The British Sub-Aqua Club
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The British Sub-Aqua Club NDC Diving Incidents Report 2005 Compiled by Brian Cumming Diving Safety and Incidents Advisor Published by The British Sub-Aqua Club in the interests of diving safety ` NDC Diving Incidents Report - 2005 Introduction This booklet contains the 2005 Diving Incidents Report, produced by The British Sub-Aqua Club (BSAC) in the interest of promoting diving safety. It is important to note that it contains details of UK sports diving incidents occurring to divers of all affiliations, plus incidents occurring worldwide involving BSAC members. Report Format The majority of statistical information contained within this report is also shown in graphical form. Please note that all statistical information is produced from UK data only and does not include Overseas Incidents unless noted as ‘All Incidents’. The contents of this report are split into an overview of the year, and then the details of nine incident categories plus some historical analyses. The various sections can be found as shown below:- i) Overview Page 1 ii) Fatalities Page 5 iii) Decompression Incidents Page 7 iv) Injury / illness Page 17 v) Boating & Surface Incidents Page 22 vi) Ascent Problems Page 28 vii) Technique Problems Page 37 viii) Equipment Problems Page 40 ix) Miscellaneous Incidents Page 43 x) Overseas Incidents Page 45 xi) Numerical & Statistical Analyses Page 48 xii) List of Abbreviations Page 50 Within each category the incidents are listed in the order of their occurrence, not necessarily that of Incident Reference. They are laid out in the following form: MONTH/YEAR OF INCIDENT INCIDENT REF. Brief Narrative of Incident.................................................................................... ........................................................................................................ The nature of many diving incidents is such that there is usually more than one cause or effect. Where this is the case the incident has been classified under the more appropriate cause or effect. For instance an incident involving a fast ascent, causing decompression illness, will be classified under 'Decompression Incidents'. Brian Cumming, BSAC Diving Incidents Advisor, November 2005 Acknowledgements Data for this report are collected from several different sources. I would like to extend my thanks and appreciation to the following for their assistance in its production and in ensuring its completeness: Ken Bazeley, National Diving Liaison Officer, Maritime & Coastguard Agency Peter Chennell, Sea Safety Manager, Derek Scrivener, Service Information Data Quality Supervisor, Roger Aldham, Data and Statistical Analyst, Royal National Lifeboat Institution and, in particular, all of those divers and other sources who have taken the trouble to complete Incident Reports and share their learning experience with others. Finally, to Dr. Yvonne Couch for proof reading this report NDC Diving Incidents Report - 2005 Overview has seen the highest ever number of UK Last year I highlighted the rise in the number of incidents 2005 incidents reported; a total of 441. The chart associated with abnormal ascents. This year’s report contains below shows the total of UK incidents reported 98 ascent related incidents, the highest number ever recorded annually over the last 15 years and it can be seen that, after a and a 23% increase over the 2004 total, which was itself a jump in the early 90s there has been a steady increase of about record. 11 incidents per year with perturbations of plus or minus up to The following analysis reveals some of the issues:- 50 incidents per year around this trend line. It is not known if this increasing trend is the result of more incidents, more diving, Basic nature of the report:- better data capture or a combination of some or all of these 81 Rapid ascents factors. 28 Missed stops Clearly some incidents relate to both the above Causal factors are:- Number of reported incidents 17 Delayed SMB, mask, fin problem 12 Drysuit or BCD issues 500 11 Weight related issues 10 During training 9 Out of air 400 8 Regulator free flow Again some have a combination of the above factors 300 When all of the above causal factors are excluded 47 incidents 200 (50%) remain where a simple loss of buoyancy control seems to have been the cause. Without any of the above perturbing factors being present divers have simply been unable to 100 correctly control their rate of ascent. Poor training and lack of skill are the only explanations. These are avoidable problems 0 and instructors should make this a priority area for attention. Many DCI cases have their roots in these problems; they have 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 been recorded under the DCI heading but the causal factors are often the same, so the actual number of abnormal ascents will