Norway Cave Diving Accident?

[TONY CHANEY]

What a bad situation and a very sad outcome. Condolences to the family and friends.

[deepdiver4]

Apparently exiting the way they all came in was the longer way out. Diver 5 (the only one who exited & entered from the same end) had "the disadvantageous route" and with some later scooter difficulties his dive, planned as about 5 hours, was "more than 11 hours".

Diver 3 came out the other end after a dive which, planned as about 5 hours, was "more than 8 hours".

Yes I read that wrong sorry I missed that.

[Hammerhead Ferrari]

Now that sounds like a serious traverse!
So sorry for the loss, it hurts the whole community.
Condolences and warm thoughts to the survivors, friends, and families during this difficult time.

[scubainchicago]

Very sad, a huge dive by any standard with very little margin for error. Condolences to everyone involved...

[Randy G]

Very sad indeed. Condolences to everyone involved.

[heavierthanlead]

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/wo...808/story.html

By The Associated Press February 7, 2014

COPENHAGEN - Finland says two of its citizens have been killed in a cave-diving accident in northern Norway. Finnish Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Tytti Pylkko said Friday the two were in a group of five Finnish divers, but had no further details.
Police in Norway's Helgeland district confirmed they were alerted early Friday to a diving accident near Mo i Rana, some 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) north of Oslo. A police statement said two people were killed and three others flown to a nearby hospital.
The cave system, fed by the Plura River, is considered Norway's largest water-filled cave and is popular among divers. Local media said a 37-year-old Norwegian diver died in the same caves in 2006 when he tried to set a new deep-diving record.

Additional translated info, from another forum:

10.02.2014 16:00

Survivors from the cave diving accident in Norway have given the following explanation on the unfolding of events to Finnish Diving Association's Technical Diving and Safety Board's accident review task team and their wish is to have it published. Identities of the divers will not be revealed.

Timeline of cave dive in Plurdalen (Norway, February 2014)

The plan was to dive in two teams. First team had two divers, D1 and D2. The other team had three divers, D3, D4 and D5. The latter team went into water two hours after the first one. Route was planned from Plura to Steinugleflåget. After arriving there, the plan was to let the equipment stay in cave for the night and dive back the same way next day.

Estimated time under water was five hours and deepest point at 129 metres (423 ft). Divers had gone through a bailout plan, i.e. a reserve gas plan if rebreathers were to fail during the dive. There were both spare rebreathers and also extra tanks for open circuit breathing.

Preparations:

First team starts cutting a hole into the ice at Plura. Second team leaves to transport equipment to Steinuglefläget. Second team returns to Plura and assists the first team to begin their dive. After this the second team begins their preparations and goes underwater two hours after the first team.

Timeline of events underwater:

First team:

Going down, everything went as planned. After passing some narrows before 129 m depth and beginning ascent from the deepest point, equipment of D2 gets stuck in a narrow place at 110 m (361 ft) depth. D2 fails to get free and gets in trouble with rebreather. D1 does everything to help, but D2 dies.

D1 is forced to continue ascent towards Steinugleflåget. Due to lost time and the depth at which the incident happened, the total time D1 spends underwater goes from the planned five hours to eight hours. D1 is therefore stretching resources to their limits. The last deco stop at 6 m must be shortened by 45 minutes, but with no ill effects. D1 stays in Steinugleflåget waiting for D3 previously seen underwater.

Second team:

First half of the dive went as planned. Passing the narrows before 129 m depth and after beginning ascent, D3 discovers deceased D2 at 110 m depth. D3 attempts to free D2 unsuccessfully. Next D3 begins to unload equipment and push them past D2 and tries to push through.

Meanwhile D4 is in trouble with rebreather and has switched to reserve gas. D5 tries to help D4, but D4 dies at 111 m (364 ft) depth. D5 tries to message to D3 but fails to be understood. D3 manages to push past D2. D3 assumes D4 and D5 have turned back. D3 proceeds alone towards Steinugleflåget.

Required time underwater for D3 goes from five hours to more than eight hours because of the events. Therefore D3 also must stretch resources to their limits. D3 meets D1 at 12 m depth. D3 cuts last deco stop at 6 m by 80 minutes, feeling slight joint pain after surfacing. An hour after D3 surfaced, D1 and D3 start climbing out from the cave.

D5 turns back after the death of D4 and after failing in attempts to have D3 join him. Time underwater for D5 goes from five to eleven hours due to events at depth, an unfavorable return route and a later scooter failure. D5 cuts the last deco stop at 6 m short by 90 minutes but feels no deco sickness.

