What can we learn from this ?

[Beau640]

ah the nipple broke off. That makes more sense. In that case, it should be dealt with like a frozen LP inflator where it's frozen to the nipple anyways. Turn off the valve. Should take seconds.

 

[tbone1004]

Not to go too off topic, but why do you say it is almost impossible to kick up to the surface with steel doubles?

depends on the diver, but I can kick up about 20lbs of lead with fins. That's just the amount of gas in my HP120's. I can kick it up, but I have XXL big ass jet fins, and strong legs. Most people struggle with it. Add to that any ballast requirements for the drysuit if they're diving thick undergarments, and it's very difficult to kick up off the bottom. Getting off the bottom is not normally an issue, it's staying off the bottom that's the problem.

in either instance, if you're diving single inflator hose in a drysuit, the hose stays on the drysuit and you orally inflate the wing if you need it

 

[MaxBottomtime]

ah the nipple broke off. That makes more sense. In that case, it should be dealt with like a frozen LP inflator where it's frozen to the nipple anyways. Turn off the valve. Should take seconds.

Or pull back on the quick release and ditch the nipple. Takes one second. I wonder how the nipple came off. The hose shouldn't be pulling on it. If it was loose before the dive you would notice that when you connect the hose.

 

[stuartv]

Given the deluge of bubbles that would be happening, and probably from a hose that's flapping around loose, I can see not immediately realizing what was wrong and how to fix it.

Not being able to reach and do a valve shutdown in a timely fashion is a bit harder to accept.

 

[Bert van den Berg]

The original question was "what can we learn from this ?"

1) Don't dive a drysuit with a single inflator hose.
2) If you do for some reason, connect it to your drysuit, not your BCD
3) You're never "too experienced" to be able to learn something new.
4) Learn from other people's mistakes in addition to your own.

 

[Edward3c]

i was not sure where to post this. if there is a more appropriate forum for this pls move as you see fit. if this is a repeat posting of a known incident, i apologize. i only heard details on this recently.

i have no inside knowledge this event. i do not know anyone that was involved personally. i do not dive back mounted doubles. the information that was passed on to me sounded like the type that should to be shared and discussed. i will try to be brief.

diver enters the water wearing back mounted doubles. this diver is joining two other divers during their class. the two other divers are a student and instructor performing shallow water skills for some type of advanced training.
diver was wearing a dry suit but only had one lp hose on their rig.
at some point near the end of the training the student and instr headed for the surface while the other was to follow. unfortunately the inlet fitting on the bcd power inflator came dislodged somehow. seeing as the lp hose was attached at the time, the inlet fitting was still attached to the lp hose. this would obviously lead to a rapid loss of gas.
the belief is that due to excessive suit squeeze, (from not inflating the dry suit) the diver was not able to reach back and close the isolator valve on the manifold to stop the loss of gas.
the divers computer showed they made it briefly to the surface. it seems the diver could not establish positive buoyancy and ended up on the bottom again and eventually ran out of gas.
the result was loss of life.

so what should we learn from this?

some questions come to my mind and i would appreciate any further input.
1 - how do people feel about entering the water with only the one lp hose while in a dry suit ? i certainly do not think it is appropriate. but i can see why a diver might think that because this was an "easy shallow dive" that maybe this one time they might not really need it. if this was the case (not that i am in favor of diving with one lp hose) would the better option have been to leave the lp hose attached to the dry suit and manually inflate the bcd as needed ?
2 - does the instructor and / or other student have any role in this ? (i am not saying they necessarily do) but should we ask, was it ok to allow the diver to join them using only one lp hose ? that being said, perhaps they did not even realize this was the case at the time. but if they did know, would either of them have any responsibility to that diver ? particularly the instructor ? even if the diver was not their student ?
3 - i don't want to ignite a debate on whether or not to carry drop able weight but.....seeing as the computer showed the diver did mange to make it to the surface at one point, would having the ability to drop lead have prevented this loss ? (it is my assumption the diver had no drop able lead)

as would be expected, this tragedy was not the result of one simple problem but a series of choices and failures that added up to a sad ending. what are your thoughts ?

Applying all the training I received as an instructor. I would have undertaken a risk assessment, which the configuration described would fail. No dive. The RA would be written down, as they all are when I’m teaching.

 

[sigxbill]

This is an example of what I call solo diving! I also agree with @tbone1004 - panic is what killed him. Many things would have likely gone differently had he been a buddy in a team. This for me is the main issue.

1. One LP hose wouldn't necessarily cause me to say, "don't dive" (provided it's attached to the drysuit). But having experienced minor problems that cascaded into a major problem more than once, I would have advised against it.

2. I (as well as UTD) am opposed to 'tag alongs'.

3. Although having droppable weights may have saved him, in his panic - he may not have dropped them anyway.

This solo diver was not able to function effectively when he experienced a failure - which rendered his redundant gas supply useless. Had he been part of a team, his team member could have provided the backup brain he needed, and this catastrophic event would have been reduced to a minor inconvenience to talk about later ...

 

[rick00001967]

The nipple that is supposed to be part of the power inflator - the part that the LPI hose snaps onto - broke off and was stuck in the end of the LPI hose.

correct. sorry that my description was not more clear

 

[boulderjohn]

I don't understand why the diver was not able to inflate the wing orally in order to gain buoyancy, especially since he had supposedly reached the surface at some point.

 

[rick00001967]

that is a good point. as long as the power inflate valve was operating properly it should be closed and oral inflation would still be possible.
i have seen ow divers that were never trained how to orally inflate. but i cant imagine this diver not knowing how. who knows. maybe the combination of panic, confusion, struggling to surface.....the diver simply did not realize it was an option.