Diver Left Stranded

[Chris]

[LKunze]

There's a dive boat operation to avoid. >

[Groovekitty]

Not to mention dive buddies to avoid! Total rule #1 violation!

Where were his buddies? Why did they assend without him???? And how the heck did they get on the boat and not even notice he was missing until they were at the next dive site????

I'm glad it turned out ok, but I think this is a perfect example of why good buddy skills, and a team approach to diving is the safest way to go. Do I even have to mention DIR here? I think not!

Unfotunately this kind of ill preparedness and lack of situational awarness smacks of many of the dive "accidents" that have been in the news lately - to think, good buddy skills could have saved so many lives and in this case at least saved the diver a five hours of terror!

These type of situations are totally avoidable with proper training and techniques.

[igotoofar]

This has nothing to do with Dive buddies, This is all about the boat operation.

It sounds like the Boat Capt. was looking for the divers to tell him that all divers were up. If the 4 divers were together and surfaced away from the boat. It would have been more likely to notce them, but if nobody knew them and noticed them missing. The boat could have just as easily left all 4 divers.

[DRE]

I read somewhere else that the boat did do roll call and when the missing diver's name was called, someone else answered for him. Is the captain partially responsible: absolutely. But if you start the dive with three people, you also end the dive with three people. Period. This is page 1 of the PADI OW manual.

[ccuda]

Why would someone answer for him? That person should be held responsible also!

[Groovekitty]

"This has nothing to do with Dive buddies, This is all about the boat operation".

I definitely think that the boat captain is also somewhat responsible, but the initial breakdown of communication started before they ever jumped off the boat. Obviously these divers were unconcerned with diving safely, or with a safe boat operation.

The divers lack of judgement and poor decision making (both in choosing a boat and diving procedure) led to loosing a member of the dive team, which to me is completely unacceptable. Ask yourself - would you just swim away and "assume" your buddy is right behind you, or would you rather dive in a well thought out team who all adhere to the same practices and procedures and conduct the dive safely and with the utmost situational awareness?

This type of incident exemplifies the need for proper training and the use and adhearence to the skills and procedures learned in that training.

This incident and others like it are COMPLETELY AVOIDABLE and with the kind of DIR training available to all divers should not happen.

[igotoofar]

The real problem is what we don't have. The facts!

We don't know if the Boat Capt. did a role call. We don't know if the diver was by himself and was "joined" with another group of 3 divers but planned to go-it-alone from the start.

We can't assume that the buddies abandoned him. This may have been their plan.

We are constantly measuring our risks. Occasionally I ride my motorcycle without my helmet. I am assuming more risk, but I am by no means unsafe.

You even state that accidents like this are COMPLETLY AVOIDABLE but then go on to say with DIR training it shouldn't happen. Rather than saying it won't or can’t happen.

Without the facts, it is impossible to draw conclusions with regard to fault.
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[Freedive WI]

Although I am all for DIR, I think that this situation goes beyond that, and any group of divers who can count to "4" should be able to avoid such situations.

As I read through the ariticle I think back to when we have groups of 20 out on Lake Michigan. We always have a crew member do a headcount before leaving the wreck site- not the diver's themsleves. Everyone always Jokes about the "Australian dive safety system", in reference of how one of the boats left two people out on the reef to die, but it is a serious matter that only takes a minute to solve.

I assumed that this was another big charter boat that had so many divers on it the crew just miss-counted. However, the article talks about the diver and his 3 friends. How hard is it to look around and count to "4"? Why would they start looking at the second site and not the first, didn't anyone take down names, and times, for those divers entering and exiting the water? This is all basic stuff that we do on every charter! Oh, and not all of our divers are DIR, but the days always go easier when they are- since they are just more orginzed.

I'm thinking that this guy could "own" the boat by time his lawyer is done.

Jon

[JoelW]

Much as I am for DIR, this is not a DIR issue. It just as easily could have been said that if all of the divers had followed the training and techniques of NAUI, or say CMAS, this never would have happened. It sounds like everyone disregarded the training that they received at some point. It also sounds like the boat operator became lax about following their procedures.

JoelW