Among the American diving
fatalities reported by DAN for the
year 2001, several incidents
involved divers who were diving
way beyond their levels of expertise.
Some were uncertified and shouldn't
have been diving in the first
place, as with a 17-year-old with no
training who was collecting sand
dollars in 10 feet of water off a private
boat with another inexperienced diver. She did not wear fins
and began the dive with only a partially
full tank. The two divers held
hands during the dive, but she let
go at the surface and was not seen
again until they recovered her body
eight hours later.She drowned.
Some trained divers decide to
go far beyond their capabilities, as
did two who died in their first cave diving experience in Royal Spring,
FL, after getting their open water
certifications the previous day.
Mark Anthony Granger, 19, and
William Anthony Ridenour, 34, of
Kingsland, GA, entered a freshwater
spring along with their instructor
and the instructor's 12-year-old
son. This was not a planned cave
dive, but the two newly certified
divers separated from the instructor and his son and on their own
entered the cave system. They
apparently got lost and ran out of
air. Their bodies were recovered
the next day, approximately 500
feet from the cave entrance.
(This death lead to a lawsuit by
the parents of the deceased,
Donnie and Gwen Granger, against
The Divers Den in Kingsland, GA,
instructor Christopher Whitlock, and PADI, claiming negligent
supervision led to their son's death.
The parties settled last October,
and though the details were not
revealed Woody Wilner, attorney
for the Grangers, said the settlement
was six figures. The men
were missing more than 16 hours
when their bodies were found.
Wilner said, "These were brandnew
divers. They needed to be
watched." Florida Times-Union)
With no formal training in
cave diving, a 23-year-old divemaster
made a deep Nitrox cave dive
with six others, none of whom had
cave diving training. They went to
150 feet and, while six divers made
it out, the divemaster didn't. His
body was recovered 1,000 feet into
the cave, his tank empty. Nitrox at
that depth can lead to oxygen toxicity,
which may have contributed
to his death.
An experienced 31-year-old
certified cave diver made a cave
dive with five other divers. The
dive was beyond his cave experience
and visibility was poor. He
swam ahead of the others and
took a side route into a restricted
passage at 270 feet. Separated
from the group, he disappeared
and his body was never recovered.
This 46-year-old certified cave
diver with extensive diving experience
made an initial dive into a
cave system with a buddy but chose
to do a second dive without a
buddy. After two hours of bottom
time, his buddy called for assistance.
Recovery divers found the
decedent approximately 1,100 feet
into the cave with entanglement
between his safety reel and the
guideline. An investigation
revealed that the decedent did not
use a continuous guideline for the
dive. His tanks were empty.
Egregious Entanglements
Kelp can be beautiful, but it
also can kill. A 57-year-old certified
diver with three years of experience
made a dive to 40 feet to collect
sea urchins without a dive
buddy. He did not return from the
dive, and the body was recovered
from the kelp bed the next day.
The diver's tank was empty.
Another 33-year-old male with no
documented dive certification
made a night dive from a boat but
became separated from his buddy.
The dive buddy returned to the
boat and waited a short time before taking the boat back to shore.
He did not notify the local police until
after he had already returned home,
several hours later. The body was
recovered four days later. The autopsy
findings were consistent with drowning
due to entanglement in kelp, and
the decedent's blood alcohol level was
three times the legal limit for driving.
Wreck penetrations are always
dangerous, especially for those who
don't learn by their mistakes. A 26-
year-old with open-water and Nitrox
certification, and approximately 70
lifetime dives, made a deep air dive to
231 feet in fresh water to take pictures
of a shipwreck. His equipment
became entangled on the wreck early
in the dive, but his buddy helped him
to get loose. When the dive buddy
ascended, the decedent did not follow
him. After a decompression stop,
the buddy surfaced and asked for
assistance. Divers found the body
entangled on the outer structure of
the wreck several hours later. Clearly,
the victim failed to learn from his previous
entanglement.
Let Instructors Instruct
When divers with little or no qualifications
take on the role of instructor,
the results can sometimes be disastrous. That's what happened when an
experienced, certified, 48-year-old
diver took a 40-year-old woman with
no formal dive training underwater
using surface-supplied air. The air
source was one long hose attached to
a tank that split into two separate regulator
lines. A passerby notified authorities
that there had been no activity on
the anchored boat for more than a
day. Police divers found the bodies of
the drowned divers under the boat.
One 23-year-old male did not have
documented open-water certification
or cave diving training. Yet his dive
buddies claimed he was the most
experienced cave diver of the group,
and they were learning from him.
After more than an hour at a depth of
14 feet, the divers tried to enter a very
narrow tunnel while exploring a narrow
freshwater cave system. They were
unsuccessful, and the other divers
decided to head back, but the decedent
made one final attempt. He
became wedged in the tunnel, and
the other divers could not physically
get him out. It took recovery divers
two days and the assistance of heavy
equipment to extricate his body.
Next Issue: Dropping Weights
-- Ben Davison