[Ben Field]

With all this debate and analysis of accident and fatalities people have mentioned that we ought to look at the "almost" accident, ones where we've got out with brown trousers and laughed about it at the pub.

Obviously there are far more of these than fatalities and in many more different catergories, I'm not really even sure what information we should capture.

Anyway, to start the ball rolling here is my own personal list of shame, feel free to add your own experiences and when the thread grows old and tired I'll sum them into some dubious statistics we can all argue about- ok?
(FWIW I count 3 of mine as Diver Error and 1 and Hardware Design Error)

(Please keep them as short and precise as possible and keep them your own experience, not one you heard someone else have.)

Format is Rebreather, Incident, Action, Analysis.

SK, Couldn't get breath & ADV firing constantly, Bailout & Surface, OPV open instead of closed.

SK, PPO2 Display flood, Surface on 2 remaining Displays, Display poorly assembled post battery change.

CK, PPO2 Display battery failed while jumping in, Sit back down & miss dive, change batteries more often.

CK, Lost bailout tank on descent, "Borrowed" OC divers 80% stage at bottom to regain buoyancy control and some bailout, Should have called the dive 80% poor bailout choice for 40mtrs dive.

Over to you....

[PhilSiswick]

Good idea for a thread.

OK, you know mine already Ben:

Vision with TravelFrame, back came loose during dive. I'd forgotten to check that the wingnuts were tight before the dive and one fell out, allowing the back to move and come out of the top fittings. Lesson learnt - make sure everything is still nice and tight between dives. Numpty!

Cheers,

[EBT]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Ben Field)

Format is Rebreather, Incident, Action, Analysis.

SK, Couldn't get breath & ADV firing constantly, Bailout & Surface, OPV open instead of closed.

SK, PPO2 Display flood, Surface on 2 remaining Displays, Display poorly assembled post battery change.

CK, PPO2 Display battery failed while jumping in, Sit back down & miss dive, change batteries more often.

CK, Lost bailout tank on descent, "Borrowed" OC divers 80% stage at bottom to regain buoyancy control and some bailout, Should have called the dive 80% poor bailout choice for 40mtrs dive.

Over to you....

CK, mouthpiece open on surface and reached down to get stage tanks, partial loop flood, shut DSV whenever its out of my gob

CK, messed around by skipper and shutdown O2 while waiting, jump in with gas off and have to rapidly turn on, two outcomes 1. validate gas immediately before entry and 2. find a better skipper

[Gilles]

Meg, Hypoxia, Got swept underneath boat during pick up in very rough conditions with solenoid disconnected doing hyperoxia drill with a 10/52 dil, Don't disconnect solenoid even if stuck open (close/open valve instead and keep it open from 6m up) and hypoxic dils only for 80m+ dives.

Meg, Hypoxia, New place new people new training and got distracted in the middle of a hyperoxia drill. Closed O2 and did not open it again. Attentive instructor noticed and ordered me to bail out.

Meg, Hypoxia, as above but closed O2 at end of dive for lunch break and out of habit. Became late and was rushed getting back in and did not pre-dive and forgot to open O2 while breathing loop on surface. Got very dizzy and spat out deadly loop. Don't rush any pre-dive and never shut the f******g O2 valve for no reason.

That is the worst of my shame. Thinking of changing my user name to Hypo-Gilles

[louisrankin]

Classic kiss scrubber nut not done up fully flooded unit, adv kept firing as loop volume got smaller managed to get to last stop 6m and bailed out. I was amazed at how much time I could carry on breathing the loop with no caustic cocktail.

Classic Kiss orifice nut had come loose and was giving me to much 02 bailed out as it was the first time I was using my Hammerhead so I was not sure of the cause of the problem until I stripped the unit to investigate.

Classic Kiss jumped in without 02 on turned on 02 and carried on decent a good reason not to use 10/52 as dill.

Sports Kiss retaining band had come undone so the scrubber and lungs floated out off case on entering the water.

No cocks up yet on Meg but I am sure they are in the pipe line.


Louis

[Hanssing]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Ben Field)

With all this debate and analysis of accident and fatalities people have mentioned that we ought to look at the "almost" accident, ones where we've got out with brown trousers and laughed about it at the pub.

Obviously there are far more of these than fatalities and in many more different catergories, I'm not really even sure what information we should capture.

Anyway, to start the ball rolling here is my own personal list of shame, feel free to add your own experiences and when the thread grows old and tired I'll sum them into some dubious statistics we can all argue about- ok?
(FWIW I count 3 of mine as Diver Error and 1 and Hardware Design Error)

Guys, this is all well, but not very structured

Please allow me to observe that all these close calls will only be statistics if not discussed and analysed individually (See a LONG thread about the merrits of statistics and per incedinet analysis). Therefor I urge you to do this more througly if you feel that your mishap was unique, and also be more through in explaning how your will prevent the mishap, and if simple design-changes could resolve the issue.

