Any news on the recent accident in the Ressel

I?ve copied this post from Marvin bramson?s fb. Afraid I don?t know how to link directly to it.

I can?t speak to the veracity of all the statements but there are a bunch of pics with the post that show very levels etc.

Note that it is more about the diver?s approach to diving than specifics of the incident.

Diving accident - why did it have to happen...

A few days ago Robert died during a dive in France. This is a very sad situation, especially aching family and friends. I think that there are enough accidents like this and it's time to describe the root cause of why Polish divers reign in the ranking of fatal accidents and we are increasingly encountering reluctance from foreign diving operators.

First of all, I would like to extend my condolences to Robert's family and his true friends. Please accept my deepest sympathy and understanding of your pain in losing Robert. I realize that what you read below won't be nice to you, but I hope it will contribute to making deaths like Roberta less. Because they won't be there, I don't believe it anymore.

I personally met Robert relatively recently, a little over a year ago. In April 2020 he reported to me that he wanted to buy a rebreather and train with me. After a long talk and getting to know Robert, his diving experience and motivation, we agreed to further his development and work with me. April and May were months related to the prevailing pandemic and lockdown, so we used this time to learn rebreather-related theory. Spending long hours in online classes. At the end of May, we agreed for the first training diving at ′′ Excavators ′′ in Jaworzno. Where Robert did his first ever CCR diving with me. Important emphasis is that Robert didn't hide with it and publicly admitted that he had never dived with CCR before. That was also why we did a full CCR course, not a crossover from another unit.

And it was on ′′ Excavators ′′ that there was a first discrepancy between Robert's statement about his experience and skills and the facts. Robert opted for a sidemont rebreather, which requires some experience and practice in such a setup. Robert declared himself an experienced sidemount diver and uses such a cave setup. NIestets already on the surface have proven that his knowledge and sidemount skills are far from the accepted standards in such a dive. What you could see from the equipment configuration or rather the absence of it because it came with a harness, which he was just trying to configure and cylinders connected like a stage in a backmount setup. I think for many sidemount instructors and sidemount divers it will be clear what I am writing about. It's worth highlighting that I didn't find his sidemount diver credentials anywhere during Robert's validation, so I asked him for a copy of such certificate (I like to have everything in the trainee's records and here, although such a certificate is not required, I wanted to know the name of the instructor who gave it to him). Since that moment we also worked on Robert's skills in sidemount setup.

The last 5 days of July 2020 we spent Hannah at Banana Divers base to refine Robert's elements and skills to the level that he will further train and develop towards CCR diving. So that next year he will be ready to train CCR at Normoxic Trimix level. Our deepest dives during the course are 35 meters. We finished diving on July 30, 2020 On August 20, 2020, after passing his last exams, he obtained the first and lowest level of CCR certification to a maximum depth of 40 meters with an air diluent (with minimum oxygen content in the diluent of 21 %) and one stage.

And now a few facts from Robert's further, after Robert's course ′′ career

August 1, Robert with his ′′ friend ", ie on the first day after completing all the necessary course dives, CCR diving training to a maximum depth of 40 metres, performed a 92 meter dive using CCR.

On September 3, Robert and his ′′ friend ′′ performed an overhead dive to a depth of 95 meters. And from unofficial information, it is clear that Robert also performed a 120-meter dive in the same mine.
On September 5, Robert goes to Croatia to Vis island, where he performs a whole series of deep dives (deeper than freshly gained permissions). Witnesses of these dives say that there was no tragedy miraculously. At least one Robert's group was in very serious trouble.

In February 2021, Robert and his ′′ friend ′′ are going to Italy for diving in the Fontanazzi cave at a depth of less than 100 meters. He does it using a rebreather.

On May 8, 2021, Robert decides to perform Ressel cave diving (a closed-ceiling environment) with a CCR with a 10 % oxygen gas as diluent, 4 stage including one 20 cylinder. liters and 2 scooters. Unfortunately, this time there was no happiness... Why am I writing happiness? Because 3 months ago, just before Robert's trip to Italy after one of our discussions about his lack of diving competence, I wished him ′′ a lot of luck on FB, because he will need it, although in my opinion, knowledge and skills would be a better tool ′′

The cause of the accident:

Lack of knowledge, skills and experience allowing such diving to be safely performed in such a setup.

Justification:

At the time of the accident, Roberta's diving qualifiers, he was entitled to a single stage CCR diving, with an air diluent (minimum oxygen amount of 21 % or more), in an open water environment, without DPV. Robert broke all standards and went beyond the scope of his training. For such a dive, he should be minimally qualified at CCR Trmix, CCR Cave, DPV Cave. It doesn't matter here if it was a twisted oxygen tank, rebreather failure or other factors. Long story short Robert shouldn't have done this kind of diving, in this setup, here.

It is also worth noting that the primer of every cave diver is full control of equipment just before the dip. So you would expect an experienced cave diver going to every dive (not to mention as serious as planned) to check every piece of equipment in the water, just before submerging. Failure to make such a check before immersion shows either total ignorance or total overloading of tasks. It's even more strange that Robert had finished taking part in a cave instructor course the day before, where such a mantra should be done until he gets into the habit of trainees.

And now some historical facts that came out after the accident:

September 1, 2020-Robert gets 3 certificates (physically 6 because after 3 in two different organizations): CCR Air Dilent, CCR Noirmoxic Trimix and CCR Trimix. I don't know how he managed to do it and do more than 100 h diving since August 20 (because then he didn't brag that he started doing anything yet), but let it be from August 2 when he left over Han czyczy until 1 September It goes about over 3 h a day, day in and day out... But assuming that he really did it, unfortunately the rebreather sidemount has different solutions than backmount and quite different than Inspiration for which he obtained 6 certificates in one a day. Otherwise, that even the person pretending to be the CCR guru doesn't know that Robert's rebreather doesn't have an AVD writing nonsense (reproduced by others) that the open ADV could have caused the accident.

In November 2018, Robert gets the TecRec Trmix OC diver certification (diving up to 100 meters) and becomes TecRec Trimix instructor up to 100 meters on December 10

Despite various attempts, I have not found a sidemount Robert diver certification anywhere (in any federation). Robert provided me with a copy of the sidemount instructor certificate before completing the course.

Apparently Robert was a DPV instructor but I also didn't find his DPV diver credentials anywhere.

Finally, it's worth answering the following questions:

1. Seeing that a friend wants to do something foolish, beyond his authority, am I standing passively, am I helping him, or am I trying to talk him out of it?
2. Will a cave diving instructor or / and CCR knowing someone familiar is breaking cave diving standards or / and CCR I will try to talk him out of whether I help him with that?
3. Should I do this without verifying his abilities as an instructor and issuing a certificate to a friend? And if I don't hurt him by doing it.
4. Should I pay attention to their experience and skills when being a Trainer and training instructors, or is it important that only the papers match?

Conclusions for the future:

1. Let's dive according to our permissions. Knowledge from a given level may not be enough for next level diving. Finally, for some reason, the training is divided into stages. There is a wise saying ′′ you never know what you don't know ′′
2. If we see someone exceeding their training let's try to stop them and explain that it is dangerous
3. If I'm an instructor or another professional in the diving industry, he sets an example for others. I don't break standards and I don't allow them to be broken.
4. In order to be a good instructor, you have to be an experienced diver in this particular field in which you train others. Someone who has experience in OC, doesn't necessarily have to have in CCR. Let's have sense both as instructors and Instructor Trainers certifying new instructors.

I wish you all caution and safe diving. And may we no longer have to read posts like ′′ realizing your passion, an experienced diver and instructor died ′′...

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