Young Belgian diver missing in Oosterschelde

[WimW]

Summary of an article I found below. Must be horrible to have to leave a buddy. Still very unclear what happened though. And incomprehensible his buddy could not get him to the surface.

Main 'facts' (although some are contradicting and some are weird):

- He was accompanied by an instructor and taking a course to dive deeper (deep, AOW?)
- They were connected by a buddy line
- He panicked and took the reg out of his mouth
- The instructor tried for ten minutes to get him up, but couldn't

There is speculation that 'his wetsuit flooded'. I assume that was a drysuit since flooding a wetsuit is a bit of a contradiction. Temperatures must have been around 13°C (55°F), I know I would not consider doing that wet (but some would). Could a drysuit failure cause so much trouble? Water is still not heavier then water, is it?

Jonge duiker (16) verdrinkt voor ogen van vriend - Het Nieuwsblad

Diving was his big passion and despite his young age he had already 6 years of experience. Still Gijs Vandenryt (16) drowned on Saturday in the Oosterschelde. His fellow diver tried desperately to get him up, but after almost ten minutes he had to decouple Gijs from the ‘buddy line’ en leave him on the sea bottom. ‘He had no other choice. Otherwise there would have been two deaths’, Gijs’ mom reacted.
In the Oosterschelde close to Burghsluis,in Zeeland, the search for the body of Gijs Vandenryt (16) from Herk-de-Stad in Limburg was yesterday ongoing for the third day in a row. With sonar, marine divers were searching the entire area where the young Fleming got in trouble while diving about 70m from the harbor. [] Despite all their efforts the search was unsuccessful up to yesterday night.
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‘My son had entered the water just before 9 AM with his experienced dive partner to take his dive test’, his mom says. ‘Gijs has been diving for 6 years and he had a license to dive up to 20 meters. If he passed this test, he would be allowed to go deeper.’
In the LDL dive club diving is always done in pairs for safety reasons. Divers are connected with a ‘buddy line’, a thick rope connecting two divers. But after almost ten minutes, at about 30m of depth, it went seriously wrong. Gijs’ buddy saw the young Fleming suddenly get in trouble. ‘He saw Gijs started to panic and took out his mouthpiece. My son’s body went to the bottom’, Josiane says.
‘His buddy immediately dived to him and did everything to save my son. For minutes he ventilated him with his mouthpiece. He also tried to pull Gijs up. But my son was too heavy because his wetsuit had gotten full of water. After ten minutes he had no choice but to come to the surface without Gijs. It must have been a terrible choice, but he uncoupled Gijs from the buddy line’

The question remains what went wrong. It was suggested the boy got ill, but his mother doubts that. ‘Gijs passes a medical exam every year and nothing ever happened. I really don’t understand why he took out his mouthpiece. Maybe something went wrong with his dive suit. This is why it is so important his body is found. An autopsy and an investigation of his gear could clarify things’
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[RayKay]

Yes, I assume they are talking about a drysuit too.

Well, the reg removal was likely a panic response. "Six years of experience" does not say much about how many, or what kind of dives, he had over those years and what skills he developed, and he was quite young. Did he have an OOA situation and panic rather than say he needed to share air? Did his mouthpiece break off, he swallowed a bunch of water instead of breathe in air, and he did not understand what was happening? Lots of things can cause someone to shed their regulator when they aren't getting what they expect from it, especially in new, panicky, or unskilled divers.

There is no mention of whether he was conscious when the instructor was trying to get him up, but I am guessing not? It is unclear to me from the article whether he was "ventilating" him with the kid's own reg, or the instructor was sharing his own air either from his primary or octo. If the instructor was using his own, it might indicate an issue with the kid's own reg or air supply?

I don't want to give too much credence to the theory his drysuit flooding because it appears that is just his mother's guess at this point without any other supporting information, but a sudden flood would be possible if he blew a seal or had a big tear or something. A slow leak would hardly be a panic situation and is rather normal from time to time. How to deal with such issues is taught in a basic drysuit course.

If there was a sudden flood, while it would be very cold and a bit of a temperature shock, a diver with a flooded drysuit can still ascend safely and should, if properly insulated, remain not exactly warm but not hypothermic either as they ascend. They would need to use their BC for buoyancy control. The water would only displace the air in the insulation that was in there as far as I remember and as far as I recall if one's drysuit was flooded and it was just them and the drysuit, they would be neutral as there would be no air in insulating layer etc? Someone else would need to verify that. But you are right, water is not heavier than water.

The problem would arise more at the surface if you did not have a BC on because it would be more difficult to keep your head above water but I am going to assume he did have a BC.

He would have had to have been rather heavily weighted (due to actual weight, not a flooded drysuit), and not dropped weights, to be unable to get up just because his drysuit flooded.

I am guessing that whatever happened, the reason his buddy could not get him up to the surface was because he did not release weights. Even if his drysuit was flooded, he ought to have been able to get him up by releasing whatever ~30lbs of weights was on him.

 

[peterbj7]

Getting out of the water with a flooded drysuit is very difficult, but in water it shouldn't cause any ascent problem. Something sounds very strange about this incident, as after weights are removed it should be easy to lift someone, even if they are negatively buoyant. I await further information and clarification. I have great sympathy for the deceased's family though.