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More info on Juno tragedy. ---------------- Begin Forwarded Message ---------------- Date: 4/10/98 12:16 PM Received: 4/10/98 12:21 PM From: Nanci LeVake, nlevake@pi*.co* To: cobber@ci*.co* >Beach diver's life ends in the depths, with his dreams of going deeper > >BY PAUL CLANCY, The Virginian-Pilot >Copyright 1998, Landmark Communications Inc. > >OFF THE VIRGINIA COAST -- Something was terribly wrong. >Even at 170 feet near the ocean's floor, there was little that would >faze Tai Wilkerson, a meticulously careful and widely experienced diver. > >Yet he was signaling for help. > >Mike Fantone, his dive buddy, swam to him. Wilkerson's eyes were wide. >His life-giving regulator dangling from his lips. > >He stopped breathing and went limp. > >At that moment, shortly after 3 p.m. Wednesday -- in a cold and lonely >place at the bottom of the ocean -- all chances that Wilkerson would >survive may have vanished. > >But his friends on the surface loved him too much to let go. For more >than two hours, they would continue to pump oxygen into lifeless lungs >and beat on an unbeating heart. > >And they would continue to hope, even as the winking lights of the Coast >Guard rescue helicopter faded at dusk over the rolling Atlantic. > >The Lynnhaven Dive Center's deepwater team is among the elite of the >profession. And Wilkerson, who was certified in virtually every aspect >of diving that scuba pros can aspire to, was among the very best. > >The hazy, red sun was just rising when the team of nine divers put out >to sea from the inlet at Ocean City, Md., Wednesday morning. They were >working for Quicksilver, the Virginia Beach treasure-hunting company >that has been searching for 10 years for the Spanish ship Juno, which >may have sunk to the bottom with a fortune in treasure in 1802. > >It was the third and last day this week of attempts to salvage something >from a site 40 miles off the Virginian coast of Assateague National >Seashore that would prove this is the Juno. Something like a cannon that >divers thought they spotted earlier in the week. > >One hundred and eighty feet is too dangerous for most recreational >divers -- incredible pressures at those depths can rob people of their >judgment. And even more dangerous is the trip back. > >But pros such as the Lynnhaven team have dropped to wrecks much deeper >than that. Several members, including Wilkerson, had explored the wreck >of the Monitor, the Union ironclad 240 feet down off Hatteras last year. > >Wilkerson's deepest dive was about 415 feet, and he was looking forward >to pushing the envelope even farther, to 500 feet. > >The resident of the Kings Grant neighborhood in Virginia Beach, in his >early 40s, was a pilot for Airborne Express and was believed to be in >superb shape. > >It took just over two hours for ``Miss Lindsey,'' the 60-foot custom >dive boat, to reach the site. > >``Thank you, Lord, for the beautiful day,'' said Mike Hillier, the >leader of the team and veteran of thousands of dives. ``What we gotta do >is find something. But the most important thing is: Come back.'' > >For the first several hours, they didn't find more than a few pieces of >encrusted metal. > >Wilkerson was one of three divers to make the first jump, at about 9:45. >Dressed in bulky dry suits, gloves, hoods and loaded with weight belts >and gear, they looked like astronauts. > >For their dive, their plan was to spend about 20 minutes at the wreck >site. > >At these depths, extreme caution must be used. ``Nitrogen narcosis,'' >the effect of condensed nitrogen on the brain, can cause divers to lose >their judgment. The divers were using a mixture of helium, oxygen and >nitrogen rather than just compressed air, because the mix delays the >narcosis effect. > >For every minute spent at great depths, divers must spend several more >minutes decompressing on the way up. If a diver ascends too rapidly, >gasses in the bloodstream -- in a dissolved state under pressure -- >become bubbles, clogging blood vessels and blocking circulation to vital >organs. > >Decompression illness, known as the ``bends,'' can cause permanent >damage and even death. > >Using a computer program called ``Abyss,'' one diver calculated that for >a stay of 15 minutes, he would have to spend 42 minutes coming to the >surface: four minutes at 40 feet, six minutes at 30 feet, six minutes at >20 feet and 16 minutes at 10 feet. > >Typically, divers will hang on to the anchor line, reading computers >that tell them depth and time. > >Wilkerson, who had gone down with a metal detector, told his colleagues >after the first dive that he got an interesting ``hit'' from an object >that could have been brass or another metal. > >It was cold on the bottom -- 41 degrees -- and visibility was poor. That >would improve as the day wore on. > >``It was crystal clear,'' said diver J.T. Barker, who descended to the >wreck several hours