Diver Missing At Cove 2 (11am Today 2/19)

[scubnewb]

Woke up at about 12 to my phone going off with family worried about me as I was supposed to head to cove 2 this morning and they heard a diver went missing today at 11am...

http://www.westseattleherald.com/2012/0 ... -police-an

[renoun]

Well since the Club Dive is today I didn't have the same initial pang of fear that it was going to be somebody I know. West Seattle Blog is down there reporting too.

12:39 PM UPDATE: SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore confirms this is shifting from search to recovery – divers have made three passes and have not found any sign of the missing diver, described as a man in his late 20s, experienced, with more than 50 dives in the past. He was out as part of an advanced class and then seemed to be in some kind of distress and started going up “too fast”; another tried to follow him but upon reaching the surface didn’t see the one who was in trouble. The group then signaled to people on shore that there was a problem, and that’s when fire/police were called.

[scubnewb]

Theres actually a good amount of dive club people down there that couldnt make it to the Redondo dive for one reason or another. Thats where i was gonna dive as i didnt have a ride to redondo today but got a offer to go to cove 2 so thats where i was headed. But my ride has also gone missing as well so i am watching the Miami Heat game instead... either way its a horrible thing.

Well since the Club Dive is today I didn't have the same initial pang of fear that it was going to be somebody I know. West Seattle Blog is down there reporting too.

12:39 PM UPDATE: SFD spokesperson Kyle Moore confirms this is shifting from search to recovery – divers have made three passes and have not found any sign of the missing diver, described as a man in his late 20s, experienced, with more than 50 dives in the past. He was out as part of an advanced class and then seemed to be in some kind of distress and started going up “too fast”; another tried to follow him but upon reaching the surface didn’t see the one who was in trouble. The group then signaled to people on shore that there was a problem, and that’s when fire/police were called.

[scubnewb]

sounds like it turned into a recovery dive now...

[renoun]

Video now posted at West Seattle Blog
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MbtjQLOZa34[/youtube]

[Gdog]

Prayers for the diver and his loved ones.

[kitsapdiver]

I just saw that they are suspending the search during the overnight hours on KOMO news.


My thoughts and prayers are with the divers family.

When I lived in Ohio many of the Search and Rescue Divers were volunteers who were divers first, and often worked other jobs. But it doesn't seem that is the case here. Are the search and rescue divers here police officers first, and divers as well?

I don't ask to be insensitive, I just ask because it seems like there are some really really talented divers on this board, and in the PNW who have talents that would be contributions, not liabilities during situations like this. I think of the Cave Diving community which has a unique search and rescue group.

As I said I'm not trying to be insensitive, derail this thread, or disrespect in any ways those who are contributing. The reason I ask is because when stories like this surface it triggers that instinct in me that I want to help, and be proactive. I feel like these are the situations where my tools, and my skills would be useful, and I should do more than I am doing today.

[SeanKylgod]

+1 I wanna go help.

I just saw that they are suspending the search during the overnight hours on KOMO news.


My thoughts and prayers are with the divers family.

When I lived in Ohio many of the Search and Rescue Divers were volunteers who were divers first, and often worked other jobs. But it doesn't seem that is the case here. Are the search and rescue divers here police officers first, and divers as well?

I don't ask to be insensitive, I just ask because it seems like there are some really really talented divers on this board, and in the PNW who have talents that would be contributions, not liabilities during situations like this. I think of the Cave Diving community which has a unique search and rescue group.

As I said I'm not trying to be insensitive, derail this thread, or disrespect in any ways those who are contributing. The reason I ask is because when stories like this surface it triggers that instinct in me that I want to help, and be proactive. I feel like these are the situations where my tools, and my skills would be useful, and I should do more than I am doing today.

[defied]

SPD closed cove1-3 for divers, and have asked noone to get in the water.
Scooter battery is charging, but I've only got 2K of 21/45.

D

[kitsapdiver]

West seattle blog posted at 6:32 they are working to confirm a report the divers body was found! Sean found it, good find sean!