Incident year be significantly higher than shown above. The distribution of reported incidents is shown in the following 'Boating and Surface' incidents are the third largest category. chart. As can be seen, 67% of these incidents have occurred in Recent years have seen a decline in the number of these the summer period. This is totally consistent with previous incidents from a maximum of 124 in 1998 and the 2005 years, reflecting the increased number of dives that take place numbers indicate a levelling out at just under 90. The decline in during the warmer weather. these incidents and the increase in ‘Ascent’ related incidents has displaced ‘Boating and Surface’ from its traditional second Monthly breakdown of all incidents - 2005 place. Although the numbers are very low, this year saw a number of 80 cases where divers were struck by boats and/or propellers; 70 resulting in very serious injuries in one case and a very lucky 60 escape in another. 50 40 Categorisation of all the year’s incidents 30 20 10 0 DCI Sept. Aug. July Ascents June May Apr. Mar. Feb. Dec. Boat / surface Nov. Jan. '05 Injury / Illness Oct. '04 Oct. Miscellaneous Incidents by category Equipment The incident database categorises all incidents into one of nine Technique major categories, and the following chart shows the distribution of the 2005 incidents into those categories. Fatalities The highest number of incidents (110) relate to ‘Decompression Overseas Illness (DCI)' and this is consistent with previous years, although there does seem to be a decline from a peak of 144 in 020406080100120 2002. Many of the ‘Injury and Illness’ incidents are also thought Number of incidents to be DCI related, but they are reported by the RNLI as ‘Diver illness’ and the cause of the illness is not defined. ©BSAC - 2005 1 ` NDC Diving Incidents Report - 2005 Fatalities Incident depths 17 fatal incidents occurred in the UK during the 2005 incident The following chart shows the maximum depth of the dives year. This is entirely in line with the average of 17.8 fatalities during which incidents took place categorised into depth range per year over the last ten years. groupings. 2004 saw 25 fatalities and raised concerns that we might be experiencing the beginnings of a trend of increasing fatalities. At the time the BSAC argued that this unfortunate number was Maximum depth of dive involving an incident simply the result of natural perturbations of very small numbers in a very large sample, compounded with the timing of the incidents and the timing of our incident year. The 2005 total Unknown seems to support this argument. The 17 includes two double fatalities. 5 of the 17 were BSAC Surf. members. 1-10m 11-20m The factors associated with these fatalities can be summarised as follows:- 21-30m • Two cases involved people who suffered a serious medical 31-40m problem (typically a heart attack) whilst they were diving. 41-50m There is a third case which may well also be included in this group when the full facts are made known. 51-60m • Three cases involved divers who were, or who became, >60m negatively buoyant and sank. In two cases divers were at 0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 200 the surface, in difficulties, but were unable to remain at the Number of incidents surface and sank before they could be recovered. Last year 8 out of the 25 fatalities were affected in this way. The pattern of depths in the 0m to 50m range is very similar to • Four cases involved separation. that normally seen and reflects the amount of diving that takes In each of these cases the separation was not planned. place in these depth ranges. The number of incidents reported Two cases involved three divers diving together. In one in the greater than 50m range is 10, which is in line with case the separated diver survived and the remaining two previous years. However 2 of these 10 were fatal incidents, became one of the double fatalities. In the other case a again indicating the risks associated with deep diving. problem arose during the ascent, two surfaced but the third did not. The BSAC advises that no air dive should be deeper than 50m, The third case involved a separation during an ascent and that dives to 50m should only be conducted by divers who where one of the divers did not make it to the surface. are appropriately trained and qualified. • One case involved a hose failure which led to an out of air The recommended limit for divers trained to Sports Diver condition. standard is 35m and then only when they have received • Four cases involved solo diving. In each case they appropriate training for diving at this depth. intentionally dived alone. One case involved a cave diver The BSAC recommends that mixed gas diving should be to a who became tangled in ropes. Two cases involved very maximum depth of 70m and then only when the diver holds a deep dives; one to 60m and the other to 68m.