Posted by Jeff B on March 15, 2001 at 16:03:54:
In Reply to: Getting a second chance...... posted by MHK on March 14, 2001 at 14:08:30:
"This is one of the few sports that I am aware of that participants do not, or refuse to, benefit from the mistakes of others.." - not becuase we dont want to, but because;
we dont need a bunch of second, no make that 40th hand info and opinions on fatalities based on rumor and this guy died becuase hes a ______. Someone needs to, like Chowdbury did in his mag, collect and post the facts (as much as possible) about diving accidents and deaths. Then and only then can we really get to studying the whys. Then we all have at least the same info to base our opinions on. Ive searched in vain looking for this kind of info but it is pretty much non existant, DAN does some anlysis but the facts are extremley breif and the reporting info is put out 2-3 years after the incidents occured.
Im in the aviation industry and one can pick up almost any trade pub and read about flying mishaps, the Gov't (shudder) has a reporting system in place and collects its data on a voluntary basis, then it is posted up so all can see it. It is a huge database that contains some life saving info.
This debate about solo diving is nuts, do it if you must, do whatever you need to gain an edge and by all means, you are soley responsible for your own saftey. If I were to take this debate at its face value and apply it to flying, we would have dead pilots and ground casulaties all over the place. Dont think the two can be related? They can, You can bend in a bird 100 times faster then you can under water, you can run out of air just by flying to high or running out of supplemental O2, you can have a heart attack at any moment, you can run out of "gas", your engine could just up and quit at anytime, you could ice up and on and on and on. My point being, we train to solo in aircraft all the time and it can be done safely with planning and education. Its really not worth beating our heads over, it has been practiced in the past, it certainly will be practiced in the future. You dont like the agency that is offering this? Fine tell it to them for they are the ones that can change whats going on, us sitting here calling them stupid will do nothing about the issue.
Jeff