Vortex Missing Diver Incident - Aug 2010

[god1head]

I spoke to one of the rescue divers that was on the scene the first day and I asked him what the deal was with the lock/key/gate issue. I was told that there was no problem with the Vortex lock...but evidently the hinge portion of the gate had been broken at some point and another lock or couple of locks had been used to create some type of make shift "door" that would open from the opposite direction, using the Vortex locked side as the hinge side. I am told that THIS is how he gained access to the cave....by using the hinge side as the opening side ...NOT using the Vortex lock or the Vortex key.

The diver was on site the first day and saw this.....is this what everyone else is referring to?
If so....this is odd. Very Odd. It would certainly create more questions for sure.

The extra lock on the right side of the gate (hinge side) had been in place for over a month. I first noticed it on July 10. I saw a lock and went straight for it, and to my great suprise, the key that I had checked out didn't work. I checked up and then opened the correct side of the gate. I felt a bit sheepish for trying to open the wrong side, and hoped my buddy thought I was just fumbling with the key. At that point wrongly assumed that the lock had been there all along as a hinge, and I had simply not noticed it. My buddy and I discussed the issue briefly at the end of the dive, but didn't mention it to the good folks at Vortex.

My thoughts are quite different about prevention.

Yes, we agree that we can all kumbaya on the same lesson learned, which is the same "dive only within your training and experience level"; but this lesson with be "relearned" over and over again in the future. I think we should go further.

First of all, since a cave like Vortex is well known and open to the public, why not do more to insure it can be dived safely? Why not install, for example, (1) a minimal system of underwater lights and/or (2) emergency air (breathing gas) stations at key jumps and/or (3) some emergency signaling device and/or (4) highly reliable (not breakable) lines, in a highly public cave.

In other words, since some caves are well known, very public and without any workable means to insure that unqualified divers do not dive there; instead of simply blaming death on the divers, why not make some caves more safer by investing money in one or more of the "off the top of my head" bullet items above or suggest other things/mechanisms/safety devices/controls to make cave diving safer? Not all caves, of course; but there must be some public, well known, caves, perhaps like Vortex, where the owners (or a diving club or association) could invest in making the cave safer for all (trained, qualified, certified, and/or foolish), versus the current "it is an accident waiting to happen" and "dive at your own risk" and "it is always the divers fault because they are not well trained" themes (and "lessons learned") we read about repeatedly.

There are lights in the first part of the Vortex cave. Most of the time over the last couple years these have been off. During my last dive at Vortex, on August 9th there were lights on in the Piano room, that is the room where the gate is located. Frankly it is my opinion that lights in the cave make it more dangerous, not less so. It is more likely that a diver, untrained or otherwise, would rely on those lights and not the lights under their personal control and maintenance. The electricty goes out and suddenly it is dark. Very dark.

Even if cost weren't an issue, and again as with the lights, an added attractive nuisance for uncertified or otherwise illequiped divers, a series of breathing gas stations would be logistically prohibitive. You would need to have a diver place stage bottles every few feet to ensure that gas was available/accessable anytime someone failed to heed the gas rules. Or you run a whip down the cave and have locations to tap into the supply. Who is going to maintain that line. What happens to the diver who was relying on that gas supply when the surface supplied air supply is lost? And how does he use that air supply to exit the cave from a third of a mile back?

The lines used in caves are reliable, but they cannot be unbreakable. If a diver becomes hopelessly entangled, he needs to be able to cut himself free. Part of the training for cave diving is learning how to and practicing coping with a cut, broken or lost line.

The bottom line is that we can come up with all sorts of elaborate designs to make a system fool proof. But when it comes right down to it, all that will happen is the world will create a better fool in order to bypass the system.

For example, how many are killed every year by drunk driving? Would it be possible to prevent this by installing a breath test on the ignition system of every vehicle on the road? Possible yes. A viable solution, no. Some fool will come along and figure a way around the lock.

If a death is as a direct result of the breaking of one or more of the five basic rules that each and every cave and cavern diver has been taught, it hardly seems appropriate to create new rules or engineered solutions to defeat the improved fool. If the earlier posts turn out to be accurate, and I have no doubt they will, this was a methodical and calculated attempt to defeat the safety system. This was not a fool who accidentally got in over his head. It was a fool who knew he was breaking the rules and just didn't care.

