Diving deaths in The Red Sea?

Rubis

Hello,

I have seen your post and I remember you from when your uncle passed away. We had some correpondance with Rob back in 2004 and we shared a passion for the Little Prince and its author.
Anyways, this is my first post (I don't use a Rebreather -YET-).

I dove Elphinstone a couple of times, the site were the divers went missing.
The first time I almost got myself killed (out of my own stupidity).
The conditions can be really bad, the waves can be huge and the currents ripping. It's not a dive site to be taken lightly.
But I did not get killed that day partly because we had a great, old, skilled captain and because the crew did everything they could to make our dives safe. We dove a couple of other sites on that safari with less than ideal conditions but everything went smoothly.

I have been talking to a friend who spent a couple of years in Egypt as a scuba diving instructor and he was commenting that maybe lately the crew were not as skilled as they used to be, maybe this could explain some of the latest issues ...

OK back to lurking mode

Depth-junkie

That's becuse of all those poor man's mix's you used to knock up in your garden about 12yrs ago


ATB
Gareth

Gilles

Hi Charlie;

I think there's very few situations in reality where all the facts are available. I think there's a healthy difference between outright speculation, and well intended, and sufficiently thought out, and objective "estimates" by qualified experts as has been done on this thread (and some others).

More often than not, something near to speculation (a good estimate), is all we have to base our learning and decisions from.

__________________
Gilles
http://www.dirrebreather.com

Genesis

Having been pretty whacked out at 150' on air and having had one bad "dark narc" experience around the 130' range (which I likely precipitated with a "bomb the bottom" descent into relatively bad conditions - low vis, bad current, etc) I've learned from the error of my ways.

On OC its always a trade-off in the "intermediate" ranges where air "can" be used, because the cost is quite high (outrageously so in some parts of the world.) But on a CCR, this argument melts away - there's simply no reason not to use Helium on anything below 100' - there sure isn't a cost issue!

I think its entirely reasonable to cite narcosis as a contributing factor at minimum.

__________________
"A venturesome minority will always be eager to get off on their own, and no obstacles should be placed in their path; let them take risks for Godsake, let them get lost, sunburnt, stranded, drowned, eaten by bears, buried alive under avalanches - that is the right and privilege of any free American."
http://www.denninger.net
http://www.diversunion.org/liability.htm - Fix the Diving Cert racket

CharlieT

If someone feels that the initial facts surrounding a death merit a more general discussion, why not start a new thread?

That way we avoid speculating about someone's death on the same thread it was originally announced on?

Rob Davie's niece was asking us for comments on Red Sea diving safety, wasn't she?

Charlie

robvdmr13

This was on a dutch news site early this morning.
The Dutch diver is Michel van Assendelft.

Duiker blijft onvindbaar - telegraaf.nl [Binnenland]

Robert

Mdemon

That website is excellent - those Russians do some awesome dives. Sorry to hear of their loss.

The Canyon on air is fine - as they all are when it's warm, still and good vis. As NigelH says, it's when Normal becomes Different that you have to be paying attention. High END's have their place but somewhere dark and scary is probably not it.

__________________
www.southwestmafia.com



"Once the agenda-monkeys and perfect-worlders have moved on, perhaps we can do some diving?"

robvdmr13

A third Russian made it to shore. According to:
nu.nl/algemeen | Zoektocht naar vermiste duikers gestaakt

he stated that they swam away from the reef after a large shark. The current was south to north and they got swept away. Normally the current is north to south and the boat was waiting at the south end of the reef.

This news bulletin also states the search has been stopped, due to weather and the unlikely chance of still finding a survivor.

Robert

Philippe GERIN

I don't think any body of authority exists in Egypt in order to log/gather all the incidents/accidents in the Red Sea diving spots.
Safety, for diving, in Egypt is very different from one spot to another, one boat to another.
I used to dive my share in the Red Sea (even though I didn't recently) from Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada, Dahab, Marsa Alam, the Brothers.... and I witnessed many occurences when a few minor incidents could have turned to major accidents and deaths (divers left behind and got aboard of another boat, dead boat engine in the middle of the trip, dangerous manouver made by the skipper, fights between skippers physically and using their boats, unexpected/unusual current encountered by unprepared divers...). I also witnessed a tragedy and brought back myself the instructor's personnal stuff to give to his parents (I wish that to nobody, a though moment).
Basically, the lessons that I learnt are that I would dive only with a reputable dive operation, cruise preferably as one can expect that safety is better on these boats.
Last, and I say this very respectfully, I would avoid the period of Ramadan: I often saw more incidents happening then than the rest of the year: You cannot expect the same behaviour/capacity from a person that doesn't eat/drink all day and have little rest at night than from the same person in normal conditions.
Best
Philippe

Faceless

Well said.
Choose carefully diving centre or liveaboard you gonna dive with, there are centers in Egypt which do care about their reputation, but unfortunately many are not.

__________________
Peoples risk perception is almost always focused on the most dramatic rather than the most probable. (c) Gordon Smith