The medical Examiner announced this morning the body which surfaced, was the
tech instructor, Andre Smith.
Particularly surprising, that Andre would have been the one to strip his
gear off.  Perhaps Andre could not pull the heavy four steel tanks off the
bottom, due to wing system  insufficiency and no buoyancy assistance from
his wet suit. So when John Claypool went down to help, they unstrapped Andre
with the intention of buddy breathing him up. This would have been time
consuming, and certainly, John's second descent would have eaten up a huge
amount of gas, since he would have had the current at 100 feet, pushing him
to the north of Andre on the bottom ( where there is no current at all).
Hypothermia, and insufficient gas for this scenario, would both have been
critical problems.

We went out this morning, and did two more runs. We have covered  upcurrent
of the Classic barge, from .86 miles south of it, to 1.5 miles north of it.
A rubble zone covering about 4 tenths of a mile, about 100 to 250 feet wide
in many places, still is the most promising resting point for the two
remaining divers.  If Divers Supply would HELP US by allowing or asking the
survivor Larry Roth, to sit down with George Irvine, Robert Carmichael,
Bill Mee and myself, we could have him describe the first 15 minutes of his
dive to us---what the bottom looked like, approximate depths, etc., and from
all the dives we have amassed so far, we would be MUCH MORE able to piece
together where the actual resting place is, and the likelihood of recovering
the bodies quickly, would rise dramatically.

This would be a GREAT time for Divers Supply, to win some morality points
back, after threatening Franks Dive boat if he took us out, and after
threatening Brownies 3rd Lung, if Robert assisted us in the search.  The
families have TOLD us they want us to find the bodies. Any press release by
DS indicating otherwise, represented a horrible untruth.
If they can help us to locate the bodies now, perhaps all of us will be able
to forget the emotional mistakes Divers Supply made in the beginning.  If
any body has any sway with Dick Mcnatt or Jeff Hirshman, call these guys,
and ask them to let us have a conference with the survivor, to help us zero
in. If they have any decency in their hearts, if they have any concern for
the family of Mike Elkins and John Claypool....if they want to be considered
a respected business, and regain their good name----they really should try
to help, instead of hinder,  the recovery.. We won't quit in our
search----but we may have any where from 1 to  a dozen  more dives, or more,
before we are successful. Divers Supply could help make  us successful,
almost immediately, by cooperating with us.  Please guys, lets get a rapid
conclusion to this for the families.  Somebody with some influence with
these guys at Divers Supply could really help us. Thanks.
Regards,
Dan Volker


--
Dan Volker
South Florida Dive Journal
http://www.sfdj.com/
The Internet magazine for u/w photography and mpeg video




--
Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'.
Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.

Navigate by Author: [Previous] [Next] [Author Search Index]
Navigate by Subject: [Previous] [Next] [Subject Search Index]

[Send Reply] [Send Message with New Topic]

[Search Selection] [Mailing List Home] [Home]