MKSAC Newsletter April 1998

This is a true story. It happened to one of our members on a tropical diving trip early this year. He wants to tell his story, not so much to frighten you as to warn you. It could be you.

The trip was booked in the usual way. Glossy brochures at the travel agents promised the usual sun and sand for the family together with the opportunity to get some diving in. As always, the resort operators could be relied upon to provide all the kit if required (our member decided to take his own). The package also included boat transport to the dive site for you and the other divers.

The visiting divers were a mixed bunch. Although Spanish was the local language, they included several Germans and a few Americans. This is not an uncommon situation with resort diving. The language barrier is not much of a problem as long as time is taken beforehand to explain and check (through an interpreter if necessary) the signals and briefing. The other divers logbooks showed them to be an experienced crowd, some of them having over a hundred logged dives.

The first sign that things were not going to be "by the book" came with the boat. The boat handler was also one of the divers. When concern was expressed at leaving the boat adrift and unattended, our member was told not to worry. "we always do it this way" was added.

Different people take different times to kit up. An early season wind was now blowing and the water was getting quite choppy. To avoid seasickness, the Instructor suggested that divers got in the water when ready and waited at five meters. Although not quite in the spirit of "Blue Lagoon" diving, our member agreed. At the same time, he could not help thinking that some of the other divers seemed lacking in confidence and basic skills for those claiming to have logged a hundred dives.

The observed lack of skills extended to buoyancy control. As our member hovered at five meters, other divers were up and down like yo-yo's. When the Instructor signalled to descend, our member set off slowly downwards. Other divers fell like stones or remained motionless. The Instructor indicated a target depth of thirty five metres. Since our member was already a little low on air (having been one of the first to kit up and therefore spent longest waiting at five metres), he signalled that he would explore the reef around the twenty five metre mark. Since the viz was good, he could easily make out the figures ten metres below as the other divers continued their exploration.

After a while, two figures below seemed to be struggling. Our member recognised them as a husband and wife pair. He went down to assist and found that they seemed to be having difficulty inflating their BC's. He started to perform a controlled buoyant lift on the lady, signalling to the husband to follow. Part way to the surface, the husband overtook our member, obviously ascending out of control.

Matters became a little confused at this point. The Instructor realised that all was not well, aborted the dive and get himself and the other divers back into the boat. Our member brought his casualty to the surface and commenced AV. The Instructor looked around, located the husband of the pair and started rescue operations.

To cut a long story short, it was too late. The husband was pronounced dead later in hospital.

Three days later, our member spent an uncomfortable few hours being interviewed at the local police station (through a translator). Although he knew he had done nothing wrong, to be questioned at length by Authority, especially in a foreign language, can be harrowing for any of us.

The moral to this story is to believe your instincts. Log books and certificates do not prove how good a diver you are. The resort dive organiser learnt the hard way that you shouldn't leave a boat unattended.

Despite the interview and the upset that the incident had on the remainder of his holiday, our member can at least look back on the good parts. He stuck to his BSAC training in exemplary fashion and probably saved a life. He should be an example to us all and is a credit to MKS-AC.