Diving Accident in Florida Keys

[mermaid]

From what I understand from the article, IMHO, there are a few things that happened...and for the sake of conversation, nevermind that what is reported may not be completely accurate. 

1.  Matthew and his brother were too busy watching the fish swimming around the USS Spiegel Grove for Matt to be paying attention to his SPG.  "Matthew came to the grim realization he was short (on air)."

2.  Doug and Austin are correct, the kid panicked, when he realized that he was "short on air", which means he was not paying attention to the fact that the expanding air in his BC was speeding his ascent to the surface.  "I was thinking I needed to get to get to the surface; that I didn't want to run out of air," he said..."I just needed to get out."

3.  Mattd is also correct.  From what I've learned in dive training, ideally, your dive buddy should always be close by in case one of you runs into an emergency.  But, as Adam6521 says, "things happen".  Matthew could have drifted away from his brother without realizing it, and found himself further away than he should have been.   

4.  Expanding on what Doug said, IMO, checking the SPG MUST be done if you don't want to find yourself in this situation. 

This is just my opinion...a guppy's opinion...where there is always room for improvement.  ;D