PADI Pays Up After a Training Death

PADI has settled a $12 million lawsuit brought by the family of Linnea Mills, who drowned during an Advanced Open Water Certification class in Lake MacDonald, 3150 feet high in Glacier National Park.

PADI, which has been very successful in keeping itself out of the public limelight in trials, argued that it should not be included in this lawsuit, preferring to let the other defendants, the Gull Dive Center of Missoula (Montana), and the two instructors, take the rap.

But the Mills family fought that, and Linnea's mother posted this on Facebook. "For the past 10 months, PADI has been withholding evidence of accidents similar to Linnea's, evidence of its business and sales practices, and evidence of its financial information. This evidence is relevant to show that PADI was aware of accidents caused by the same factors as our daughter's (there was one death strikingly similar to Linnea's death, with the diver's drysuit hose disconnected, just seven months before Linnea died). PADI does not enforce its own standards and membership agreements . . . . Our lawyers went to court to compel PADI to turn over this evidence, and [in November] the court granted our motion."

The lawsuit charged PADI with vicarious liability, asserting that PADI didn't monitor Gull Dive even after a lawsuit was filed against Gull for a 2019 diving death.

In December 2022, Missoula County District Judge Leslie Halligan said that PADI had some control over how Gull Dive and the instructors were to operate and ruled that PADI would have to defend itself in the jury case, where it could be found liable for Mills' drowning.

But none of PADI's information will ever become public. By settling the case for an undisclosed sum, PADI avoided an open trial and kept its policies and procedures from being subjected to public scrutiny.

The Drowning

While teaching an Advanced Open Water course to a student making her first drysuit dive, instructor Debbie Snow loaded Mills, a slightly built teenager, with 44 pounds of lead in such a way that it was impossible to ditch. Mills was wearing a secondhand drysuit with no direct feed hose from the tank. On November 1, 2020, Snow sent her into the cold alpine lake without a dive light just as it was getting dark. Distracted by other students in the water, Snow failed to notice Linnea struggling after her drysuit compressed at depth. Snow was on the surface when Linnea died in a constricting suit, overweighted, and unable to ascend. Another student tried to help as they both sank to 85 feet, but he couldn't lift Linnea.

Snow was assisted by Seth Liston, a Junior Open Water Diver taking the role of divemaster on his first dive wearing a drysuit. He made several uncontrolled ascents during his time in the water and suffered an embolism as a result.

Snow had failed her initial PADI Instructor Exam in Florida and returned to Florida two months later to retake the Instructor Exam and passed. It was four months before Mills' death. Snow was not certified as a high altitude instructor or drysuit instructor. (Mills' death resulted from a "drysuit squeeze," which can prevent a person from breathing or ascending to the surface.)

Is Snow Criminally Culpable?

The government investigated whether Snow had any criminal culpability, but after reviewing the case, the government decided not to prosecute. Karla Painter, an assistant to the U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana, wrote, "While Snow was likely at fault to some extent for the death of Mills, we cannot prove beyond reasonable doubt that she was criminally culpable."

However, the Mills family and their attorney, David Concannon, were not satisfied and are urging further investigation.

Lisa Mills posted on Facebook, "We were rocked in July by the revelation that Debbie Snow was on the surface when our daughter was drowning. [PADI requires only indirect supervision on a Drysuit Adventure Dive in the Advanced Open Water course], and the lawyers for Gull Dive and Snow made sure the dive computer stolen off Linnea's dead body as she lay on the shore of Lake McDonald was secreted out of state instead of being secured by the National Park Service investigators. We have addressed this with both the Montana State Bar and the U.S. Department of the Interior."

But it's not the end of the story. Federal investigators looked into the diving accident because it had occurred on National Park Service property without a permit after the park had closed. But eventually, the investigators declined to take any action.

Attorney David Concannon, a veteran plaintiff lawyer for scuba accidents, told Undercurrent, "A GNP ranger handled the first part of the investigation but was replaced after about eight days by the National Park Service Investigative Services Bureau. That's when things started to go wrong."

Concannon told the Missoula Current, "The investigators didn't follow up on what the GNP ranger had found out and didn't consult with NPS dive safety experts to find out what they needed to know. They didn't gather information from the students' and instructors' dive computers, which would have shown what each was doing at the time of the accident. And finally, they didn't look for evidence as to whether Snow was mentally impaired at the time." He compared it to a traffic fatality where investigators always test drivers for impairment.

Concannon hopes the U.S. Attorney for the State of Montana "will take another look."

The Results of the Lawsuit

Concannon told us that PADI has canceled all the certifications issued by Debbi Snow. While they gave them free eLearning credits, they must pay for the in-water training themselves.

Scuba Diving International (SDI), realizing that PADI's offer requires Snow's students to pay a second time for their certification, has offered to cover their costs, and has extended an offer "to retrain, recertify, or just dive with any divers trained by Ms. Snow. This offer is supported and funded by an anonymous donor."

Lisa Mills has started a foundation and is alerting the industry to its failures. She wrote, "Linnea's life may have been cut short at age 18, but what happened to her during a PADI scuba training session in Glacier National Park is an important reminder to folks in the scuba diving industry that young people in your care look to you as experts (in a self-regulated industry in the USA) and that safety should always be placed above profits." You can donate to the Linnea Foundation at https://givebutter.com/linnea

Shortly after the settlement, PADI announced it will require, as of June 1, an instructor to be a Dry Suit Specialty Instructor if their student divers have never used drysuits and will use drysuits during open water dives. They have also added requirements for certified assistants for students using drysuits and modified their drysuit training instructions. It didn't indicate their reason for the changes.

And David Concannon issued this statement, washing his hands of PADI.

"My law firm has clients, not cases. Roughly two years ago, we stopped accepting new clients unless the prospective new client was a referral by an existing client or person that we like. Meanwhile, I was helping the family of Linnea Mills understand why their daughter had died. My business partner at Concannon & Charles, Max Charles, and I have talked about this at length, and what we want the firm's practice to look like, especially in light of the things we have learned. Consequently, we have decided that we are no longer going to do any legal work of any kind for members of the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI). We no longer want to be part of this underwater Jenga game."

John Bantin

For our previous story, with greater details, go to https://tinyurl.com/2p9d4nax