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A friend send me the following in a mail: ACCIDENT REPORT INVOLVING A DIVING FATALITY, 16 JANUARY 1999 AT MANEGUIN ISLAND On 16 January 1999, at approximately 8:00 AM, two groups of 10 divers total (see Appendix A for names), entered the water at Maneguin Island's South-East point to conduct a scuba dive for pleasure, during a dive excursion organized by Calypso Diving School of Manggayad, Boracay Island, Malay Aklan. One group of four divers, incl. the less-experienced ones and led by the Calypso Staff Divemaster, maintained a maximum dive depth of 35 m and concluded their dive safely. The other group, which included the victim, Isagani A. Bisnar Jr, known to friends as "Totit", were more experienced and planned for a depth of 57 meters maximum. The group's training and experience level were sufficient for this depth as Totit for example was an IANTD Advanced Nitrox Diver with over 200 logged dives. Although the sea state was moderately rough on the surface, bottom conditions were good, with visibility in the 25-30 meter range, water temperature 26-27 degrees Celsius, with currents on top of the reef but hardly any at depth. After spending not more than 5 minutes maximum at the deepest depth, at a so-called "Shark Cave", the group began their ascent towards the shallower part of the reef. At around the 45 meter depth, the victim was observed by the fellow divers to suddenly swim out towards the deep, away from the reef wall. Totit was seen to be finning very rapidly and at a slight downward angle. Concerned, one of his fellow divers, Alexander A. Santos, started to follow Totit, after signaling his intentions to another diver, Michelle Santos. At this point, Totit had gone so far away from the group and so deep that only his bubble trail was visible. Alexander followed the bubble trail until it stopped. He looked down and clearly saw Totit more or less 10 meters below him, lying on his back with no regulator in his mouth, no bubbles being produced and no movement whatsoever. Alexander then descended rapidly and further observed a "greenish cloud" around Totit's head (blood at this depth has a green-black appearance). Alexander then tried to lift Totit up to bring him to the surface, found him however much too heavy to be able to do so. Suffering from nitrogen narcosis due to the extreme depth and overexertion in swimming after Totit, and in danger of running out of air himself, Alexander made the decision to ascend immediately. The whole incident took place in a space of less than three minutes, as profiled by Alexander's dive computer which records depth and time. The exact depth at which Totit had sunk down to is impossible to ascertain, as Alexander's computer stops recording or displaying depths deeper than 65 meters. But we estimate that Totit was at between 70-80 meters depth, due to the fact that Alexander's computer was no longer displaying info when he reached Totit. At the surface, Alexander explained to the senior divers of the group, Bo Lundqvist and Eric Muyo, what he had experienced and observed. None of the other divers were able to contribute any further information, except that Totit had also been observed by the others to be swimming away from the reef wall, presumably to better see some large passing fish or shark. After getting this information and assuring the whereabouts and safety of all other group members, Eric Muyo and Bo Lundqvist entered the water and conducted a search pattern for Totit. Unfortunately, due to the extreme depth and the black wetsuit color of the victim, they were unable to locate the body, although the approximate area wherein the incident occurred was well-known. After the fruitless search, the whole group decided to go back to Boracay, roughly a four hour journey, given the surface conditions. Telephone contact had been achieved with Calypso in the meanwhile and a rescue boat with an experienced instructor had been sent to Maneguin Island, but to no effect or purpose. Upon arrival at Boracay Island, the management of Calypso Diving and the police authorities were made aware of all the facts. Conjecture/ Opinion: it is highly likely that Totit had glimpsed some large pelagic fish like a tuna and had decided to chase after it. At that depth though, any exertion will quickly lead to nitrogen narcosis and swimming away from the reef wall into the blue can also result in severe spatial disorientation, i.e. vertigo. A possible cause for the tragic accident is that Totit got extremely narked from the exertion of swimming after something, lost his bearings and thought he was swimming up, when actually he was swimming down! He may then have burst his eardrums at this point, further leading to disorientation or vertigo. From his overexertion, he may also have suffered from excessive carbon dioxide retention, which can lead to diver blackout and unconsciousness. A remote possibility is that he suffered a CNS Oxygen Toxicity convulsion, however, given the depth and short duration of the incident, this is unlikely. Totit was diving with his own personal diving gear, which can be assumed to be in good working order, except for his diving computer, which had malfunctioned slightly the day before. He was equipped with a nitrox deco tank, due to the group's planned decompression profile. Again, his training and experience level were such that the planned dive profile did not exceed his capabilities, he had for example done numerous dives to similar depths in Anilao, Batangas. The fact is, we will never know exactly why he started to swim down suddenly and why his regulator was out of his mouth when he was seen by Alexander. Nitrogen narcosis, depth, overexertion and other unknown factors all contributed to this tragic accident. This report was prepared George Wegmann, Manager of Calypso Diving with statements from Bo Lundqvist, Eric Muyo and Alexander A. Santos and is verified to be true by the undersigned to the best extent of their knowledge. Signed: George Wegmann Manager Calypso Diving <bold><italic><fontfamily><param>Eurostile</param><color><p aram>8080,0000,0000</param>SILENT IMMERSION, Inc. Caracasbaaiweg 276 Curacao, Netherlands Antilles Tel/Fax: 599-9-767.70.14 Cell.: 599-9-562.13.23 www.silentimmersion.com </color></fontfamily></italic></bold> -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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