Mailing List Archive Mailing List Archive
<html><div>To those of you that have kept the conjecture on this death quite while I dig for the facts I offer a HUGE thank-you!!! You have shown that you are in fact reasonable people who are interested in the facts and not just in driving home your "agenda". To the many of you that have provided information and passed along what you have heard I also offer a my thanks. Despite a great deal of conflicting information I belive that I have managed to piece together an accurate picture of Richard's last few dives and ultimately his death.</div> <br> <div>First, a little background on me and my resources as it pertains to collecting this type of information. I am a broadcast engineer at major market TV station. Although I personally have no background in information gathering I work with some of the best in the business. The company I work for has 6 TV stations around the country as well as radio and cable operations. They also run news paper and magazine operations that are well respected around the world. And no you are not likely to see these publications at your grocers checkout isle!!! However, everyone on this list has heard of them. I asked some of these professionals to assist me in gathering information this information. I also talked with people on the boat at the time of the incident and with other people with first, second and third hand information. The following is a summery of the information gathered over the past month plus of research.</div> <br> <br> <br> <div>On June 30, 1998 Richard and his dive buddy were to leave for their first dive trip to the Andrea Doria. The weather refused to cooperate with Richard and the dive trip was canceled by the Captain of the boat. However, Richard received an offer to return the following week filling a vacancy. Diving the Doria was one of Richard's goals so Richard agreed to the arrangement. One week later on the 7th of July Richard left port for his first trip to the Doria. The first day of diving was "uneventful" and Richard completed his day of diving with a buddy he met on this trip. The individual he was to dive with the week before could not return for this trip. On the morning of the 8th Richard woke early and completed his first dive of the day solo without incident. This information is widely known and remains undisputed.</div> <div> </div> <div>Prior to his second dive of the day Richard toped his tanks with heliox from his second set of doubles then toped them with air. The mix that he apparently planed on getting was 19/30 tri mix. Divers on the boat heard him mumble an unhappy "'shoot' it could have been 'shit' I couldn't hear well from where I was" while analyzing his gas before the second dive. Richard then put away the analyzer and after checking out with the crew of the boat entered the water at 1:03pm July 8 1998 for his last dive. Because Richard was diving solo on this dive no one saw what happened to Richard during the dive.</div> <br> <div>Richard's body was recovered the next day from within the wreck approximately 24 hours after leaving the boat. The divers reported finding him face down with the reg still in his mouth back gas empty. Richard not only DID NOT attempt to breath his deco gas at depth, both stages were turned off and NOT pressurized. Later inspection showed both tanks to be full and regs to be stowed. None of his gear was out of place and there was no sign of struggle.</div> <br> <div>Although not my first choice for bottom mix, 19/30 would yield a 1.42 PPO2 with a END of about 136fsw. For a dive of this type it would be a bit hard to belive, given the state of his gear, that he toxed. His reg was in his mouth. His other gear undisturbed. At this point I turned to what I know about Richard. </div> <br> <div>I have met Richard. And although my relationship was only that of an acquaintance I came to learn a good bit about him. First Richard had a reputation for running his tanks very low on a dive. But there was no struggle evident at the scene. Surely a diver panic and fight for that last breath. He also had a bad reputation of taking as much crap with him on every dive as he could carry. He owned a dive shop and liked to show off all the toys he had for sale. But every credible report said that he was not entangled. In fact he did not take a line reel with him. Richard had only been certified tri mix for less that a year (and made tri mix instructor during that time) but that seemed to have no bearing in the incident either.</div> <div> </div> <div>At this point it seemed that Richard just went to sleep during his dive. That made no sense. About this time in my investigation RUMORS started to circulate that Richard may have killed himself. I didn't know him well but I found that hard to belive. Besides if I were going to commit suicide on a deep dive I would just grab the O2 reg at depth (for those of you that would like to see that, sorry, it's not going to happen). I'm told that it would be a rather painless way to go. But that did not happen. I went back to see if I could get more information on Richard's bottom mix. What was the deal with the "shit" as he analyzed the gas for his dive?</div> <br> <div>The gas Richard reported to the charter operation was 19/30 or 19/33 according to every account I have received. But that information came from Richard. Was Richard covering up a mistake he made in blending??? I later received information from several sources the gas in his BC was analyzed and the contents were reported to be (depending on the source) between 18-19% O2 and 30-35% He.</div> <br> <div>The ME report stated that the COD was drowning. No evidence of heart attack, stroke or organ damage due to illness. Many reports floating around have Richard dyeing of heart attack. But again there was no sign of struggle, panic or any other distress. Further the ME ruled out heart attack!!!</div> <br> <div>By this I am getting discouraged. I have spent weeks gathering information and despite his lack of experience, despite the fact that he did not run a guideline, despite all the mistakes he made on this dive, there remained no clear reason for Richard to die.</div> <br> <div>Just when it looked like I would never get the missing piece of the puzzle.... Out of nowhere I get handed the last piece. It seems that Richard is prone to seasickness. It was not uncommon for him to use Dramamine!!! A freaking sedative!!! The damn fool apparently took Dramamine before the dive. That explains why he just appeared to fall asleep. He DID just fall asleep.</div> <br> <div>Can you belive that a "tri mix instructor", "accomplished diver" and "dive consultant" would do something that butt stupid??? I can. I knew Richard.</div> <br> <BR> <x-html>Bill <aquadart> Bott <BR> <BR> <b>"If you stand for nothing <BR> you are likely to fall for anything"</b></x-html> -- 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]