later. > >But the teams were unable to locate the cannon, and time was running >out. The pressure to come up with proof of Juno's existence was growing. > >Shortly after 2 p.m., Wilkerson decided to make one last dive. > >Consulting his laptop computer, he determined he could spend up to 15 >minutes more on the bottom. He had to make those decompression stops to >make it safely back. > >Mike Fantone, who had not yet dived to the wreck, would be his partner. > >They jumped in the water at 2:55 p.m. > >Fantone said he helped Wilkerson adjust his fins, which had come loose. >They exchanged ``OK'' signals and resumed their descent, stopping at the >first hang bar to check each other's equipment. They repeated the >procedure at 100 feet and switched from regular compressed air to the >helium-oxygen-nitrogen mixture. > >Wilkerson stopped about 10 feet from the bottom. It was his job to >attach a tether to the anchor line so they could safely get back. > >But when Fantone looked over his shoulder to make sure his partner was >following, he said, something was wrong. Wilkerson was pulling down on >another rope and becoming entangled in it. > >``He was really breathing hard, oh Lord, and struggling with the line,'' >Fantone said. > >Fantone untangled Wilkerson. He signaled to his friend to calm down and >thought, for just a moment, he had succeeded. > >Then, he noticed Wilkerson's regulator had come out of his mouth and >replaced it. > >``He tried to take a couple of more breaths. But right after that, I >looked in his eyes, and they went out. His eyes got all dilated, and he >stopped breathing. > >``After that, there was nothing I could do. The only thing left to do >was to send him to the surface.'' > >The surface was Wilkerson's only chance. To decompress properly would >take almost an hour. > >There wasn't time. > >When Wilkerson's body popped to the surface, pandemonium erupted. The >crew threw out a lifeline. Barker jumped in the water bare-shirted to >pull his teammate back to the boat. > >They got him to the rear deck, ripped off his mask and immediately began >cardiopulmonary resuscitation and mouth-to-mouth breathing, frequently >rolling him on his side to clear his airway. > >Several minutes later, Fantone surfaced, yelling for his friend. He was >risking his own life by ascending without going through decompression >stops, but he had to know. > >Don't worry, we've got him, they said; get back down there. > >Fantone descended and hung on the anchor line, weeping while he waited >the agonizing minutes before surfacing. > >Crew members probably knew there was no hope, but they kept up a steady >rhythm, pressing on Wilkerson'sheart and attempting to breathe for their >friend. They would suck in pure oxygen from a cylinder and expel it into >his lungs. > >``Jeez, come on Tai,'' one of them would say. They took turns. They >refused to give up. > >It was after 5 p.m. when a Coast Guard boat arrived on the scene. >Wilkerson was fitted with an oxygen bottle and transferred to the other >boat. A Navy ship in the vicinity, the Vicksburg, also lent a hand. > >Wilkerson was transferred by Navy helicopter to the Vicksburg while Navy >personnel continued to administer CPR. Then, the decision was made to >transfer him to Norfolk Sentara Hospital because it has a decompression >chamber. > >Such devices can overcome the effects of decompression sickness by >putting patients under pressure, forcing gas bubbles to contract. > >``Apparently, they think there's hope, if they're taking him to >decompression,'' said Dave Wyden, another member of the Lynnhaven crew. > >As a Coast Guard helicopter picked up Wilkerson from the Vicksburg for >the trip to Norfolk, a member of the Navy crew radioed to the pilot what >everyone was thinking: ``Godspeed.'' > >But it was not to be. At 6:53 p.m., on the way to the hospital, >Wilkerson was pronounced dead. > >On Thursday, Dr. Leah Bush, chief medical examiner, said an >investigation into the cause of death was ongoing. But she said, ``It >does not appear at this time to be equipment malfunction or diver error. >It appears to be an accidental death precipitated by a natural event.'' > >But Wednesday night as darkness fall and the dive team headed back, >Wilkerson's friends did not know of his fate and held out hope. > >And they spoke of his dedication to diving. > >``He'd talk your ear off about it,'' said Hillier on the Bridge of >``Miss Lindsey.'' > >``There were very few people who went as far as he did,'' Hillier said. >``There's no rhyme or reason to things, sometimes -- you know?'' > > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >PILOT ONLINE - NEWS > ----------------- End Forwarded Message ----------------- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Learn About Trimix at http://www.cisatlantic.com/trimix/trimix.html -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. 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