Two divers critical - Hawaii

[doctormike]

Wow, horrible. I will be watching this one closely. The article is unusually detailed for an early report.

Strange case. Solo, loop out and unconscious within a "the first minute or so" of descent? And at 30 feet, not even at the bottom yet (unless he hit the sand and then had some sort of ascent after losing consciousness).

Doubt medical, given his age and conditioning (although who knows). Losing the loop and panic preventing bailout? Seems pretty unlikely given who he was, and if the rebreather flooded he wouldn't be in mid-water. Probably not CO2 so quickly - there is that study where they had divers breathe a loop for five minutes with a missing scrubber. I guess the devil is in the details. Possible to get a O2 spike on descent, but again, what you can tell from the article doesn't make that as likely.

Hypoxia is more likely (O2 off or disconnected, solenoid not working and not watching PO2, etc..). Have seen reports of that in shallow water - there was a guy who passed out on the loop at our local quarry in waist deep water because of O2 feed issue, had to be rescued right in front of his teenage daughter.

They say that 100 hours is the most dangerous time (gulp!).

 

[infieldg]

Probably not CO2 so quickly - there is that study where they had divers breathe a loop for five minutes with a missing scrubber

Wonder if he did a pre-breath before entering the water. I'm not an rb diver yet so not sure what he'd feel if he sucked through most of his O2 or accumulated too much CO2 before dropping in. The O2 tank not being turned on sounds equal parts "unlikely with his experience" and "all I can think of too"

Poor guy, I really liked him after reading that well-written article, doesn't sound like he'd make mistakes too often either.

 

[wgw04024]

What a terrible tragedy. If something like that, can happen to someone like that, I have no business with one of those devices.

 

[Superlyte27]

What a terrible tragedy. If something like that, can happen to someone like that, I have no business with one of those devices.

It's not the device's fault. It's like anything else. There is a way to do things. Complacency kills, plain and simple. I've never ever felt like any of the rebreathers I have dove were inherently dangerous. But, you forget to turn on oxygen, and bad things happen.

 

[Kay Dee]

Sincere condolences to his family and friends!

Does anyone know what make / type of rig (rebreather) he was diving?

And from the litle I have read, if I was to speculate then my speculation would lean towards an hypoxic incident. But of course, that would only be speculation given the various possibilities, so lets see what comes out in the wash.

 

[doctormike]

Sincere condolences to his family and friends!

Does anyone know what make / type of rig (rebreather) he was diving?

And from the litle I have read, if I was to speculate then my speculation would lean towards an hypoxic incident. But of course, that would only be speculation given the various possibilities, so lets see what comes out in the wash.

CCR liberty, according to this other thread...

 

[doctormike]

And if anybody wants to read a FB thread about the incident, there is this...

 

[AfterDark]

Someday RBs will have inductive pickups to measure the divers O2 and CO2 blood levels in real time. IMO until then these tragedies will continue to happen. Any device that can put a diver asleep while diving is a device that requires a lot of attention.

 

[clownfishsydney]

I am amazed that he was doing a trimix course and had a camera with him. Talk about task loading! Sounds like there is more to come out about this accident!

 

[Dan]

Would gag strap help?