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From: <sallot@mi*.co*>
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 09:03:49 -0500 (EST)
To: cavers@cavers.com
Subject: Fatality At Little River (fwd)

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 01:27:23 -0500
From: Mike Rodriguez <mikey@ma*.co*>
To: FlTechDiver@mi*.ne*
Subject: Fatality At Little River


Attached below is the official IUCRR report:

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INTERNATIONAL UNDERWATER CAVE
RESCUE/RECOVERY
ACCIDENT REPORT

DATE - March 6, 2000
LOCATION - Little River Springs, Suawanee Co., FL
VICTIM - Michael Hickey, 27 years old, white male
RECOVERY TEAM - Lamar Hires and Dell Motes



On March 6, 2000, at  approximately 8:44 a.m., two Intro-Cave Divers
entered Little River Springs wearing doubles and using Diver Propulsion
Vehicle's.  Neither diver had been in the water since September 1999.
This was the first dive of their trip, and they had not been in Little
River since March of 1999.  Michael Hickey (victim), and Phil Iantosca
(survivor), were certified as IANTD Intro-Cave Divers by IANTD Cave
Instructor Todd Smith  in November, 1997.  The survivor stated that they
had approximately a total of 200 total dives, and 70 of them cave
dives.  Both divers last known address is in Massachusetts.

Rose Meadows arrived at Little River Springs with students when the
survivor surfaced at 10:19 a.m. and asked if anyone had seen his buddy.
Rose proceeded as if it was a possible rescue.  Two other dive teams
were there and ready to get in the water, so Rose requested that they
look for the missing diver.
Both teams were turned back by the silt.  Normal visibility in Little
River Springs is 100'+.   Rose Meadows used Charles Coborn's cell phone,
which was on site,  to call  Ginnie Springs where the call list was
activated by Connie LoRe.  Henry Nicholson and myself were called, but
neither one of us could be reached.  At approximately 10:30 a.m., Lamar
Hires was called, and then Lamar contacted the Suawanee County Sheriff's
office and proceeded to the scene with Dell Motes.  Tom Harter and Mark
Meadows were in route to the scene also.

When Lamar Hires arrived on the scene, he left Rose in charge of the
surface support.  She relinquished the report to Tom Harter when he
arrived.  All details of the recovery were recorded:  time log, gas used
and equipment and search parameters of each dive.  The survivor
indicated  that the team was separated in the Florida Room on exit when
the victim dropped his scooter and silted out the cave.  The location of
the incident was confirmed with maps shown to the survivor.  The silt
was still coming out of the entrance to the cave, and it had been two
hours since the buddy had surfaced.  Lamar and Dell entered the water
for the first dive at 12:37 p.m. with a 31% EANx backgas and oxygen for
decompression.  They searched everything back to 400' past the Dome
Room.  Lamar and Dell had  85 minutes of  bottom time. Visibility was
low but manageable, 3' - 5' to the Florida Room, then relatively clear.
They surfaced and prepared to send another team in when more details
came out from the survivor.  He thought that the well casing was in the
Florida Room and it was near the well casing  where he last saw his
buddy.  They had scootered back to the well casing, 2250' back.   The
other divers on site were not comfortable attempting to recover a victim
that far back in those conditions.  Lamar and Dell  entered the water at
3:48 p.m. for their second dive on scooters for the recovery.  Their mix
was a 33% nitrox with oxygen to decompress with.  They dropped their
scooters at the Dome Room and swam the rest of the way.  The body was
found 30' on the exit side of the well casing with scooter still
attached, with no regulator in his mouth, face down covered with clay,
and hands scraped.   The mask was found next to the line approximately
8' from the body.  A reel was deployed from the permanent line near the
victim's mask,  about 80' of line was run out, and then reattached to
the permanent line.  The reel had the survivor's  initials on it.  Upon
further questioning, the survivor stated he did not recall deploying his
reel.  The recovery team pulled him out via tether back to the scooters,
and exited with Dell's scooter for the tow. Their total dive time was 55
minutes.  When the surface support saw the recovery teams bubbles, Rich
Gunther was sent in to meet them and bring the body to the surface.  At
4:45 p.m. the body reached the surface.
Mark Meadows and Harry Averill went back in later to retrieve the Diver
Propulsion Vehicle's  (the victim's and the one that Lamar was riding).
This effort took approximatel 40 minutes.
Rose Meadows evaluated the gear of the survivor to find that he had only
50 psi left in his cylinders.   He was breathing air and he  had a total
dive time of 95 minutes, including 22 minutes of decompression on
oxygen.
Tom Harter and Harry Averill assessed  the gear of the victim.  He had
825 psi left in his double 95's, which analyzed out at 21.2%, and there
was a =BD roll off on the left valve of his manifold.  He was wearing a
drysuit, and an Aladin Pro computer which showed a maximum depth of
104'.  The victim owned a 10 amp Ginnie light which presumably burned
out during the dive, and the casing was not flooded upon inspection.
All other equipment was in working order.

Physical participants of the recovery were:  Lamar Hires, Dell Motes,
Rose Meadows, Mark Meadows, Tom Harter, Harry Averill, Rich Gunther, and
others unmentioned.
I would like to thank you and commend you for coming together as a team
to get the job done.

Larry Green
State of Florida Regional Coordinator
IUCRR

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-Mike Rodriguez
<mikey@ma*.co*>
Pn(x) =3D (1/(2^n)n!)[d/dx]^n(x^2 - 1)^n

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