Inquest: Kiwi CCR diver forgot to turn on electronics

A rebreather diver who died last year at Ship's Cove failed to turn on his handsets.

The official inquest was performed by Blenheim coroner Peter Radich found Nigel Peter Lees, 48 of Stratford, died of hypoxia with subsequent drowning on September 22, 2005, the result of operator error.

A Police National Dive Squad report presented at the inquest stated Mr Lees had been solo diving off a chartered boat in good weather conditions to give his kit a checkout. He was also planning to clear mussels off the mooring line and collect crayfish.


Mr. Lees and his wife along with several others had chartered the dive boat the Sandpiper to dive the Lermotov and other wrecks over a four day trip.

The report stated that because Mr. Lees' electronic handsets were not turned on, which caused his gas mix to become hypoxic.

The report noted Mr Lees was an experienced diver and methodical in the maintenance of his equipment. However he went solo diving, which the report states is against safe diving practice and he failed to ensure his equipment was turned on. His rig was found to be in proper working order.

One of the divers on the trip, David Young, noted that they had become worried when Mr. Lees did not surface for some time, and eventually he found Mr. Lees' body at a depth of 15m lying face down with his handsets turned off.

Mr Young said CPR was immediately started from the boat but attempts were unsucessful in reviving the diver.

Mr. Radich said the long delay between Mr Lees' death and the inquest was because the rebreather had sent to the manufactuer in England to be checked.

He said Mr Lees' death was "yet another diving death which highlights the dangers of diving" and the need for proper procedures and checks were needed where equipment was concerned.

Wow. First time I have heard of this incident.
I would have thought the electronics would have an auto on like computers do.

Some electronics do and some dont.

Matt

There are just so many things you would have to ignore for this to happen, yet there are people who will ignore all the things you're supposed to do with systems checks with rebreathers.

It is like forgetting to put your parachute pack on and jumping out of the airplane.

Any death no matter the cause is always tragic but ones that could be prevented are even worse.

Matt

what type CCR? did it have H.U.D?
was predive sequence performed? sad!

Dont quote me but it could of been an Inspo.

Matt

The handsets were not on, so obviously there was no predive performed. What an awful day for his wife, my condolences.

The ISC Megalodon CCR requires the electronics be turned on while the unit is opened up. This is viewed as a positive by some and a negative by others.

My personal preference would be for control at the handsets with a water activation feature so the head wouldn't need to be removed on the boat. This can be a PITA on a rolling boat, and the alternative is turn it on at the dock or garage, running the batteries over a longer period of time prior to the dive. This means that you have to have a higher voltage at startup to assure you don't go below nominal voltage for solenoid activation. This happened to me on a dive last year, and the solenoid stopped firing.

Diving a RB is a bigger responsibility than diving OC. Checklists and predive checks are a must. Forget or ignore them and it is a matter of when and what will happen to you. Complacency is not a word mentioned around avid RB divers. The need to prebreathe the loop alone should indicate an electronics failure/shutdown. You can't prebreathe a RB without watching your handsets. One of the ideas of prebreathing includes setpoint verification.