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Frank Frank When the coroner's report is made public we will know more. Speculation not supported by facts is inappropriate. However, there is a different way of looking at this issue without the need for so many facts to become public. If the reported 125 rebreather's sold is correct, then we have 3 deaths 2 and incidents of divers becoming unconcious underwater or so I understand. This means that 4% of the users of this RB have suffered serious or terminal problems. To my simple mind this unacceptable high rate is due to one or more of the following: 1. Equipment design or failure. 2. Poor training. 3. Poor vetting of candidates for training. Something clearly needs to be done to reduce the system (diver and equipment) failure rate. David Shimell Project Manager, Sequent Computer Systems Ltd., Weybridge, UK. Email: shimell@se*.co* -----Original Message----- From: Frank Sonnemans [SMTP:fsmlist@ib*.ne*] Sent: Monday, July 27, 1998 8:34 AM To: ChrisTyler Cc: techdiver Subject: One more diver dies using the Buddy Inspiration rebreather The following comes from the July issue of the UK dive magazine Dive International: _____ Technical diver Paul Haydon, 33 dies on a solo dive to 80 m on the wreck of the White Star liner Afric 18 miles of Looe, Cornwall. He was using Trimix with the Buddy Inspiration rebreather. He was diving with a ten strong group of technical divers, three from Belgium the rest from the UK, from the Sea Urchin. After failing to return from the dive a large scale search using underwater scooters was launched. His body was found four days later. An inquest will be held into the death of Mr. Haydon, from Hornchurch, Essex. Another Britisch diver died on a wreck of Cherbourg the following week.. Dr Ewart Lowe, 32 suffered severe decompression illness after ascending from 35m. It is believed that Dr Lowe from Colchester, Essex, suffered a major equipment failure. _____ The same magazine reviewed the Inspiration rebreather, a close circuit system with active, computer controlled Oxygen addition. Three out of seven units failed with water in the electronics at the start of a training session in Egypt. The units were used for 4, 150 and 300 hours respectively and only had the flight to Egypt in common. The article reported that 120 inspiration rebreathers have been sold and that 250 people completed training. The rebreather contains two 3 liter cylinders, diluent and oxygen. The system is controlled by 2 computers and was tested by the Royal Navy and has CE approval. _____ It would be interesting to know if Paul Haydon died because of an equipment failure or user error. Unfortunately I have no contacts in the UK who could find out. One of my concerns with this rebreather (other than problems with the oxygen percentages) is the size of the cylinders, which do not contain enough air for a safe open circuit bailout from a deep decompression dive. -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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