Posted by Wayne on January 06, 2002 at 21:44:00:
In Reply to: Re: A true tragedy. So preventable posted by seahunt on January 06, 2002 at 20:48:22:
I think it is obvious that the more experienced buddy should have never let the newbie out of his sight, but the point I was trying to make is that the newbie shares some of the responsibility for predive planning.
I have been thinking more and more about the number of problems that would have been averted through simple planning and communication. The death last year where the woman went OOA and "attacked" her assigned buddy -- who escaped her clutches and surfaced without her was another of these amazing but true adventures in lack of predive discussion followed by underwater abandonment. My memory of that one was the woman did not get her tank refilled after dive #1 and was assigned a buddy for dive #2. Neither of them noticed her predive pressure. It is obvious that they did not go over their gear configurations, signals, plans for what if, etc.
I see this death in the same light, I guess. They should have come up with a plan including at what pressure the dive turned, at what pressure the dive ended, what signs they would use, how they would descend and ascend, etc. The newbie probably would have known better than to leave his buddy for the ascent, but the lack of predive discussions or fear of embarrassment by asking that they stay together somehow must have prevented this.
While it is easy to jump the "experienced" diver, I think the newbie also is responsible for buddy planning. And he has had his classes more recently than the other diver, to boot.
We discussed this at length at breakfast this morning, and all six of us are baffled. The 13 year old could not understand the lack of staying together. The 10 year old could not understand why the BC was empty or why the belt was still on once he went OOA. The wife is convinced it was a non-diving health problem (like a heart attack) and the guage was mis read or the diver breathed it down at the surface prior to the M.I. The 18 year old said that darwin was right. And the 21 year old and I are just baffled and would love to interview the survivor in the off chance of learning lessons to pass on to others.
Wayne