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-----Original Message----- From: Steven Bliim [mailto:sbliim@bi*.co*] Sent: Saturday, July 12, 2003 3:57 AM To: quest@gu*.co* Subject: FW: [dir-asia] Digest Number 102 The following is are messages from the dir-asia message board regarding a rebreather death in the Philippines in April - interesting reading. Regards Steve Bliim Message: 1 Date: Thu, 10 Jul 2003 16:49:09 +0800 From: Rosan Cruz <rcruz@ba*.co*.ph*> Subject: Tubbataha fatality on rb Just in case you want to be updated re rebreather fatality, below is a copy of the complaint filed by Mrs. Aboitiz to IANTD Tom Mount... -------- Original Message -------- From: paragon [mailto:paragon@ca*.co*] Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 9:40 AM To: Aboitiz, Gian; Aboitiz, Marissa; Aragon, Jimbo; Angeles, Kit; Ocampo, Mickey; Porciuncula, Barbie; Maranan, Agnes (home); Maranan, Agnes (work) Subject: Fw: Mr. Tom Mount & Ms. Patti Mount / Re: Alex A. Santos Importance: High ----- Original Message ----- From: Tom Mount <mailto:iantd@ia*.co*> To: paragon <mailto:paragon@ca*.co*> ; J Cc: David Mount <mailto:david@ia*.co*> ; Patti Mount <mailto:patti@ia*.co*> ; Bill Turbeville <mailto:bturbo@ga*.ne*> ; Peter Meyer <mailto:meyer_pe@wi*.co*> Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 12:18 AM Subject: Fw: Mr. Tom Mount & Ms. Patti Mount / Re: Alex A. Santos Dear Regina I have forwarded this to Joe Dituri the IANTD Training Director , to file as a formal complaint to review and evaluate . As the training director Joe is the one that manages QA activities. I have also copied this to Alex so he can provide a response to the incident to Joe in regard to the incident. And also so that he will issue a incident report to iANTD We are deeply saddened by your loss and please accept our condolences Respectfully. Tom Mount ----- Original Message ----- From: paragon <mailto:paragon@ca*.co*> To: (IANTD) Mount, Tom <mailto:iantd@ia*.co*> Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 10:24 PM Subject: ATTN: Mr. Tom Mount & Ms. Patti Mount / Re: Alex A. Santos Dear Sir/Ma'm, Attached (IANTD 061803.doc), please find a letter addressed to Mr. Tom Mount and Ms. Patti Mount, regarding a diving incident involving your Philippine representative, Mr. Alex A. Santos. Kindly acknowledge receipt of said e-mail/letter. Thank you, Regina A. Aboitiz 18 June 2003 VIA E-MAIL ATTN: MR. TOM MOUNT Chief Executive Officer MS. PATTI MOUNT President IAND Inc. / International Association of Nitrox & Technical Divers (IANTD) IANTD World Headquarters 9628 NE 2nd Ave. Suite D Miami Shores, Florida U.S.A e-mail: IANTD@IA*.co* Re: MR. ALEX A. SANTOS IANTD Instructor - Philippines Dear Mr. and Ms. Mount, I am writing to report a diving incident that has caused much grief and sorrow, and has resulted in a senseless and meaningless waste of a human life. In a recent dive excursion with other experienced and supposedly "certified" and "technical-level" divers, my husband drowned and died after he was left all alone by all of his diver companions! The inevitable conclusion of almost everyone, including some of those who dove with him, but left him, is that the drowning in fact occurred because he was left all alone. This is a needless and shameful tragedy that could have been avoided if the very basic diver rules of safety and responsible concern had been followed. And I write to you for whatever rightful and remedial action be taken so that this tragedy should never ever again happen to anyone. This tragedy involves your IANTD Certified Instructor, and Philippine representative, Mr. Alex A. Santos, and my late husband, Julian L. Aboitiz. The group of 7 divers, including Julian and Alex Santos (the most senior, experienced and the only one who was a certified rebreather instructor/diver) went on a "live-on-board" trip to Tubbataha Reefs in the Philippine Sulu Sea. There is a "mother-ship" with two small "dispatch" boats which are used alternately for shuttling divers between dive sites and the mother-ship. So, last April 24, 2003 at approximately 3:30 pm, the group went for their second dive for the day. Using Dolphin Rebreathers, owned and provided by Mr. Santos, they dove to a depth of over 200 feet. Towards the end of the dive, Julian carried out his safety and decompression stop at approximately 10 to 15 feet of water. One by one, the six divers in my husband's group started to surface. And as one surfaced, he/she was shuttled back to the "mother-ship". Unfortunately, no one in the dive group waited for my husband, Julian to surface. Even Alex (the fifth, or second to the last diver to surface at approximately 5:30 pm, as he himself stated), asked to be shuttled back to the main ship, apparently without any concern about his responsibility as the most senior or most qualified diver in the group, for the other divers who might still be in the water. After being alerted by the dispatch boat at about 6:30 p.m. (a good 60 minutes had passed) that the last diver, my husband, had not yet gone up, a surface search was initiated. When they did not find him, the group had to return to the boat to gear up and only then did they do an underwater search. My husband's lifeless body was found at approximately 8:30 