Divers lost+recovered alive off Kimmeridge Monday

Nos4r2 · 01 June 2006, 00:12

Was anyone listening to this on the VHF at all? I could only hear the coastguard's half of it.

It sounded like the dive boat in question searched for an hour before calling mayday. Am I right? That sounds rather bad practice to me.

I would have gone to help search (was only 15 mins away) but didn't have enough fuel left.

gavin · 01 June 2006, 23:08

Why was that bad practice, were they in grave and imminent danger, or grave or imminent danger

Jono Garton · 02 June 2006, 07:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by gavin

Why was that bad practice,

Gav

I think what nos is saying is, an hour looking for a missing diver before calling the mayday was bad practice.

Jono

Narcosis · 02 June 2006, 08:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by gavin

Why was that bad practice, were they in grave and imminent danger, or grave or imminent danger

As a diver myself, the practise is to plan a dive and then dive the plan, so the skipper of a boat will/should know the dive plan with regards to maximum dive time. If that time passes by more than 5 mins and no surface marker bouy has been sent up or seen, then that diver still down should be considered in grave and/or imminent danger. So appropriate actions should be taken, including increasing search perimeters by getting help from divers on boat for possible(only if appropriate) underwater search patterns, and making pan-pan or more likely a mayday to get additional help for searching further afield.

Jon Brooks · 02 June 2006, 13:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Narcosis

then that diver still down should be considered in grave and/or imminent danger. So appropriate actions

If that is the case then the only right course of action is a MAYDY.
IMHO

Best regards

Poly · 02 June 2006, 20:44

the MCGA press release says the divers had been in the water for an hour when the maday went out rather than "missing for an hour". I'm not a diver myself but I guess that they would not have been missing that long then?

Nos4r2 · 02 June 2006, 22:14

From what I heard on the VHF the divers were diving with an SMB rather than a DSMB. They were 1 hour 15 minutes overdue-or the boat lost contact with them for over an hour and spent time searching downtide for them before the mayday was called.

I DID only hear the Solent coastguard/Portland coastguard side though-apparently even the coastguard was having trouble hearing the dive boat itself and repeated everything at least twice.

It actually sounded like the skipper wasn't very competent-it took nearly 5 minutes for the coastguard to work out how long the divers had been out of contact.

<edit> The divers had been in the water for well over an hour before they were recovered- the boat that found them did so nearly 30 minutes after the mayday was called.

Jeff Pike · 03 June 2006, 13:30

If they were diving towing an SMB rather than just surfacing with a DSMB how did the surface cover lose them in the first place?

Nos4r2 · 03 June 2006, 17:56

Pass...

Pompey Diver · 05 June 2006, 10:02

Re.If they were diving towing an SMB rather than just surfacing with a DSMB how did the surface cover lose them in the first place?

There are plenty of scenarios....

One possibility was they were diving on a wreck/reef as part of a larger group of buddy pairs. If this decided to/ were forced to drift off the wreck and the rest 'dug in' to the wreck, then the skipper would have the problem of following both the moving SMB of the pair that are being carried away with the current...and those that remained stationary where they were dropped.

Even on drift dives...where all the buddy pairs go in together with SMB's and allow themselves to be carried by the current...I've seen some pairs head off in totally the wrong direction due to a mix up with their navigation giving exactly the same seperation of buddy pairs.

As a previous poster said 'plan the dive, dive the plan'...and be competent to follow that plan (e.g. being able to use a compass correctly on a dive). Obviously things can and do sometimes not go to plan through no fault of the divers or the skipper.

From what I've read of this incident, one thing seems pretty clear in that skipper should have raised the alarm a lot earlier.

havener · 05 June 2006, 10:23

One thing doesn't surprise me though...the comments regarding Portland CG having apparent difficulty in hearing the boat.

Kimmeridge close inshore is one heck of a VHF blackspot - the Hengistbury arial is blocked to the east by St Albans' Head and even the Grove / Portland arial,technically within line of sight, can have problems getting reception from that area. Especially is the boat was using a handheld.

In terms of the incident, haven't seen the full details but a missing diver is ALWAYS an IMMEDIATE mayday - after all, mayday response units can be cancelled but you can't make up for time lost.

Simon

Simon B · 05 June 2006, 12:03

Diver cover isnt as straight forward as a rigid set of rules would allow, for instance how many Yachties issue an imediate mayday if some falls off? From the divers leaving the surface they are "missing" Some Surface marker bouys are absolute rubbish in all but the calmest of conditions. The longer tube type Delayed Surface Marker bouys are far better for Helm and crew to spot, but suffer from more windage hence compounding the problem of drift. Divers are trained in the eventuality of losing contact with surface cover, though its still unsettling when it happens speaking from experience.

I lost contact with a pair of divers for 15 minutes once as the other pair where some distance away when I recovered them after doing this I searched downtide and locted their marker bouy, although concerned I wasnt panicking as they were still within their theoretical plan. Had I not located them as I did then I feel the correct course of action would have been a Pan-Pan to all stations downtide of my position to lookout.

In the instance of divers drifting out of view a Mayday may not be the correct course of action; IMO the divers are well equiped (or should be) to survive for some time on the surface and (should) have surface location aids to deploy. So they do not unless indicating distress fall into the "grave and iminent danger catergory" - In all events the Coastguard will if they feel it right upgrade the Pan-Pan to a Mayday.