Crew members drinking before deadly dive, report says

Anchorage Daily News ^ | January 12, 2007 | CURT WOODWARD

[skeptoid]

Two Coast Guard divers killed in a botched Arctic training dive were loaded with too much weight and were assisted by untrained crew members who had been drinking beer, an official investigation has found.

The two divers, from the Seattle-based icebreaker Healy, plunged to about 200 feet - about 10 times deeper than intended - shortly after entering the 29-degree water on Aug. 17, 2006.

[skeptoid]

The other shoe drops.

It was a really bad day.

[skeptoid]

A longer piece in the P. I. is here.

[tomcorn]

Whoa....Reading the story this was a VERY slack training operation. When a captain and exec are running a training evolution everyone involved should be scared shitless of not getting it absolutely 4.0 correct. The Disciplinary actions here were correct and given the outcomes even criminal specifications could have been considered.

[pepsionice]

If the beer story hangs true...then it probably contributed to the situation.

But you still have an episode in explaining how they got dragged down 200 feet so quickly. They could not have done that by themselves, and the training "slack" won't work in this case either. There is still more to explain in this whole story.

[Ninian Dryhope]

"But you still have an episode in explaining how they got dragged down 200 feet so quickly."

"Neither Hill nor Duque wore weight belts that could be easily jettisoned. Instead, they jammed weights into whatever pockets and pouches they had. Each carried at least 60 pounds ballast, with their tanks, instead of the 20 to 30 pounds most divers recommend, the report said."

It sounds like the officers thought that Hill was a pro and instead she was a nitwit.

[spinestein]

[There is still more to explain in this whole story.]

There were many contributing factors, but the immediate cause was this:
{[Neither Hill nor Duque wore weight belts that could be easily jettisoned. Instead, they jammed weights into whatever pockets and pouches they had. Each carried at least 60 pounds ballast, with their tanks, instead of the 20 to 30 pounds most divers recommend, the report said.]}

And the fact that there was no oversight or supervision and no competent help available to recognize their distress or to rescue them when it became necessary is what did them in.

[tomcorn]

Makes little sense to me either. The lined handlers should have noticed the descent rate and depth. 120 is narcosis and 200 is 02 toxicity.Somebody wasn't paying attention at all. The line signal system is archaic because a diver impaired from narcosis or O2 Toxicity would be unable to signal.

[thegreatbeast]

I don't buy this explanation. The whole thing about the weights seems specious to me. It is elementary that the weight belt be able to be jettisoned quickly. Something smells here.

[jsh3180]

200 feet=nitrogen narcosis in a bad way if they were not using tri-ox or something. And 29 degrees with nitrogen narcosis =recipe for disaster.

[Prodigal Son]

120 is narcosis and 200 is 02 toxicity.

Exactly. When I saw the 200 feet I was wondering what the hell they were doing at that depth. And why they took so much weight in their belts. Most buoyancy problems sort themselves out once you get deep enough (if you're carrying 3 or 4 pounds too little). But stuffing 30 extra pounds of weight in your pockets? Man, I can't imagine what anybody in this incident was thinking. And on top of it all- an ice dive.

[riverrunner]

60 lbs of weight must of wanted to get to the bottom in a hurry. I just weighed my belt it comes in at 25 lbs. I can't think why a normal dive would require or even need 60lbs.

I would question if even the divers had vaild dive training.

[Prodigal Son]

Aye. To need that much weight one would have to be grossly obese. Obviously this wasn't the case because they were in the military. I usually use 6 kilos with a 5mm wet suit. 4 kilos if I'm wearing a 3mm shorty in warm water. Like you, I can't even imagine why someone would think that putting that much weight on would be a good idea.

I have heard of guys trying to get down to 38- 40 meters as quickly as possible to get 'narced/narcked' (sp) and always thought that was a pretty stupid thing to do. Maybe they were doing something like this? Still, even then... Why all that weight?

[Ramius]

There's a pretty good write-up with some more detail here:

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/local/news-article.aspx?storyid=73249

[SC Swamp Fox]

It sounds like the officers thought that Hill was a pro and instead she was a nitwit.

Reading the report, that was my conclusion as well. She paid for her slackness with her life and took PO Duque with her.

[Ramius]

From the long article I linked in #13 I would point to the incorrect training for the support linehandlers being the most proximate cause, together with the inexplicable amount of weight the divers had added.

The topside linehandlers didn't know what to do because they didn't know what was happening because the tug-signals were not clearly understood.

This business of having had a couple of beers at the ice-liberty makes a sensational headline, but I doubt it really contributed to the actual problem. More of a problem was that the topside linehandlers were not trained for that role and all but one of them hadn't done it before.

[Cvengr]

Dry suit/ Deep diving suit?

[SC Swamp Fox]

From the link in #13:
She drafted a plan that included three divers — herself, Duque and a third diver who remains unnamed by the service — conducting a scuba exercise in dry suits, bulky one-piece jumpsuits that use air to provide insulation and buoyancy.

I'm not a diver....is this why she thought they needed more weight?

[driftdiver]

"But you still have an episode in explaining how they got dragged down 200 feet so quickly. They could not have done that by themselves, and the training "slack" won't work in this case either. There is still more to explain in this whole story."

If you're severely over weighted it would be very easy to lose control of your buoyancy and sink to 200ft. The drinking and lack of training explain why the safety observers didn't control the safety rope properly.

[Liberty Valance]

*diving ping*

[driftdiver]

"The whole thing about the weights seems specious to me. It is elementary that the weight belt be able to be jettisoned quickly. Something smells here."

I would buy the weights especially if they were tucked into pockets and such. Its easy for poorly trained divers to panic and forget about releasing their weights at all. If they weren't easily releasable then they probably couldn't dump enough weight fast enough. Toss in the frigid water and it would be surprising they didnt die under these conditions.