[lundysd]

There is no doubt that there are some extremely talented divers on here who are more than capable of helping, but I can't fault the S&R guys for making this call. The last thing they want is for some undertrained and overconfident diver trying to make a heroic effort, only to become a victim themselves. Furthermore, having more divers in the water only complicates things -- think about the added overhead boat traffic and the creation of an overhead environment, the challenge of communicating with multiple dive teams using multiple search patterns/strategies, and of all sorts of other unknown variables. Finally... dealing with several hundred pounds of negative buoyancy from a potential recovery isn't trivial and should be practiced before attempted for real imho.

I too had a gut desire to head out there with a scooter and some Helium, but this is one case where the operation is most certainly a recovery, and getting anyone else hurt in the process will only make things exponentially worse.

[chokolad]

Finally... dealing with several hundred pounds of negative buoyancy from a potential recovery isn't trivial and should be practiced before attempted for real imho.

Several hundred pounds ???

[lundysd]

Fair point -- Maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but if the drysuit is fully flooded, then the diver could easily be very very negative in the water, and several hundred pounds when out of the water.

[kitsapdiver]

There is no doubt that there are some extremely talented divers on here who are more than capable of helping, but I can't fault the S&R guys for making this call. The last thing they want is for some undertrained and overconfident diver trying to make a heroic effort, only to become a victim themselves. Furthermore, having more divers in the water only complicates things -- think about the added overhead boat traffic and the creation of an overhead environment, the challenge of communicating with multiple dive teams using multiple search patterns/strategies, and of all sorts of other unknown variables. Finally... dealing with several hundred pounds of negative buoyancy from a potential recovery isn't trivial and should be practiced before attempted for real imho.

I too had a gut desire to head out there with a scooter and some Helium, but this is one case where the operation is most certainly a recovery, and getting anyone else hurt in the process will only make things exponentially worse.

Lundy, I agree whole heartedly with everything you said. And as much as the instinct to head out there tonight just makes you want to respond to that "call to action" it cant' be controlled by the people who have to have some control over the situation.

But I guess more generally I was wondering if there is a "volunteer" organization that does work with the appropriate authorities to coordinate with them, and offer help with tools like scooters, HE, night diving etc. It's hard to expect our police divers to have time to train to the level, and dive as often as the people who do it as a passion when they are also trying to do so many other things to serve and protect.

Like I said in Ohio they did have police divers who were full time police officers, and maintained the organization of the dive teams. However, they did supplement the team with very volunteers. It was not an easy task to volunteer with their team, and it was a very demanding commitment, because as you said the skills required to lift a significant amount of negatively boyant weight is not something one should be doing with out practice, and understanding how to search grids, set up the search area etc. requires coordination with a team.

[kitsapdiver]

There is no doubt that there are some extremely talented divers on here who are more than capable of helping, but I can't fault the S&R guys for making this call. The last thing they want is for some undertrained and overconfident diver trying to make a heroic effort, only to become a victim themselves. Furthermore, having more divers in the water only complicates things -- think about the added overhead boat traffic and the creation of an overhead environment, the challenge of communicating with multiple dive teams using multiple search patterns/strategies, and of all sorts of other unknown variables. Finally... dealing with several hundred pounds of negative buoyancy from a potential recovery isn't trivial and should be practiced before attempted for real imho.

I too had a gut desire to head out there with a scooter and some Helium, but this is one case where the operation is most certainly a recovery, and getting anyone else hurt in the process will only make things exponentially worse.

Lundy, I agree whole heartedly with everything you said. And as much as the instinct to head out there tonight just makes you want to respond to that "call to action" it cant' be controlled by the people who have to have some control over the situation.

But I guess more generally I was wondering if there is a "volunteer" organization that does work with the appropriate authorities to coordinate with them, and offer help with tools like scooters, HE, night diving etc. It's hard to expect our police divers to have time to train to the level, and dive as often as the people who do it as a passion when they are also trying to do so many other things to serve and protect.

Like I said in Ohio they did have police divers who were full time police officers, and maintained the dive teams. However, they did supplement the team with very good divers who were volunteers. It was not an easy task to volunteer with their team, and it was a very demanding commitment, because as you said the skills required to lift a significant amount of negatively buoyant weight is not something one should be doing with out practice, and understanding how to search grids, set up the search area etc. requires coordination with a team. The searches are very coordinated and it requires a lot of people be on the same page.