I fear this thread will just drown in noise, and have no real analysis.

Nicolai

[Ben Field]

Quote: (Originally Posted by Hanssing)

Guys, this is all well, but not very structured

Please allow me to observe that all these close calls will only be statistics if not discussed and analysed individually (See a LONG thread about the merrits of statistics and per incedinet analysis). Therefor I urge you to do this more througly if you feel that your mishap was unique, and also be more through in explaning how your will prevent the mishap, and if simple design-changes could resolve the issue.

I fear this thread will just drown in noise, and have no real analysis.

Nicolai

Hi Nicolai,

First thank you very much for the input, I did say right at the start I wasn't sure what information we should capture!

I was hoping that simply collecting the Rebreather, Incident, Action and Analysis would allow us to come up with some %'s. The data can be taken individually from each column (eg- 30% of incidents happen on Classic KISS's) or it can be used cumulatively (eg- 20% of divers who jumped in with O2 turned off bailed out, 40% turned their tank on and 40% went SCR)

What would be a better methodology? Suggestions welcome, by PM if necessary, I am happy to be corrected

Obviously the task is too huge for a single person on a forum to complete to the level of Alex's Fatality data but if 200+ people reply (which is relatively likely if the thread starts to grow) then we can draw a few small assumptions- nothing hardcore obviously.

In some ways I am more interested in the incidents that lack uniqueness- if we all admitted to jumping in without our O2 turned on (for example) then we can legitimately say (to newbies, trainees and each other) that checking the O2 is likely to decrease your chances of having an incident.

Anyway, keep them coming please.

[lizardland]

On the CK:

- flappy lips on 3rd dive on the unit, bailout at 60m and "eventful" exit from cave
- feeling the lights going out whilst stood in shallows putting fins on, spat DSV out and everything was fine. Air dil, ppO2 was at about 0.15 when I got round to looking
- wet displays; previous owner had knackered threads on cases and cal port. Limped home with one display and a lot of flushing

On the McMeg (homebuilt sidemount):

- demonstrated it's modular design when buddy attempted to assist with a freeflowing valve, improperly reassembled, leaked continually on very short dive

- display failure in a cave which required bailout to OC. Forgot to turn O2 off (doh!), got pinned to cave ceiling by expanding loop. In my efforts to extricate myself it managed to sneak behind me out of reach so I had to crack open the DSV to vent gas (partially flooding the bag). Returned to cave entrance, attempted to go back on the loop at 6m only to be greeted by milky white cocktail pouring out the DSV. Removed the rebreather and left it floating in pool whereupon it attacked my buddy (upon his return later, c**t). Display failure, runaway buoyancy and near cocktail all on one dive, I'm quite proud of that

Botched CCR Ray:

- hypoxia because I'd used a half-fill adaptor. 0.5kg of lime is not enough for a 30m dive

Quote:

be more through in explaning how your will prevent the mishap

That's easy, er... not dive on bodged rebreathers...

Cheers,

Stuart

[Beanie]

O2 pressurized but turned off lots of beeping when the lines emptied D'oh.

[Andy Del]

All on Classic KISS

Jumped in with O2 turned off. Felt something was not right swimmming to anchor line and saw 0.12 on displays when checking. turned on O2, flushed loop, rested at surface (swearing at myself) and did the dive. check O2 on every dive.

Jumped in with Dil off. Felt rather sillly not being able to breathe on descent, and finding it hard to move as drysuit got all squished onto me. Check dil on every dive.

CO2 isssue - loop gas suddenly started to feel very hot, like breathing from a hair drier (to quote a great man). Stopped moving, rested, and slowly went back to anchor line trying to be aware of signs of hypercapnea. Don't use sorb designed for anaesthetic machine (it was Draegersorb 700 - I think).

75m dive, O2 spikes - the KISS valve was feeding too much gas. Feathered cylinder valve, copleted the dive normally. Extra O2 flow is good on ascent however! Needed to service KISS valve.

24m dive - no O2 flow through KISS valve. Manually added O2 every X breaths. Was far too interested in the 'killer GWS' (based on media reports) I was diving with. It turned out to be a sunfish. Needed to service KISS valve properly...

48m dive - low battery warning on VR$, gas escaping from loop on exhale, wing inflator auto inflating. Sigh. Scratched head over bubbles from DSV - determined I had only half turned the open/close knob. Feeling like a knob, I fixed this, but was unsure how much gas escaped and how much, if any water had got into the loop. Battery warning, I deployed my tables and bottom timer, in case it was needed. Auto inflating - gave me the right $hits. Second time it had malfunctioned. At this point, I canned the dive, did a normal ascent, deco and got into the cheese and crackers early. User maintenance was at fault here for two items, and user error for the other.