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A double fatality occurred Sunday 17th at Madison Blue Springs, Madison County, Florida. Both divers were Cave certified. Madison Blue staff found the vehicle undisturbed Monday morning and called authorities and recovery divers. Lamar Hires, Mike Bruic and myself found the divers just downstream of the half hitch restriction (approx 800+ feet).One diver had his tanks /harness removed, the other was still in his gear. Both divers were on the ceiling, in vertical positions, facing each other with arms outstretched to each other. The removed set of gear was on the floor below them. The entire group of gear and divers was entangled in the permanent line, which had been severed. Upon Lamar untangling the line, Mike took it and proceeded to go through the half hitch. It would not reach, so he tied in a reel and went through. Upon clearing the restriction, which was intact, he came upon the broken end of the upstream line. Two reels had been deployed off of this line, and a third was laying on the floor in stowed position. All these reels were in a few feet of each other. He left them undisturbed, and returned to the accident scene. The removed tanks were empty, the other diver still had 500 psi. All gear was in good working order. After interviews of other divers, it appears this team were the only ones to this area on Sunday. The most likely scenario, AT THIS TIME, is for whatever reason they returned to the restriction for their exit, only to find the line broken, and visibility greatly reduced. A line search in this small area, for an extended period of time, most likely reduced the visibility to zero. They eventually cleared the restriction, but without a reel or line, so it appears sheer luck they got through. They obviously found the downstream line, but became severely entangled in it and the removed gear. Both divers were in classic type gear, backplates and wings, belt mounted lights, backups on shoulder straps etc. Upon downloading their Nitek computers, it appears they expired approx 135 minutes after they began the dive. This being the point where no variance in depth was recorded. The computers also show a max depth of approx. 78 feet, which indicates a drop into the area of the Zumgood/rotorooter , which most likely was the farthest point of penetration. Dell Motes Dive Rite 117 W.Washington St. Lake City, Florida 32055 www.dive-rite.com -----Original Message----- From: Jbdvr@ao*.co* <Jbdvr@ao*.co*> To: techdiver@aquanaut.com <techdiver@aquanaut.com> Date: Wednesday, October 20, 1999 12:26 PM Subject: madison blue fatalities >does anyone have any info on the fatalities of two cave divers at madison >blue yesterday? >-- >Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. >Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'. > -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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