Sky News Rebreather Incident Report

[milldog]

I thought about posting this as Kev wouldnt want it but have seen the dive god posts i think this needs to be said

I have known Kev both in the forces and civvy street he was the best man at my wedding and godfather to my kids so i feel a bit bias here but if you knew what happened then and only then can you comment

think of it as this

Sky come along and say hey we want you to use re breathers heres a course in the red sea and take your team with you we'll buy all the kit and have it shipped to you.

you turn up for the course and the instructor from a well known agency gives you the course notes and instructs you on the unit, all well and good better get the information from the guys diving the unit each day, covered in the course is the filling and refilling of the sorb, the instructor uses this method and they complete the dives without problems. Lucky yes

they get back and dive as they have been taught as any deviation from the training will upset the Sky insurance and Sky won't want them to dive again. Well the day comes when the do a few dives have a break and then do a few more, in the interval they have repacked the unit.

After they get the problem with Kev's rebreather and as they are filming the ROV videos the lot luckily he gets to the boat and things get sorted, only during the HSE report it is found that all the team are repacking this way and have the course note and manual to back it up.

Agency gets wind of problem and re rights the manual and changes teaching method. they then redo the course through AP. Now because there is this video the HSE ask could we please use it, Kev could have said NO but thinks if it helps just 1 diver the flack will be worth it. and so HE makes the video and edits it for the HSE.

A bold and gutsy move, but as in all things you get the "we're better than you and never make mistakes" brigade, who don't know the full story and try to make themselves big by posting remarks like SAG did, and allot of the others did also.

so i hope you feel all big and high and mighty, because as i have said i know Kev as a friend someone i trust without question, and if you have done a fraction of what he has done in the past in the forces and as a friend you'd kiss his arse and just say thanks. I'm glad your OK

Graham

[ozone1]

I thought about posting this as Kev wouldnt want it but have seen the dive god posts i think this needs to be said


snip


so i hope you feel all big and high and mighty, because as i have said i know Kev as a friend someone i trust without question, and if you have done a fraction of what he has done in the past in the forces and as a friend you'd kiss his arse and just say thanks. I'm glad your OK

Graham

I agree Milldog, Why oh why do people post just to say that
"you should of known beter and I would never do that"?

Somtimes we do not know better and one day you may do
that, or somthing else that leaves you open to criticism.

I don't know Kev from Adam but I thank him for having the
guts to stand up and be counted. Excuss me if I don't kiss
his arse please, like I said I don't know that well...Yet .

But back to the video I found it informative and usefull, but
unlike some who are quick to critisize I do not know everything,
so I have learnt from the video.

Cheers ozone


.

[Sag]

If nothing else, my God like status (within my own dry suite) and having been there and done that, qualifies me to comment. I could also blame an instructor from a well known agency and give a lot of mitigating circumstances. Though I know I’d be shot down in flames and quite rightly too, you can’t breath good faith at 30m.
For the record my FU was not packing my own scrubber, I don’t blame anybody else but myself for blindly believing an instructors word that “it was good” I also don’t believe they were “just as surprised as you” when I chuffed back on to the boat.

The bottom line is it’s your kit, your life, and your responsibility to ensure every aspect of every dive is 100%. The learning curve is as steep as you make it, diving for the camera or bollox about Sky insurance is just self delusion and counts for SFA at your funeral. There's more here than how you pack your scrubber, peer pressure for one.

We all have or have had moments and most of us are big enough to admit them, at least one other taking the P in this thread has been in the spotlight recently and been ribbed about it. Check the silver backed whale saga in Wildlife.
As you say Kev was big enough to say yes to the HSE, so I’m sure he’s a good guy, and probably smart enough not to take offence from some internet forum.

Cheers
Sag

[Simon A]

My instructor said…What a cop out ! RTFM
No manual issued for this unit ?
Or being the “most experienced” he never needed to read the manual, doesn’t say much for the rest of them, monkey see monkey do.

Must be a bitch screwing up and having it filmed for posterity, no chance of heroic stories in the pub after.
Nice opportunity for us armchair experts to strut out stuff though, so some good has come of it.

Cheers
Sag

Yes it is in the manual (page 30 of the current version) the point I was making is that my instructor highlighted repacking sorb as a dangerous practice, also I have never met anyone who thinks that repacking sorb is safe so I would question the statement that was made about it being a wide spread practice.
However as you found out, the nature of these units is that when you first dive them you tend to take everything you are told by the instructor as gospel.
Simon A

[Barbel]

In my view he did nothing wrong.

He went on a coarse with a expert to be trainned in the use of the rebreather. He then did what he was taught as we all do when being trainned otherwise why do we train.

The manufactures/trainner were at fault in my opinion.

[BJ]

A lot of funny and not-so-funny things get added to courses by expert trainers. For example: I have seen people repacking old scrubber too many times for it to be a misunderstanding of the training. It is a misunderstanding of how the scrubber works by the so-called expert doing the training. It prompted me to write this in 2005: Kit Q and A - July 2005 - DIVERNET from Diver Magazine

[NotDeadYet]

A lot of funny and not-so-funny things get added to courses by expert trainers... It is a misunderstanding of how the scrubber works by the so-called expert doing the training.

I've seen people doing a lot of nonsense that their instructor told them was good (I've seen more than a few people who were told they should never lube seals and o-rings on their units or told to replace all three cells at the same time or one diver I know who was taught to assemble his loop with the flow reversed) or simply leaving out fairly important chunks of theory. The funniest has to be telling divers that the bailout drill to an offboard OC reg without using a BOV is anything like adequate for dealing with a CO2 hit...

There's an easy answer... the Acme DIY Rebreather Course... There's a lot to be said for the maxim of if it's too hard to teach yourself then it's too hard to use. Removes the need for all gurus. Rebreathers are not as complicated as they want you to think.

Six years of diving RB's and still waiting for Mod1...

Cheers,

Stuart