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Hi all It seems that asking questions is a very unpopular pastime. Since I asked Christo to give details of the accident involving Hennie Pretorious, I have received various requests and threats to keep quiet. I have been told that asking questions shows a lack of respect for the memory of the late gentleman, and that, as an inexperienced diver, I have no right to question the actions of better divers. I certainly did not mean any disrespect to Hennie, and deeply deplore the loss of any diver. As far as I am concerned, zero fatality rate is the only acceptable standard to aim for. However, if we do not learn from mistakes, further accidents will happen due to the same cause. Thus I make no apology for asking questions. Let us consider the accident itself. A well known South African technical diver said in a message to me some months back that: "Whenever an accident occur, the question will be asked: Was training AND the dive done to international accepted standards?". From the TDI Standards Manual, version 1.2 Trimix Diver Course: "The TDI Trimix Course provides the training required to be certified to competently and safely utilize breathing gasses containing helium for dives that require staged decompression, utilizing nitrox and / or oxygen mixtures during decompression TO A MAXIMUM DEPTH OF 300 FSW" (pg MG1) (my emphasis) "All dives should be conducted between 80 and 300 fsw." (pg MG3) (300 ft = 91.44 m) Dennis said "The max depth planned for was 100 meters", and "Hennie had teamed up with Steve, the Course Director". From this I deduce that the course director was aware of, and had approved, the dive plan. My TDI course structure document has the following prerequisites for Trimix Instructor: Extended Range Instructor for 12 months 800 dives 300 dives deeper than 40 m 200 dives on mixed gas 50 trimix dives (This is from an old copy, and the European version. If it has changed, will someone please post an update. Thanks) How many dives did the three candidates have? According to my information, Hennie had three trimix dives prior to the course. This may be incorrect; if anyone has the true figure, please publish it. Is TDI willing to make public a list of the names of all trimix instructors in South Africa, together with the number of trimix dives they had done prior to qualifying as trimix instructors? If the requirements above have been updated, will someone from TDI please correct me. With that I will retire from the debate. Safe diving Mike Beresford -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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