Fatality in Sound of Mull

After diving on the Shuna in the Sound of Mull yesterday a diver was
seen to surface in distress, he then disappeared.

Despite an extensive search of both the wreck and the surrounding area
ther is no sign. It must be presumed that the incident was fatal.

The search is ongoing today with the Tobermory Lifeboat and local
vessels and the Police dive team is on site.

My condolences to his fa milly and friends.

--
Steve Barlow

Condolences also. It's not been a good few weeks for the west coast.

Was diving it last weekend, makes ya think, echo condolences to the family.
"brizzolatti" <brizzolatti@yahoo.ie> wrote in message
news:c31lq2$mda$1@news5.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Condolences also. It's not been a good few weeks for the west coast.
>
>

Steve Barlow <steve@steve-barlow.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message news:<anl85097tfmn1tg9hv4fma17n3lq675ee9@4ax.com>. ..
> After diving on the Shuna in the Sound of Mull yesterday a diver was
> seen to surface in distress, he then disappeared.
>
> Despite an extensive search of both the wreck and the surrounding area
> ther is no sign. It must be presumed that the incident was fatal.
>
> The search is ongoing today with the Tobermory Lifeboat and local
> vessels and the Police dive team is on site.
>
> My condolences to his fa milly and friends.


Agree, condolences to his family and friends.

But I'd wager that this was an avoidable accident. When will the
BSAC/PADI community learn that it is perfectly acceptable to have a
strong buddy line fastened between 2 divers and/or even a decent
safety marker/float on the surface permanently.
A read of the BSAC accident reports shows a high number of deaths
resulting from diver separation during ascent - which would be avoided
with good buddy drills and being roped together.
Unless, he was solo diving - which is probably also a dubious practice
in the conditions/weather/temp at this time of year.

On 15 Mar 2004 10:35:14 -0800, pinballwizarrd@hotmail.com
(pinballwizarrd) wrote:

>Steve Barlow <steve@steve-barlow.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message news:<anl85097tfmn1tg9hv4fma17n3lq675ee9@4ax.com>. ..
>> After diving on the Shuna in the Sound of Mull yesterday a diver was
>> seen to surface in distress, he then disappeared.
>>
>> Despite an extensive search of both the wreck and the surrounding area
>> ther is no sign. It must be presumed that the incident was fatal.
>>
>> The search is ongoing today with the Tobermory Lifeboat and local
>> vessels and the Police dive team is on site.
>>
>> My condolences to his fa milly and friends.
>
>
>Agree, condolences to his family and friends.
>
>But I'd wager that this was an avoidable accident. When will the
>BSAC/PADI community learn that it is perfectly acceptable to have a
>strong buddy line fastened between 2 divers and/or even a decent
>safety marker/float on the surface permanently.
>A read of the BSAC accident reports shows a high number of deaths
>resulting from diver separation during ascent - which would be avoided
>with good buddy drills and being roped together.
>Unless, he was solo diving - which is probably also a dubious practice
>in the conditions/weather/temp at this time of year.

Glad to hear that you know so much about this incident. You're
obviously better informed than the rest of us.

Pete S.

On 15 Mar 2004 10:35:14 -0800, pinballwizarrd@hotmail.com
(pinballwizarrd) wrote:
..
>> After diving on the Shuna in the Sound of Mull yesterday a diver was
>> seen to surface in distress, he then disappeared.
>>
>> My condolences to his fa milly and friends.
>
>
>Agree, condolences to his family and friends.
>

>But I'd wager that this was an avoidable accident. When will the
>BSAC/PADI community learn that it is perfectly acceptable to have a
>strong buddy line fastened between 2 divers and/or even a decent
>safety marker/float on the surface permanently.
>A read of the BSAC accident reports shows a high number of deaths
>resulting from diver separation during ascent - which would be avoided
>with good buddy drills and being roped together.
>Unless, he was solo diving - which is probably also a dubious practice
>in the conditions/weather/temp at this time of year.

I'm not sure I agree with you about solo diving but I do know we
should not judge anyone's actions without knowing the full story.

I think it best that further conjecture is stopped until the full
story is made public. It can only add to the sadness felt by the
friends and family of the deceased.
--
Steve Barlow

Pete S. wrote

> On 15 Mar 2004 10:35:14 -0800, pinballwizarrd@hotmail.com
> (pinballwizarrd) wrote:

> >But I'd wager that this was an avoidable accident.

They're all avoidable. Stay out of the water, you're less likely to drown.

> >When will the BSAC/PADI community learn that it is perfectly acceptable
to have a
> >strong buddy line fastened between 2 divers and/or even a decent
> >safety marker/float on the surface permanently.

When will you learn that the answers are seldom so simple.

> >A read of the BSAC accident reports shows a high number of deaths
> >resulting from diver separation during ascent - which would be avoided
> >with good buddy drills and being roped together.

Nobody that I know of, ever died simply because they became separated from
their buddy. There's always more to it than that.

> >Unless, he was solo diving - which is probably also a dubious practice
> >in the conditions/weather/temp at this time of year.

Probably? You've come a long way from the strong buddy line concept, all
the way to solo diving's probably a bit risky.

> Glad to hear that you know so much about this incident. You're
> obviously better informed than the rest of us.
>
> Pete S.

His address is pinballwizard. What do you expect.

Sorry for the sarcasm above. I just get that way when people can't wait
more than a few seconds to start second guessing a missing diver.

My condolences to the friends and family of the missing diver. I pray that
they are premature.

Lee

>I think it best that further conjecture is stopped until the full
>story is made public. It can only add to the sadness felt by the
>friends and family of the deceased.

Whole-heartedly agreed, my thoughts and condolences are also with their family
and friends....

That aside, our friend does have a point. Virtually every incident we read of
contains the report "Lost contact with buddy on accent".

Perhaps we should make a bigger issue of this, I for one always keep my buddy
in sight on accent even if in the periphery and make physical contact in high
current / low viz…..

pinballwizarrd <pinballwizarrd@hotmail.com> skriver:
> Steve Barlow <steve@steve-barlow.fsnet.co.uk> wrote in message news:<anl85097tfmn1tg9hv4fma17n3lq675ee9@4ax.com>. ..

> A read of the BSAC accident reports shows a high number of deaths
> resulting from diver separation during ascent - which would be avoided
> with good buddy drills and being roped together.

Swedish SSDF (The "counterpart" of BSAC) does have several report with
two dead diver as they where using buddy line. In insidant that should
only in worst case have lead to one lost diver. Buddy line or not is
not an answer that simple.

One other interesing detail in this statistcs is that in 17% of the
fatal accident with divers and buddy line, they got separated even as
they had a buddy line.

This argument that a buddy line should have helped also seams to came
up everytime there is an accident i Sweden. So far I have not been
aware that in the end the acident had been avoided with any common use
of buddy lines. Apperently this diver came to the surface, most use of
buddy lines does end at that point as visibility over water is a loot
better.

/ Balp

--
http://anders.arnholm.nu/ Keep on Balping

On 15 Mar 2004 22:50:13 GMT, CelsiusHeat <celsiusheat@aol.com> wrote:

> That aside, our friend does have a point. Virtually every incident we read of
> contains the report "Lost contact with buddy on accent".

Hmm, I thought having a buddy is nice but not having one is not
immediately life threatening as would be having no oxygen or no
buoyancy. So there must be more to those incidents than losing your
buddy which might as well be a result rather than the cause of
something else going wrong.

Robert
--
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Robert C. Helling Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics
University of Cambridge
print "Just another Phone: +44/1223/766870
stupid .sig\n"; http://www.aei-potsdam.mpg.de/~helling