Aftermath:

D1 and D3 contact a local citizen and summon the police and medical help. After D5 surfaces, all three are taken by helicopter and by plane to Tromssa, where D3 is put into pressure chamber twice. D1 and D5 visit the chamber once, just to be sure.

Norwegian police is continuing investigations and has started planning for recovery of the bodies.

Background on site:

http://www.ocean-discovery.org/plura.htm

[tikarttu]

http://www.uib.no/geo/nyheter/2014/0...-ved-mo-i-rana

TK

[Duncan Price]

I heard details of the accident from Rick Stanton and the summary posted by heavierthanlead does not convey the full horror of the situation. Rick, Jason Mallinson and John Volanthen left the UK last Wednesday (February 19th) to take part in the body recoveries. Rick & Jason were felw over to recover the body of a diver who died there in 2006. I'm sure everyone wishes them a successful and incident-free operation.

[Randy G]

God Bless and Good Luck.

[AnnaFinn]

From the www pages of the Finnish Divers Federation

PLURA RECOVERY OPERATION REPORT

This is a report from the recovery operation done 22-26.3.2014 in valley of Plurdalen. Recovery operation was arranged to get home the two divers who lost their lives in diving accident 6.2.2014. Further reasons to do this project in addition to help families of the victims to get their loved ones back, was to do a favor for the cave diving community to help keep the Plura cave open in the future. This was a very unfortunate accident inside a sport which has otherwise good safety record.
Planning of this project started after the official recovery project was cancelled. Team of divers and surface people, total of 17 were gathered to complete this mission. People to do this project were chosen for their capabilities, local knowledge, experience in these diving conditions, cave knowledge and especially familiarity of the deep section of the cave. Plan was to enter from Plura side and remove first victim from the restriction and then escort both victims to Steinugleflåget.
Project started Saturday 22.3.2014 with Steinugleflåget rigging, rope track across the collapse outside and inside hand rails were installed to help gear hauling. Total of 1100kg of gear including 26 safety gas tanks, 5 rebreathers, 5 dive scooters and additional gear were taken down to the Steinugleflåget cave to have two fully equipped safety diver teams in use.
Sunday 23.3.2014 were used to install the needed safety equipment to both Plura and Steinugleflåget sides. All 10 divers were using rebreather dive systems which are sufficient for the whole planned dive times. For emergency situations full safety gas reserve were needed, in Steinugleflåget reserve was planned for 2,5 persons and in Plura for 1,5 persons. Also there was bailout rebreathers in standby on both ends of the cave. To have 10-15min work time with the victims ment that dives would be 5-7h long. Worst case scenario was that divers can't go through from Plura side to Steinugleflåget side and have to come back, this would have ment +10h dive. Addition to the safety gas reserve, a safety habitat was built to Plura side. This habitat would allow divers to get out from the cold water and have safer decompression.
Everything was ready on Monday 24.3.2014 and the recovery could start. Work team started their dive 11:00 from Plura entrance and they were supported by 3 dive teams, one in Plura and two in Steinugleflåget. Travel time from Plura entrance to the victims is about 50min and it goes though the deepest section of the cave 130m. Work team arrived to the first victim and could see him in the narrow part of the cave, divers pulled the victim backwards and were able to cut him loose from the equipment. Transportation of the victim through deep and narrow cave system is very challenging task and job was done by first diver towing the victim with a dive scooter and second diver manouvering the victim. Support divers were met in the shallow water and they continued the transportation and work divers were left to finish their 7h dive.
Priority number one in Tuesday 25.3.2014 was to escort second victim out from the cave and if everything would go well, also take the safety gasses out from the cave. Work divers travelled now from Steinugleflåget to the accident place. Second victim was lying on his back, wearing all the dive gear. Again the victim were cut out from the equipment and attached to the scooter for towing. With this same dive, one backup computer, dive scooter and one bailout tank were brought up from the cave. As everything went as planned, all the 26 safety gas tanks were also taken out from the cave.
Wednesday 26.3.2014 were used to haul everything out from Steinugleflåget dry cave and also retrieve all the gear from Plura cave. In the evening the whole project group went down to Steinugleflåget and took out the bodies from water and put them to body bags. Silent moment was held for the memory of our lost friends.
All the work dives were documented with helmet cameras to provide further details about accident causes, all filmed material and retrieved gear is handed over to the local police. Project was done in 5 days, total of 101h of diving were need to complete the project.
We would like to address our deepest regret to the families of the victims, in time of the sorrow it's a relief to know that healing process can start now.
Big thanks to the project group who worked around to clock to make this happen, your voluntary work and determination made this happen.
On behalf of the whole project group
28.3.2014
Mo I Rana, Norway