Posted by Brad on June 02, 2004 at 12:04:50:
In Reply to: Re: Root cause? posted by Chuck on June 02, 2004 at 10:55:23:
Dan was blameless in this potential disaster. The primary authorities onboard, skipper, crew, DM have to conducted their duties under the assumption that all the divers onboard are complete novices.
Under maritime law, if a ship is going down and there are not enough lifeboats for the crew and the passengers, the passengers have first priority. That is because the crew willfully placed themselves at the peril of the seas by virtue of their chosen employment whereas the passengers are only onboard as a means of transportation.
That abstract fits this situation because the skipper, crew, and DM had fiduciary responsibilities to the divers, whereas hapless diver Dan was only there for the ride...