-----Original Message-----
From: James Edwards <j_edwards101@ya*.co*>
To: jbentley@cr*.co* <jbentley@cr*.co*>
Cc: techdiver@aquanaut.com <techdiver@aquanaut.com>; cavers@ca*.co*
<cavers@ca*.co*>
Date: Thursday, May 07, 1998 1:21 AM
Subject: Re: IANTD criticzing (huh?)



>Jeff,

>As for Tom (IANTD) or any other dive traing agency, I
>don't think there would be a need for a QA Dept if
>everything was expected to go perfect.  We are all
>human and we all do things we will or might regret, whether in our
>past, present or future.
>
>Tom has given his word that the tragic death will
>be investigated and delt with from an IANTD stand
>point, what else do you realistically expect him to do.
>

James,
If this was the only one or maybe one of a small number of accidents, you
would be "on the money". As it is, there have been far too many deaths, and
much worse still, there have been hundreds of warnings by WKPP members to
Tom, that his training agency was making terrible mistakes in its instructor
certification, and lack of adequate performance reviews.  Tom can NOT say he
is surprised by what  happened----any intelligent man in his place would
have known this was coming--he would only have wondered when, and how
bad---would it be another triple death,  a new quadruple death record, or
would he get away with having only one diver lose their life. In other
words, would it be an "acceptable loss", for the profit IANTD is attaining
for present practices.
Tom  Mount, the person, seems to be a nice enough guy. Tom Mount the
"instructor", has been personally guilty of behavior with students many on
this list have been shocked and angered by, for its reckless disregard for
their safety and his own lack of common sense. And Tom Mount, "the
business"........, now this one is the one that must be looked at the
harshest, because it is this one that cares more about "money streams"  than
how many people will die-----I don't think he sees individual life being
lost---he sees only a statistic, with an inherent cost per body. He has been
warned without reaction far too many times. Or did you forget the Andre
Smith incident already-----this IANTD wonder, broke so many rules it would
take a long e-mail just to cover them alone. He was operating the way he
wanted to, clearly NOT the way Tom wanted him to, but the issue was, is,
that Tom liked the money too much to put an end to instructors who depart
from established procedures and standards. He is not willing to terminate
the perhaps, 30 to 50% of his instructors who are posterboys for
unacceptable risk----this would hurt his wallet too much---even though the
remaining instructors would be excellent instructors, and would bring the
IANTD name back to something synonymous with safety and quality in
instruction.
As far as the BS about this being investigated by Tom right now----are you
high???? Maybe this will fool the media, but this "investigation" is
over-----I mean, the major facts are all in. The really important ones
relating to instructor / student interaction on the dive. Whatever the
Medical Examiner has to say about cause of death will not change the
abandonment issue, and the cowardice which prevented a rescue, and allowed
an emergency to become a  death threat, and then to become a death. No
changes will occur to the most important issues here.
James, if you let Tom get away with this stalling tactic, your on the side
of money over life, and that means you are an enemy of all of us. I hope
this is Not the case, and that you are still trying to cling to the idea
that a nice guy like Tom can't be as bad as some people are saying-----but
James, the major facts are in, and there is no denial possible.  Tom still
had this guy teaching in his store on Tuesday, and is still protecting him
with this stalling BS.  If he had even gone so far as to have  said----"this
Dereck is a piece of shit, and he should be prosecuted by the
authorities"---you would NOT see me making the noise I am about Tom and
IANTD. But again, they can't see the truth, as they are blinded by money,
and damn them to hell, they can not be allowed to treat lives as statistics.
Dan Volker

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