Divers Ignored Instructions

[Straegen]

Two American divers who went missing for seven hours on the Great Barrier Reef on Friday ignored instructions, dive boat operators Mike Ball of Mike Ball Dive Expeditions said. The pair - a man and a woman believed to be in their 40s - failed to surface at the end of an hour-long dive on Ribbon Reef Number 10, off the coast of Lizard Island, about 10am. They were plucked from the water after being found floating eight nautical miles north of the dive site about 5.10pm.

Divers 'ignored instructions' - Queensland - BrisbaneTimes

Wonder what the American's have to say about it? I guess they are glad they bought the insurance so the 50k doesn't end up on their bill.

[Gombessa]

"Mr McKenzie said the American pair had made classic mistakes, including failing to activate their location markers as soon as they realised they had strayed from the dive group."

I wonder what kind of markers tey're talking about. I assume it's implied that they would have to surface before they could use these markers (or is this just news-speak for smb)?

Originally Posted by Straegen

Wonder what the American's have to say about it? I guess they are glad they bought the insurance so the 50k doesn't end up on their bill.

I don't know if search and rescue is typically included in "personal injury insurance," or if there are any limitations as to cause/fault of injury.

[CamaroChick]

Isn't this the same company that the husband/wife were with a few years back for their honeymoon? The story is that he turned off his wife's air and held her underwater to drown her, and then made up several different stories to explain why he left her underwater to go get help.

I wonder what ever happened to him... last I heard he was being extradited back to Australia to be charged with murder.

[CamaroChick]

woah, yeah it is the same boat too - Spoilsport! And don't you love how the media always says "shark infested waters"?

[Gombessa]

Well that settles it! I'm never going with my spouse on a Mike Ball Dive Expeditions boat, ever.

[gNats]

Mr Ball said the small levy was nothing compared with the trouble the pair had caused by deliberately straying from the dive plan and ignoring safety procedures. "The dive plan was to go down a descent line and into the reef at a depth of 12 metres," Mr Ball said.

"On the way down, one of the divers let go of the rope and didn't follow the directions to the reef, but let himself drift along with the current in deeper water than planned."

Mr Ball said the pair were experienced divers who should have known better.

"You plan your dive and then you dive the plan," he said. "But that is not what has happened."

Seems to me the Americans didn't agree with the dive boat operator's dive plan. It sure doesn't sound like the divers had an accident or a situation that caused them to let go of the descent line and get swept into the current.

None of us should be surprised. On several discussion boards, there seems to be one or two threads that deal with experienced divers wanting to do their own thing while on a chartered dive boat. Many of these divers come across in their postings as very holier than tho' and it is their right to dive their own plan, regardless of conditions or who they are diving with.

I guess I figure if you don't want to conform to the diver operator's dive plan, then you should stay off the boat. If it is the only way to see that reef or wreck, then get your own dive boat or conform. No one forced you to take that trip or contract with that boat. I'm sure that the actions of those two divers needlessly affected the other divers on that boat.



gNats ducks under flame retardant shield to avoid the flaming of her opinion by others.

[JCAT]

calmly flicks flamethrower to standby...

I would be interested in hearing what the divers had to say...

[gNats]

Originally Posted by JCAT

calmly flicks flamethrower to standby...

I would be interested in hearing what the divers had to say...

Yes, it would definitely be interesting. Funny how there were not any quotes from them in the report.

I guess it is too much to think that foreign papers would report any more objectively than most of our American papers.

[JCAT]

Originally Posted by gNats

Yes, it would definitely be interesting. Funny how there were not any quotes from them in the report.

I guess it is too much to think that foreign papers would report any more objectively than most of our American papers.

Yep, the media is the media, no matter what the country. I trust not any of them.

cheers

[gbrdiver]

Miracle sea survival


Saturday, February 7, 2009
© The Cairns Post

TWO American divers who spent seven hours lost at sea on the Great Barrier Reef will today put their ordeal behind them and get back in the water.
The pair - a Pennsylvanian woman named Michelle and a California man named Babek, both aged in their 40s - were last night in "good spirits" back aboard their dive boat, the Cairns-based Spoil Sport.
Mike Ball, who operates the luxury 30m catamaran, said the pair were a "little shaken" but likely to continue with the $4500, seven-day dive expedition they started with 18 other guests and 11 crew on Thursday night.
"It's bloody good news," Mr Ball told The Weekend Post.
"If it had been a couple more hours they would have been in the drink overnight and who knows what would have happened.
"The odds of finding someone in the water at night tend to get quite slim."
They were spotted by a search helicopter in fading light about 5.10pm after drifting nearly four nautical miles north of their outer reef dive site.
The two experienced divers - Babek had logged about 70 dives, and Michelle 30 dives - failed to surface at the end of an hour-long dive on Ribbon Reef No 10, near Lizard Island about 10am.
The were pulled from the water by Lizard Island boat Fascination before being taken back to the Spoil Sport where a doctor and cardiologist, who were part of the expedition, gave them the all clear to continue their trip.
"They are two very lucky people," Cairns District Police Insp Brent Carter said.
"We had to throw everything into the search.
"Another hour and a half and it would've been dark and a different proposition. By then they would've been floating around for 16 to 18 hours and exposed to marine predators."
Cairns doctor Graham Simpson, a member of the South Pacific Underwater Medicine Society, said hypothermia would have been the main threat to the divers had they remained missing.
"Even in water of that temperature, they'd lose heat pretty quickly," he said.
Mr Ball said the dive site at Challenger Bay was neither particularly deep nor challenging.
The alarm was raised after the pair failed to return to the Spoil Sport as scheduled. Crew immediately started emergency procedures and alerted nearby vessels who joined in the search.
"At 11.40am we notified the Australian Marine Safety Authority and by 1.40pm a plane was on site and helicopters were on their way," Mr Ball said.
"We have done everything by the book."
Mr Ball said the pair had been given specific instructions on how to handle a "very safe" dive site.
Insp Carter said the rescue was testament to the region's emergency response capabilities.
Workplace Health and Safety will investigate how they drifted so far from the boat.
Yesterday's incident comes 11 years after Americans Thomas Joseph Lonergan, 34, and his wife Eileen Cassidy, 28 - both of whom worked for the Peace Corps - disappeared while diving on St Crispin Reef, near Lizard Island.

....

I agree Challenger Bay is a pretty uncomplicated dive site. I touch of irony as his skipper, Trevor Jackson, recently published new techniques for searching for missing divers.