[kitsapdiver]

According to West Seattle Blog>>> 7:03 PM: Police confirm that a body has been located. Civilian divers continued looking into the evening and told authorities around 6 pm they believed they had found him.

[CaptnJack]

Both Seattle PD and Seattle fire maintain professional dive teams. They are police and firefighters who sign up for the dive team as (coveted apparently) duty so no they are not volunteers. King and Pierce county sheriff's departments also maintain professional dive teams. I don't know about other WA Counties.

Sad day. I'm sure the instructor and classmates are having a rough night.

[scubnewb]

They Located Him:

http://www.q13fox.com/news/kcpq-coast-g ... 9173.story

[lamont]

a team of two divers found the body. me, laura and casey went back in and dropped down and immediately re-found him at about 105 feet between the two deeper bundles of logs (not the one paralleling the boundary cable, the next two over as you head towards the i-beams). blew a bag to mark him.

more later maybe.

[kdupreez]

Not sure how accurate this is, but the body was found according to West Seattle Harold:

Johanna Raupe a veteran of 700 dives found the body in 130 feet of water 250 to 300 feet offshore

http://www.facebook.com/WestSeattleHerald

Sad day :(

[eliseaboo]

Terrible news. Take care, all involved if you are on the board. My thoughts are with you, and that's the best I can do.

[Joshua Smith]

a team of two divers found the body. me, laura and casey went back in and dropped down and immediately re-found him at about 105 feet between the two deeper bundles of logs (not the one paralleling the boundary cable, the next two over as you head towards the i-beams). blew a bag to mark him.

more later maybe.

Props to all involved. Thanks for being there and stepping up to the plate. I know it can't be easy, but I hope your efforts brought some measure of comfort to the people that loved the poor guy who died.

[CaptnJack]

a team of two divers found the body. me, laura and casey went back in and dropped down and immediately re-found him at about 105 feet between the two deeper bundles of logs (not the one paralleling the boundary cable, the next two over as you head towards the i-beams). blew a bag to mark him.

more later maybe.

Nice job. Take care of yourselves tonight.

[lamont]

Okay, some update details.

The diver was reported missing around 11am. The fire dept dive team searched for multiple hours. The info that they had been given was that the separation occurred during some kind of rapid ascent starting at around 60 feet on the boundary cable (near the penguin). The dive was an AOW course dive to ~100-ish down to the log beams.

We got into the water around 5pm and searched with scooters all around the dive area shallower than about 85 feet. As we were getting out from that dive, a pair of divers surfaced and reported that they had found him. They had found him deeper (110-120-ish maybe?) down by the log beams. This was a pair of recreational single tank divers. They had attempted to pull him shallower, one of them had a rapid ascent and was, I believe, taken conscious to the chamber and we have no information on that diver yet.

We dropped back down and found the diver around 105 in between the two deeper sets of log pilings. We blew a bag and clipped it off to the diver, then ascended.

The diver was on his back, still had all his gear (tanks, fins, etc), had no reg in his mouth, had only a little bit of water in his mask and a tiny bit of blood in the mask. One backup light was clipped to his harness and turned on.

One takeaway is that the initial information coming from his team was likely wrong. He was probably lost at depth at ~100-ish and there was probably confusion over seeing him at 60 (I have no doubt that one of the divers thought they saw him at 60, but that gets to eyewitness reports being poor quality -- which goes for everything i'm writing up right now, too), lack of blood in the mask makes me think he drowned at depth. We don't know the state of his gas though (did not check his SPG) and obviously accurate cause of death has to wait on the coroner. I was skeptical on the surface at the report of last seeing him at 60 though and I was unsurprised that he was found down at 100+. He could have drifted back down to 120 and happened to wind up right near where the class left from, but my occam's razor suggests that the accident all happend roughly where he was found.

[ And mostly my point there is just about the lessons learned of the process of doing a search -- when you do a bunch of search patterns near where the diver was last seen and don't find them, consider rejecting that information, and then search based off the remainder of the info you have... ]

[lundysd]

Thanks Lamont -- I'm sure it wasn't easy, but now perhaps the family and friends can have some closure.