Since 1980, we have been reporting cases about diver fatalities,
hoping that by describing the incidents, our readers will
become more careful divers and avoid fatal accidents. This
year, we are reporting on cases from the Diver Alert Network’s
latest report, detailing dive fatalities in 2006 (we included
names and additional details printed in news sources). In the
cases that follow, divers made fatal errors, mainly in judgment.
Each of these unfortunate deaths could have been prevented.
Many divers see diving like riding a bicycle: once you learn
how to do it, you’ll never forget. That assumption, however, can
be fatal. Stephen Radlein, 39, was an experienced diver with
rescue and instructor certifications, but he had taken a 15-year
break from diving. Then he went diving in Victoria, B.C., with
a man and a woman he had met the day before. They planned
a dive to 40 feet for 45 minutes but Radlein got separated
from the other two at the 40-minute mark. They found him a
few minutes later, floating face down and unconscious on the
surface with a partially inflated BCD and an empty tank, and
Radlein couldn’t be resuscitated. His dive computer showed
that he had done a rapid ascent from 33 feet. He was also wearing
54 pounds of weight, although he told his two dive buddies
prior to the dive that this was how much he typically used.
Cold Water Is Not Like the Caribbean
Many divers make the assumption that all bodies of water
are the same, as did this 51-year-old fellow, who had many specialty
certifications but only moderate experience and nearly all
in tropical water. His first dive of the year was to be a night dive
on a wreck in a freshwater lake. Visibility was poor, the water
was cold and he forgot to bring a hood. Still, he and his buddy
entered the water and went to 97 feet, but he was underwater
only 14 minutes when his air was down to 1,000 psi. They went
up to 60 feet but got separated, so the buddy went to the surface
but couldn’t find the diver. His drowned body was recovered
the next day with 20 pounds of weight in his BCD that
would have been difficult to drop. His tank was empty and an
evaluation of the regulator showed that it wasn’t working well,
taking increased work to breathe through the second stage.
In another incident where a warm-water diver figured he
could handle the cold, this 43-year-old male diver, certified for
less than a year, was using a drysuit with which he had little
experience to make a solo dive from a boat while others waited
on the surface. After 10 minutes, the people on the boat noticed
his bubbles had stopped. He drowned and his body was recovered
the next day at 75 feet. He didn’t have the auto-inflator hose connected, and he wore a total of 37 pounds of weight,
including ankle and pocket weights.
Medicated Divers Shouldn’t Have God Complexes
In many cases, divers with all sorts of physical maladies
think diving is like a walk in the park, but the stress of diving
can cause any number of problems. Dwight Blackwelder,
58, was an experienced diver with a history of seizures and
blackouts during dives. He was also taking morphine for
chronic shoulder pain and had a pacemaker implanted to
control abnormal heart rhythms. Nevertheless, Blackwelder
made solo dives to gather lobster five miles off of Fort
Pierce, FL, while three friends stayed on the boat. On his
second dive, Blackwelder descended to 50 feet but after an
hour of bottom time, his friends noticed a lack of bubbles
coming to the surface. One of them went down and found
Blackwelder unconscious. Although toxicological studies
found a high level of morphine in his blood, the medical
examiner concluded that Blackwelder’s drowning was due to
an irregular heart rate.
Another medicated diver, three months certified, was on
the fourth day of a multi-day dive trip and making his first ever
night dive. However, the 24-year-old had been taking several
over-the-counter cold medications that day and ruptured an
eardrum three weeks prior. After running low on air at 65 feet,
the two surfaced but the diver lost his weight belt trying to help
his buddy get untangled from kelp. Both of them descended to
retrieve it and became separated. The diver was found the next
day, drowned on the bottom near his lost weight belt. He had
been carrying 32 pounds of weight, but 24 pounds were in various
pockets of his BCD. He had also modified his fins, apparently
making them less efficient for propulsion.
When Does Drinking or Drugs Ever Mix with Diving?
Jackie Smith, a 47-year-old dive instructor and technical
diver, was drinking until 4:00 a.m., then experimented with
modifications he made to his rebreather before doing a morning
dive at a quarry in Lake Norman, NC. He and his buddy
did a shore entry into very cold water with poor visibility. Smith
had an equipment problem 15 minutes into the dive after reaching
105 ft. He and his buddy ascended rather quickly, then
became separated at a safety stop at 80 feet. The dive buddy
made two more stops and went to the surface. Other divers on
the surface heard someone yell, then saw Smith floating unconscious
on the surface; he couldn’t be resuscitated. Apparently,
Smith knew his rebreather was malfunctioning and planned to
use it in semi-closed-circuit mode to compensate, but an examination
revealed it was out of specifications, with malfunctioning
sensors and an improperly packed carbon dioxide scrubber.
