Posted by Ken Kurtis on June 02, 2004 at 23:08:44:
In Reply to: Some unaswered questions? posted by Chuck Tribolet on June 02, 2004 at 20:27:13:
The orignial Chuck asked: "1. Would Dan have been spotted, or was he now too far away? (1a Is his sausage deployed? 1b What was the surface visibility?)"
The roll call was done roughly 30 minutes after Dan surfaced. Even with a current of only 1 knot, he'd have drifted half a mile PLUS the 400 yard distance he estimates between him and the boat when he surfaced. That would have been too far away since the surface vis was probably 100-200 feet. His sausage WAS deployed (and his weightbelt was ditched - good moves on dan's part) but that still wouldn't have helped him at that point (IMHO) being spotted from the rigs.
Chuck: "2. I think the correct first action would be a search for bubbles in the vicinity of the rig (while Dan drifts farther away) with an eyeball search down current for Dan. 2a. When to switch from bubble search to moving the boat down-current?"
The lesson that I took away from this is don't assume he's dead. My first instinct with something like this would be to assume he was down somewhere on the rig either dead or dying. Nowhere in my wildest dreams would I think he was drifting downcurrent. That's based on a belief that he would have paid attention to the surface-if-you-can't-see-anything part of the briefing and a belief that positioning of the boat and watching the water would make it impossible for him to get by us on the surface.
Chuck: "3. How the heck did Dan get checked OFF the boat at the second site? I haven't heard ANY conjecture about that, and I guarantee there's a story there."
I agree with you 100%. No one has questioned the DMs strongly about that (and when they have talked about it, I'm told their comments are somewhat vague). To me this put Dan is even more danger because now, based on the DMs again-faulty actions, the search was being conducted in the wrong place, delaying Dan's potential discovery and recovery.
Ken Kurtis
NAUI Instr. #5936
Co-owner, Reef Seekers Dive Co.
Beverly Hills, CA