I am shocked that this diver was apparently willing to spend the many hundreds or more likely thousands of dollars on SM or Tec gear, stage bottles, deco bottles and regulators, yet balked at the cost of a cave class that would have cost about the same as just one of those eight regulators he would have used on his dive last Monday.

 

[denisegg]

My story can be found among the threads here under Accidents and Incidents. I am full cave certified. On July 4th of this year, one hour east of Vortex at JB, I was diving using all the rules. I was diving well within the limits of my training, gas management, depth and I had 4 lights not three as well as a continuous line out. We were around 500 ft linear at about 95ft deep when I noticed a pressure on my chest. I turned the dive and my buddy and I began the exit but something was terribly wrong. I began coughing and my ability to breathe began to diminish.
I do not say this lightly at all when I say that the training that I received from Aletheia(Diverdeva) along with the mentoring I received from John(Cave Diver) and others who were the toughest on me began to start clicking in my mind. Stop, think, make a plan and then execute it, never panic, never give up. This was automatic. Even now it is hard for me to believe myself how this training clicked in and my actions were dictated by it. My mind continued to assess the situation the whole way out of the cave. When the breathing got so bad It occurred to me to begin to purge the regulator in my mouth because the exertion to breathe was so great. Even after crawling out of the cavern zone because I had become so weak I could no longer swim I did not pop to the surface but made a controlled enough ascent to keep from embolization. I have no doubt in my mind that this training and mentoring is why I am still here.
For those who are not familiar with what happened to me, I was having an Immersion Pulmonary Edema, a rapid onset that is a rare phenomenon that is poorly understood and can happen to a swimmer or diver with no health issues. The cardiologists and pulmonary doctors all confirmed I had no medical issues during and after my 3 day stay at 2 hospitals.
I have so many dive buddies and friends who have mentored me, helped me, worked on gear and drills with me and spent many wonderful hours of diving with and encouraging me. They were all sweet, concerned, helpful and always there for me. What got me out of that cave that day though was the tough love like you are hearing today. The rules and knowing them saved my life that day. I had only moments to spare. The cardiologist told me I was within minutes of being put on a respirator when I arrived at the hospital.
The people here care. They really do. I know them. I dive with them. What they are saying right now may seem very harsh and uncaring but it is just the opposite. They really do care.

 

[regena]

They will search the park today using horses and cadaver dogs. It has now been declared a crime scene. The FBI has been called in. This is from Ben's father. Thanks to all the divers who searched for him. May the Lord watch over you.

 

[SuPrBuGmAn]

At this point... and official report would include recovery team dive profiles, pressures and contents of the three tanks recovered from the scene along with discriptions of there conditions, and thats about it... Thats all the FACT that we know. No body, no other gear, we just know where he's not in that cave...

In THIS instance, there wouldn't be much of a report.

My question is about his dive log and how it was available to be viewed. I ask this out of ignorance because I am not familiar with the dive log. Obviously this is something that every diver has and it must be very personal information for Ben to write about his trick with the lock/gate. Surely something with such incriminating info would not be left for anyone to view.

Not for anyone, but don't you think it'd help the recovery teams get a better idea of what this guy had been doing? It was an eyeopener in someways, but honestly kinda expected in many others.

First of all, since a cave like Vortex is well known and open to the public, why not do more to insure it can be dived safely? Why not install, for example, (1) a minimal system of underwater lights and/or (2) emergency air (breathing gas) stations at key jumps and/or (3) some emergency signaling device and/or (4) highly reliable (not breakable) lines, in a highly public cave.

There's nothing like lights and tons of air to entice the non-trained divers into going further than they should...

Its actually one of the problems they have AT vortex. There is rope lights and an airbell to 300' into the cave. You regularly see OW divers going down there, with absolutely no business of being there.



Aside from the fact that it would totally be detrimental to the natural beauty of the caves, throwing christmas lights everywhere, the darkness and lack of breathing gasses probably keeps more people out than any gate.

 

[Rick Murchison]

... It strikes me that the pioneers of cave diving don't hold a cave cert?! There was no cave cert at the time for them to get and they, like Ben explored caves for fun, making up strategies as they went.

And as they learned things not to do, either from their own experience or from the mishaps of others, they passed the information along and came up with a set of "rules" to follow. They formalized these lessons learned in improved equipment, procedures and courses of instruction, and wrote them down in books. They developed a philosophy of mature planning and conduct to enhance the cave diving experience, to allow others to safely enjoy the adventure without having to re-prove the efficacy of the rules writ on the headstones of those who proved them first.

