Posted by Chris on September 19, 2001 at 03:31:06:
Comments about MHK's observations of Wayne.
1) his SPG read 0 psi;
Sound like Wayne was out of air, not a regulator malfunction as reported some places.
2) he did not have a regulator in his mouth;
This is meaningless.
3) he was diving with a steel tank and a wetsuit;
This is completely and utterly meaningless.
4) his weight belt had 29 lbs and appeared to have been attempted to drop as it was partially off and was resting between the knees and the ankles. It should be noted that the buckle APPEARED to be
malfunctioning and MAY have been precluded from ditching. The sheriff's team has taken all the equipment and will perform independent analysis;
This is interesting; weight belt buckles usually fail by coming open accidentally.
I am curious how one could fail closed.
I have rescued divers who had problems dropping belts, and had them tangled in their fin straps, or bent legs.
I have also seen worn webbing get snagged in buckles.
More details on this would be interesting.
5) his depth gauge, which was the old style needle version, indicated a max.depth of 156'. Although speculation arose as to whether that was accurate inasmuch as it's possible that the needle was not reset
from a previous dive and the surviving buddies computer did not indicate such a depth;
The diver was found at 146' according to MHK's gauge, which I will assume is digital.
Assuming MHK had a very accurate depth gauge of probably 2% accuracy, that gives about 3 feet of error + or - the last digit of digital round off error would make his reading within 4 feet of the actual depth.
Considering that Wayne had an analog gauge probably has at least 5% or more error that accounts for 7' of depth error.
Tides plus waves probably account for an additional change in maximum reading of at least 5 feet.
4 + 7 + 5 = 16 feet which more than accounts for the 156' reading.
6) the gear appeared to be rental gear, the style of which is typical of a rental configuration. ie; jacket style BC, sherwood regulator complete with *octo* and he was NOT wearing a computer, either wrist
mounted nor on the console;
The style of gear is not an issue, millions of safe of dives have been safely made with such a gear configuration.
There is no gear issue unless it can be shown the gear malfunctioned.
Four dives is not enough experience to dive Farnsworth.
Any deep advanced dive, in unfamiliar gear, is ill advised for anyone.
Any time new gear is used, it should be tested and familiarity gained with it in shallow, calm water.
From what was found and previous reports, the problem seems to be lack of experience for the dive undertaken.
We will need to see if the authorities find anything additional for a final conclusion.