The diluent gas tank was also empty.
In this double death, toxicology tests found that both
deceased divers tested positive for cocaine, which may have
contributed to a number of errors. Robert Straus, 37, had a
reputation as a reckless diver from people familiar with his
diving habits. Having done no dives in the previous year, he
made plans to go spearfishing with Cynthia Oquist, 35, off a
boat near Boynton Beach, FL. A third person waited in the
boat while the two entered the water. The current was very
strong and shortly after the initial descent, Straus surfaced
and waved for help. The two divers struggled on the surface
and got entangled in the buoy line. Straus panicked and used
Oquist’s alternate air source. Other people arrived at the scene
tried to help the divers by pulling in the buoy line, but the line
snapped. Both divers descended below the surface and their
drowned bodies were recovered an hour later at 50 feet. Straus
still had weights in place and was entangled in the line. Oquist
had dropped her weights but also was entangled in the line,
her mask on her forehead. Both divers’ tanks were nearly full,
but Straus’ BCD wouldn’t hold air and his equipment proved
to be in nearly unusable condition, while Oquist’s gear was
also in poor repair.
Most Importantly, Check Your Gear
Perhaps the first rule in staying alive is having the proper
gear, which is what one learns in a certification course. So you
couldn’t expect Todd Hilkert, 36, who was not certified, to get
it right for gathering lobster with a buddy near Islamorada,
FL. On their second dive, they separated but continued to
dive solo. The buddy surfaced but a search team recovered
Hilkert’s drowned body in only 15 feet of water, his regulator
mouthpiece out of his mouth. The tank and regulator were
attached incorrectly, the purge button on the regulator stuck
at times, the tank was empty and the BCD had a small leak.
You would expect a certified experienced diver to descend
with a full tank of air, but George Sipp, 72, diving with buddies
at Alligator Reef near Islamorada, FL, didn’t. After a
wreck dive to 112 feet for 28 minutes, he used the same tank
for a shallower second dive. Sipp’s buddies descended ahead of him. He was later found floating on the surface, a half-mile
away, dead of drowning. His computer recorded a nine-minute
dive to 29 feet. Sipp’s snorkel apparently was in his mouth, but
his weight belt was off and his tank was empty.
And you would expect an experienced diver to shy away
from foolish record-breaking feats, but then a 27-year-old diver
might not be mature enough. This fellow was making a shore
dive at night to set a personal depth record using a single tank
of air. He had other divers staged at various depths to assist
him, but visibility was poor. His buddy became separated from
him and aborted the dive due to nitrogen narcosis. When
another buddy experienced vertigo at 200 feet, the diver helped
him up to 160 feet before turning to continue his descent. His
body was recovered nine months later by a solo diver at 200
feet. His death was ruled a drowning due to nitrogen narcosis.
Sadly, too many divers make the simple mistake of not
turning on their air. A 40-year-old experienced diver was
with a group on the Salty V, three miles offshore in the Los
Angeles Channel, and using a rebreather for wreck dives. He
announced that he wanted to go off alone during the second
dive so he could maximize his bottom time. He also said it was
his habit to turn off the electronics on his rebreather between
dives, and advised the other diver using a rebreather to do the
same. The other divers returned to the boat and waited for
the diver, but his body wasn’t found until the next day. The
rebreather was in good working condition but he had failed to turn it on for the second dive and he wasn’t carrying a dive
computer. His diluent bottle was empty, but a pony bottle had
plenty of air left in it.
Janice Smith co-owned the dive shop Mainely Scuba in
Wilton, ME, with her husband, though she had only moderate
diving experience. Intending to enter Wilson Lake to join a
large group, she was in a hurry and had someone else put her
equipment together. She descended quickly and immediately
had a problem with her air source. Her buddy tried to share
her air and help Smith back to the surface but lost her grip on
Smith, who sank back down, probably with water already in
her lungs. Two other divers brought her to the surface for resuscitation
efforts. She spent five days in the hospital before she
died of complications of near drowning, which included anoxic
brain injury and bronchopneumonia. An examination of her
gear showed that the tank valve was closed and the power
inflator hose to the BCD was disconnected. The person who
assembled the gear said all was in order and the air was turned
on when the diver entered the water, but it’s unclear when the
air was turned off - - or if it was ever turned on.
Sadly, all of these deaths could have been prevented. In
many, the errors were extreme. In the next issue or two we’ll
cover more preventable deaths, from problems as simple as
overweighting to failing to inflate a BCD on the surface. Let us
learn from others’ mistakes, however tragic they may be.
- - Ben Davison