...I suspect the reason for developing certs in the first place, was that there were so many accidents that the practice would end up being banned if the accidents kept happening.

Perhaps to some extent, but mostly they got tired of burying their friends.

I notice that a fair number of experienced tech divers around the world seam to have accidents (usually on rebreathers) and get a much more symapthetic hearing from the "Court of Scubaboard", than any other diver who is not a high profile tech trailblazer.

Those who intentionally violate the known rules (hard lessons learned from previous mishaps) do indeed get harsher treatment.

... It seems to me that no matter how experienced, how much training, how closely a person follow the rules, how big a legend a person is, "**** happens". Perhaps we can treat each accident as an exercise in causality, and not a search for someone to blame.

Mishap analysis doesn't lay blame, it identifies hazards.

...It's comforting to believe that Ben was a careless, reckless, lock picking, daredevil, because it makes you believe this could never happen to you.

There's nothing "comforting" about it. Only sadness that so many well known lessons were ignored.

... just like the pioneers of cave diving, Ben was out exploring, having fun and felt comfortable with the risk he was taking.

There is no comparison between the "pioneers" and what Ben did. Pioneers venture into the unknown because the unknown isn't known yet. What Ben did was to create his own unknown by consciously choosing to not know what is known.

Who can be sure that things would have been different if he had a few more certs stuck on his wall?

I obviously can't speak for Ben, but I can speak for myself. I can assure you that looking back on some of the dives I made before I went through formal cave training, it scares the stew out of me now, realizing how blind lucky I was and how deep my ignorance was... and how I was "comfortable with the risk" I thought I understood but really didn't have a clue about.
As far as being superior... to coin a phrase from aviation, "The superior diver is one who uses his superior judgment to avoid situations requiring the use of his superior skill."
Rick

 

[Tom Smedley]

The release form is on the Vortex web page under training.

Does anyone have a copy of the release form we sign when diving at Vortex?

 

[Hetland]

But you don't KNOW that he was narced.

At 150' 100% of divers are narced. I don't care what you read, or who you have talked to. Everyone will be narced.

It's not like being drunk, it's much more subtle. It's like taking a ram chip out of a computer. You have less reasoning. Memory is impaired. Your inhibitions are reduced. An activity that you would shun on the surface seems perfectly okay at depth. A task that is simple at the surface becomes more difficult, and takes longer to complete.

Most people don't recognize their impairment, but they are impaired.

 

[MXGratefulDiver]

It's comforting to believe that Ben was a careless, reckless, lock picking, daredevil, because it makes you believe this could never happen to you. Just like you, just like the pioneers of cave diving, Ben was out exploring, having fun and felt comfortable with the risk he was taking. Who can be sure that things would have been different if he had a few more certs stuck on his wall? Who's sure that, had he had a buddy, the outcome would have been different? (Recall and incident with a diver stuck in a cave a no amount of buddies could change the outcome). But it is comforting to believe this could never happen to me because, I leave my cert card at the shop, I dive with buddies, I have every cert card in the book, I am just ,.. oh so superior!

It wasn't the lack of certs that got him in trouble ... it was his casual attitude toward a dive that was anything but casual. It IS easy to believe that Ben was a careless, reckless, lock picking daredevil ... because that's just about what it would take to put yourself into a situation like that in the first place. The only other possibility is that he was suicidal.

We have a somewhat experienced diver without the formal or extensive training needed making a dive that from what I hear is way above his skill and knowledge. That I can understand - sadly, it happens.

I can't understand it at all. The fact that he made it as far as he did in planning and setting up this dive tells me he was a very intelligent young man. But I will never understand what drives someone like that to take the risks he did without proper training and preparation. Sadly, it does happen ... and the people it happens to usually become casualties of their own poor judgment.

What I don't understand is how he can get himself so far back into a VERY restricted area that is SO bad, the people with the skill, knowledge, and planning can't get to. I understand the whole drysuit/wetsuit issue - but it still confuses me how he can get in such a tight spot, that deep and that far back.

Because people with the skill, knowledge and planning understand the risks that going there involve ... and because they have the skill, knowledge and planning, they are able to make a rational decision that the risk isn't worth the potential reward of going there.

That's really rather the point.

"Mondays 8 tank deep penetration solo dive. I will post something on it later. To sum it up... 4 stage, 2 bottom, and 2 deco bottles for a 232 minute 148 ft deep cave dive with a total penetration to the end of system at aprox. 810 ft!!!!"

