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Monday, June 5, 1995: Now after discussing the death with all of the surviving divers on several occasions and some preliminary information from the autopsy, I can give the following description of the facts and circumstances surrounding the recent (last Saturday) tech diver death 25 miles out of Channel Islands Harbor on the seamount site known as the Matterhorn: The site: The "Matterhorn", is a seamount coming up to within 140fsw of the surface about 25 miles offshore from Channel Islands, CA.; visibility at depth is often excellent but can be "layered" and often poor down to 150fsw or so. Currents can run to two knots or more. Strong down currents can also run down the side of the seamount. A house sized portion of the top of the seamount runs from 140fsw to about 180fsw with sharp drop offs down to about the 300fsw mark. After that it drops off down to over a thousand feet. This is not a dive for anyone but the more or most experienced. The Dive: Two of the three divers planned on a dive to 250fsw and completed their dives using air and deco gases; the third diver planned a dive with air as a travel mix, switch to trimix at 250 fsw and dive to 320fsw, return to 250fsw or so and travel up on air and then deco mixes. Divers parted company at 250fsw and the two came back, and completed all deco. After switching to trimix the deceased diver descended to just over 300fsw and then began to travel horizontally away from the anchor line while the other two watched in horror from 250fsw unable to descend. They lost sight of his bubbles before heading up the line to do their own deco. On arrival on the surface they found that the third diver had rocketed to the surface while they were still on the line according to one of the surviving diver's girl friend who had been left on board the boat on the surface. She did not know how to start or run the boat, let alone call the Coast Guard. The deceased diver's drysuit looked like the Michelin Man at the surface. The Coast Guard Chopper initially responded, but left after 10 minutes of searching due to low fuel and returned only after the body was found by a fishing boat which refused to get within 200 yards of the body. The body was recovered, then, by his buddies who removed all gear preserving the same as evidence for accident investigation later. The body was airlifted to Torrance Memorial Hospital, DOA. The body had been in the water for about 45 minutes, face down, when recovered. Blood was oozing from all orifices evidencing sever barotrama. Trauma to the back of the head was also noted. Preliminary information from autopsy reflects,(second hand information) sever barotrama to the lungs. The bottom mix and air tanks each had 150psi left in them when recovered; there was no sign of equipment failure except for the dry suit which was fully inflated. He was "in remission" but had some form of leukemia and left a wife of 15 years and two step daughters. His insurance was still made out in favor of his mother which he had apparently changed after his first marriage and divorce. Deceased Diver's Equipment: I understand that he was using an OMS 120 pumped to 4000psi for air travel mix, a 72 cu.ft. tank pumped up to about 80 cu.ft. for trimix (exact mix unknown, but contained 10% O2) and two 45's for deco gases. Only 150 psi left in each of the main tanks as previously noted on recovery. His computer showed a total dive time of 12 minutes when recovered. His drysuit had a leaky exhaust valve, he knew it before the dive and kept the automatic exhaust valve shutoff to avoid the leaks. Training levels: One surviving diver had been trained in both cave and trimix by Sheck Exley and the other surviving diver had more recently been trained on the East Coast (by whom I'm not sure). It turns out that the deceased diver was cave certified, an open water instructor, but not formally trained in mix gas diving. My Conclusions: It should be obvious that there were numerous violations of "the rules" and I'm sure that many will comment in this regard. However, it seems to me that something interesting made him deviate from his original plan, narcosis may have been a factor or just plain sight seeing (the other divers reported seeing a chambered nautilius). He used up his small supply of bottom mix (having only 5-8 minutes of trimix), returned to his air and may have had an O2 hit. His regulator began free flowing and he rocketed to the surface. This fits with the time on his computer, the amount of gas he was carrying and the trauma observed. Harold Gartner hgartner@ra*.or* CompuServe ID 71470,1423 6900 Via Alba Camarillo, California 805 482-9743
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