pm. (All of these are accounts of divers in group and the others in the "mother-ship".) While I am not a diver, numerous friends, including experienced technical diving instructors have expressed overwhelming alarm and are disturbed with and the reckless and careless manner in which Mr. Santos managed and conducted this particular dive. Worse, if this is typical of the dives he conducts! As you will most likely agree, a tragedy such as this should never or ever happen again. Especially with someone who has Mr. Santos' experience and qualifications. It is therefore respectfully requested that the IANTD and its board re-evaluate Mr. Alex Santos' status as a certified and certifying instructor of the IANTD. I have been contacted by both numerous non-divers and divers/instructors who are outraged by this incident. And they are asking that his affiliation with the IANTD and instructor certification be revoked. In the light of this recent senseless and meaningless tragedy, we would like to request for at least a review and an investigation. In your review, please consider the following facts about the accident: 1) Mr. Santos knowingly left my husband all alone and unsupervised underwater. They called these "fun" dives -- not even formal "training" dives. Please note that Alex was the fifth or second to the last to surface. Unconcerned, he left two other divers, both first-time "rebreather" divers underwater, unsupervised and completely on their own. 2) Mr. Santos had prior knowledge that my late husband Julian's only formal underwater training and certification is that of only an entry level "Scuba Diver", (issued by NAUI on May 1997.). Julian has no other formal training or certification in any other recreational or technical diving level disciplines. (Most definitely, he has had no formal training, nor certification on the use of rebreathers.). 3) Julian first used a rebreather only on April 14, 2003, through the insistence of Mr. Santos. The only instructions my husband received from Mr. Santos were informal--several-minutes of instructions one day before my husband was scheduled to use the rebreather in the open sea. (Just before the trip, my husband asked permission to use a neighbor's swimming pool to test rebreather Mr. Santos had provided). 4) Using a "Dolphin" Rebreather, Mr. Alex Santos allowed my husband, and at least two other "first time", non-rebreather certified divers to a. dive in excess of 200 feet; b. perform a staged decompression dive without any formal training or certification; and c. ignore, or failed to supervise, the rebreather manufacturer's written instructions on depth limits and oxygen mixture levels, were in fact heeded and observed. (To quote the owners manual, "it is designed and manufactured for recreational diving, and MUST NOT be used at depths greater than 130 feet or for staged decompression diving"). 5) On this same trip, there were also at least three other separate rebreather dives my husband Julian carried out with Mr. Santos prior to this last tragic dive, that were also made at depths beyond the rebreather manufacturers warnings and limits. 6) With all his qualifications, experience and as an IANTD certified instructor on Dolphin rebreathers, Mr. Santos was very well aware of the life threatening risks and hazards involved in using rebreathers and mixed gases (oxygen toxicity, hypoxia, etc.) to depths beyond the rebreather manufacturers prescribed limits. Despite all these, Mr. Santos obviously did not in any way supervise or even check and monitor my husband's dive, most especially during my husband's decompression stop. He likewise did not even monitor the dives of the other "first time" rebreather diver! Your review and evaluation should therefore also consider the matter of the sense of responsibility, of possible recklessness and/or indifference for diver safety, of possible complete and willful disregard by Alex Santos, for what he was professionally required to do and trained for, because this has not only resulted in the loss of my husband, but also the loss of a father to my 13, 10 year old sons and 6 year old daughter. I have read IANTD's training philosophy where it states that, "IANTD believes it is better to be safe, cautious and demanding in training than to have even one accident". This one simple statement somehow encompasses the wrong that has happened in this meaningless and senseless tragedy. As one of the world's largest, respected and foremost authority in scuba and technical diving, it is hoped that the IANTD look closely into this and commensurately act on what it believes is right and justified. So that, besides upholding what the IANTD stands for, it will help in at least avoiding a similar tragedy from ever happening again. I look forward to a reply and being informed of whatever action your organization will decide on in this regard. Respectfully yours, Regina A. Aboitiz c/o e-mail: paragon@ca*.co* [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] ________________________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ -- Send mail for the `techdiver' mailing list to `techdiver@aquanaut.com'. Send subscribe/unsubscribe requests to `techdiver-request@aquanaut.com'.
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