with a risk of loss of life. They are trying to learn who is responsible for the deaths of these divers, and since the guide had signed the contract that he would take care of situations that happen on tour, he should be responsible. However the company "Dive Shop" and Chac Mool cenote staff continue to be investigated, especially since they did not report the missing (and now deceased) divers at the time the events occurred. The case has the preliminary number 01/271/4/2012. Thus, the cenote site will be subject to investigation even though it will remain open to visitors.

On the other hand, people who know the history of the cenotes in this region claim that the reason the cenotes close at 17:00 is because according to Mayan belief after that time many unexplained and mysterious phenomena take place at the cenotes, and presumably since the divers did not get out of the sinkhole on time, they lost their way and lost their lives, indicating that the cause of these events was the presence of aluxes or "water sprites."
 
Last edited:
The time of day does not matter. If you cannot go straight up to the surface you are in a cavern or a cave. Specific training and equipment is required to dive in those environments. Chac Mool can be more complex than others have posted, there are side passages and no cave should be underestimated.
There is a good safety record in that area regarding the cavern tours, unfortunately some bend the rules to include caves, unfortunately this kind of accident is precisely why that's a bad idea. Must have been terrifying for all involved. Very sad.

Time of day actually would matter in terms of what rules might have been broken. You must have ambient sunlight for it to be considered a cavern dive. Need to be able to cover your lights and see the glow of the exit. Since they didn't make it out of the cave into the cavern this likely wouldn't have changed anything, but its another rule that might have been broken given how late the dive started.
 
Time of day actually would matter in terms of what rules might have been broken. You must have ambient sunlight for it to be considered a cavern dive. Need to be able to cover your lights and see the glow of the exit. Since they didn't make it out of the cave into the cavern this likely wouldn't have changed anything, but its another rule that might have been broken given how late the dive started.

At that time of day there should be plenty of light in the sky unless the weather was bad. But it sounds like they were nearly 400' back from the cavern entrance, so this would probably be way past the daylight zone unless it's a really big cavern.
 
I have seen a news account which describes in more detail the disposition of the victims when they were discovered. The report claims that the dive guide and the female victim were found without their regs in their mouths, with the conclusion that they were sharing air. The male victim was found a few meters further back in the cave, and the presumption is that he succumbed first.

The news report is accompanied by some very gruesome photos, so I will not share the link publicly.
 
Here's one I'm comfortable providing the link for: El próximo lunes se sabrá qué pasó en la profundidad :: [url]www.quequi.com.mx :: Policiaca[/URL]

This article, briefly, says that there will be an official statement regarding the tragedy on Monday. The article quotes Alfonso Torres Acosta, the Director General of the Aquatic Service Providers Association, an industry group, who states that this was the divers third dive of the day and that they had planned a 20-minute dive. Later in the article, a quotation attributed only to an 'expert with 36 years' experience diving in the cenotes' speculates that one of the visiting divers entered a cave area despite warning signs and the other two went looking for the first.
 
If this wasn't a case of bad gas and the dive guide was fully aware of what was going on, why would he knowingly perish in there? One option was to leave the missing diver behind and surface with the woman.
 
If this wasn't a case of bad gas and the dive guide was fully aware of what was going on, why would he knowingly perish in there? One option was to leave the missing diver behind and surface with the woman.
Hard to say. Would you rather play it safe and be the first dive guide in the state to ever lose a diver on a cenote dive, or push your risks...??
 
If this wasn't a case of bad gas and the dive guide was fully aware of what was going on, why would he knowingly perish in there? One option was to leave the missing diver behind and surface with the woman.

....lost in the cave area, outside of the cavern limits?
 
Hard to say. Would you rather play it safe and be the first dive guide in the state to ever lose a diver on a cenote dive, or push your risks...??

Knowing the culture and villification that awaited him if he had left the missing diver behind, death was probably preferable in his mind.

---------- Post added April 21st, 2012 at 04:39 PM ----------

....lost in the cave area, outside of the cavern limits?

The guide's qualifications aren't very clear to me. I was holding out hope that he was experienced enough to know his way around in there.
 
https://www.shearwater.com/products/swift/

Back
Top Bottom