Hopefully this will help provide some info. Though I have neve been into the cave, I'm told his numbers were not correct.

With no cave training, no extended range training, no deco training, and a completely inappropriate choice of breathing gas for that depth and environment, that dive plan is a classic recipe for disaster.

First of all, since a cave like Vortex is well known and open to the public, why not do more to insure it can be dived safely? Why not install, for example, (1) a minimal system of underwater lights and/or (2) emergency air (breathing gas) stations at key jumps and/or (3) some emergency signaling device and/or (4) highly reliable (not breakable) lines, in a highly public cave.

Sure ... why not penalize everybody else over one man's irrational choices. Sounds perfectly reasonable.

Except for the fact that it would just encourage others to attempt the same thing that got this fellow in trouble.

But you don't KNOW that he was narced. Could he have been? Yes. Was he? We don't and will never know. You could make multiple, seemingly idential dives to say 120ft, and only get narced on one dive, or not get narced on one dive, and no one really knows why this is. A friend of mine has been (briefly) to 157' on air (I saw he log from his dive computer and yes, it was deeper than he should have gone ) and did not get narced, but has at shallower depths. You can't simply say someone was narced because they where on air and deep because it doesn't affect every one every time.

Nonsense ... anyone who goes to those depths on air is narced. They might be able to function within reason at that depth ... as long as nothing goes wrong. But they're no different than the drunk who drives home every night with an elevated blood alcohol level. Some folks can handle it better than others ... and as long as nothing goes wrong they can function reasonably well. But their ability to recognize and respond to something out of the ordinary is impaired ... and if they have a problem they will most definitely have a harder time dealing with it because of their impairment.

It troubles me that some in this conversation appear to want to hold the site employees somehow responsible for this death ... or have the expectation that modifying the site or the policies of the site would somehow mitigate the potentialf for it to happen again. It won't ... because no matter what you do, someone sufficiently determined to take risks will get themselves in a bad way ... and their surviving family and friends will seek someone else to blame for it. This was a very preventable accident ... all it would've taken is some reasonably responsible decisions on the part of the deceased. I have to believe this young man knew he was doing something he shouldn't be doing, and he chose to do it anyway. He chose the risks, he paid the price ... nobody else should have to pay it for him.

I'm sorry for the loss he's caused his family and friends ... but it's all squarely on his shoulders. Humans are generally pretty good at overestimating their abilities ... and I don't doubt that had something to do with what occurred. But to make SO MANY bad choices on a single dive displays such a complete lack of regard for his own safety that I have to believe that the outcome was inevitable ... if not on this dive, then on a subsequent one.

The sad reality is that there is nothing to be learned from this young man's death ... because anybody who would be willing to take heed and learn from this incident would never consider doing what he did in the first place ... and anybody who would consider it won't listen, no matter what anybody says.

And therein lies the real tragedy ...

... Bob (Grateful Diver)

 

[ucfdiver]

If a diver became disoriented, why would he continue against the flow? Why not turn and go with the flow toward the exit?

Here's a video of a lost line drill I did during class just over 2 years ago in JB (more flow than most any tourist cave).-
http://static.ak.fbcdn.net/rsrc.php/z4OG5/hash/7qkbs3nb.swf?v=528073356615&ev=0

When push comes to shove, that flow isn't nearly as easy of an indicator as it's made out to be in textbooks. That being said, as I've gained more experience (which Ben didn't have) it's rather obvious.

 

[god1head]

You don't even know that the dive took place or that he has died.

Whether or not Ben made this dive, he has a demonstrated history of making bad deecisions with respect to diving in overhead environments. If by some chance he did not make the dive on Wednesday, or if he survived that dive, and some other event intervened to create his absence, the fact of the matter is that the cavalier attitude that he demonstrated has caused a tremendous amount of time, effort, expertise, worry and anger to be spent. If he did not die on this dive, and if he were to continue diving by the same internally generated rules, it would only be a matter of time before this episode replayed. If he survived, that fact would in no way mitigate the foolishness he had previously demonstrated.

It was for people like him that the reaper signs were installed. It was for people like him that the gate was installed at Vortex. It is for people like him that many caves located on private property are not accessible even to certified, experienced cave divers. Is he the only one who as ever broken the rules? Certainly not. Is he the only one who has caused recovery teams to search for a body. Not even close. But being like others does not make one less responsible for their own actions.