Diver Killed by Lightning

Deerfield, Florida-ScubaMagazine.net

Yesterday a scuba diver was killed by a lightning strike upon surfacing from his dive.

Stephen Wilson was struck when he was about 30 feet from the back of the dive boat according to witnesses.

"We saw the paramedics arrive. There were about three trucks and they were trying to resuscitate the man," Christopher Virtue, who witnessed the accident, told a television station.

Fellow divers reported seeing the event unfold, and immediately brought him to the boat, where CPR was initiated immediately, but he could not be revived.

That's just bad bad luck. Who knows but if dive boats were required to have AEDs the diver might still be alive.

holy s%@t, talk about bad luck! I was just talking about this type of thing with a dive buddy of mine. It was starting to lightning and he wanted to go on our dive anyway. I backed out and went home because I thought about getting hit with lightning while in the water which obviously is a good conductor of electricity. I don't know what would happen while submerged if lightning was to strike? Anyone?

I also thought lighting would strike the boat and not the diver considering the boat is much higher in the water and usually has some metal exposed. Thunderstorms can pop up at any time in some places, which makes you have to wonder if you are going to come up to your own bbq.

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Originally Posted by hbh2oguard

That's just bad bad luck. Who knows but if dive boats were required to have AEDs the diver might still be alive.

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Bad luck? yes. This boat was a private boat, not a dive charter boat.


As for the water conducting electricity. Fresh water seems to conduct better than salt water. This particular diver was struck on his tanks, so, his chances of survival were slim at best.

I, too was diving off a boat when this particular storm rolled in. My team splashed in and went deep. The lightning flashes at 135' (40 m) looked as if some one was using flash photography in close proximity. This particular storm was two seperate storm systems that met over South Florida and created quite an ugly storm. The water was nice though

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Originally Posted by amtrosie

As for the water conducting electricity. Fresh water seems to conduct better than salt water.

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I don't know where that idea came from but fresh water is a poor conductor of electricity, and salt water is a good conductor of electricity.

Acording to NASA, Most of Earth's water (97%) is in the ocean. Seawater has unique properties: it is saline, its freezing point is slightly lower than fresh water, its density is slightly higher, its electrical conductivity is much higher, and it is slightly basic.

Water is comprised of two elements - hydrogen (H) and oxygen (O). Distilled water is pure and free of salts; thus it is a very poor conductor of electricity. By adding ordinary table salt (NaCl) to distilled water, it comes an electrolyte solution, able to conduct electricity

Ionic compounds such as salt water, conduct electricity when they dissolve in water.


Just thought you may want to know.

Ace 100% true still in college as a Biochem major and have learned that numerous times.