Incidents List
-
Year Month Day Surname Forenames Location Contractor Client Depth Type of Diving Details -
1982 44 27 Rivera Anibal Argentina S/S Air Vomited underwater. Died. No details. PC -
1928 19 3 Ball Frank Australia S/S Air He sustained fractured ribs and injuries to the lungs. His name Is not on the danger list�. Reported in The Daily News, Perth. -
2012 12 7 Kolo Samiu Tonga S/S Air Aged 30, fishing (illegally using hookah gear) for sea cucumber in Ha'afeva (Ha'apai island) from decompression illness. Noted as the third fatality using illegal diving equipment in the last year (The other fatalities ocuured on the 30th October 2012 and 9th December 2010) but the victims were not named). Reported by Matangi, Tonga online -
2011 12 22 Diaz Jose Mexico Fisherman Aged 33, from the town of Timucuy, diving off the vessel "Golfo II" (Gulf II), lobster fising operation out of Yucalpeten, 15:00 hours, Captain of the boat radiod ashore to tell the port authorities that the diver had drowned. No details. Progresohoy.com -
2011 12 20 Schock Timothy USA Police SCUBA Aged 41, Chesapeake police dive team training, taking part in a team underwater search and rescue exercise at Oak Grove Lale Park. Buoyancy vest inoperable (fault with inflation button prior to dive, during dive the inflation button fell apart so that vest flooded/would not inflate) surfaced and told his partner that he could not breath, during surface swim to shore slipped away from partner's grasp and sank, recovered by a resue diver but did not respond to emergency treatment. Had been a police officer for 16 years, in the dive team for 8, ex-marine, competitive cyclist. Investigation concluded that there was no stand-by/cover boat immediately available nor emergency responders. Accident initiated by failed buoyancy compensator and compounded by jammed weight belt release (Subsequent testing of the weight releases on the other 12 divers demonstrated that they all failed to release properly). Death ruled as an accident due to to drowning though the medical examiner stated that he had an enlarged heart that contributed to his death. Investigation also concluded equipment should have been serviced by a trained technician "Dive team members lacked the expertise". Post accident, team required to do 'buddy' checks, officers not allowed to dive if equipment is not fully functional. Chesapeake News -
2011 12 9 Not Recorded Tonga S/S Air Aged 43, illegal sea cucumber fishing (season closed in mid October), diving with two other fishermen using a basic hookah equipment near Luanamo island (Ha'apai), experienced severe abdominal pains but died before the health officer from Ha'afeva arrived on the island. Inquest concluded that he died from decompression illness. Police arrested two Asian men (reputed to have bought the sea cucumbers and then left the island and charged them with illegal havesting off-season and use of using illegal equipment) and three Tongan men the day after on the island of Nuku'alofa. Second illegal sea cucumber harvester to die on the island this year in virtually identical circumstances (the previous fatality was on the 1st of September). Vava'a Press -
2010 12 22 Busso Philippe Vietnam Tourist SCUBA French tourist diving off the island of Cu Lao Cau, double fatality (with Russian Alexander Nikolaev). Another diver reported being knocked unconscious by a powerful explosion, local police blamed poachers 'blast' fishing. Voice of Russia -
2010 12 22 Nikolaev Alexander Vietnam Tourist SCUBA Russian tourist diving off the island of Cu Lao Cau, double fatality (with Frenchman Philippe Busso). Another diver reported being knocked unconscious by a powerful explosion, local police blamed poachers 'blast' fishing. Voice of Russia -
2010 12 20 Bartolome 01 Juan Spain Albaladejo Fishfarm 0 SCUBA 34 Year old diver employed by a fish farm in San Pedro del Pinatar in Murcia, initially reported that he died after accidentally shooting himself in the chest with his own harpoon. It happened shortly before 9.30 on Monday morning when an emergency call came through that the diver was seriously injured when in the water and was being transferred by boat to the local port. All attempts to revive the man, both on board the boat and after reaching port, were however unsuccessful�. 'Accident in the worplace'. Reported by Typicallyspanish.com. See second report (Bartolome 02, below) -
2010 12 20 Bartolome 02 Juan Spain Albaladejo Fishfarm 0 SCUBA 34 Year old diver employed by a fish farm in San Pedro del Pinatar in Murcia, initially reported that he died after accidentally shooting himself in the chest with his own harpoon. See first report (Bartolome 01, above). 15 months after his death, following investigation "Jaula 23", two co-workers were detained in connection with firing the harpoon that killed Juan Bartolome. They were subsequently charged with negligent homicide, despite initially claiming that the accident was caused by the victim himself and reported as an accident in the workplace. The two witnesses said at first that he had died by accident when putting on his diving equipment prior to entering the water, but their statements contained contradictions and contrasted with evidence found in the boat and the diving equipment and investigators soon began to suspect the two of homicide by negligence. Forensic and reconstructive investigation concluded that the harpoon had been fired from a distance and under the surface of the sea, presumably by accident, by one of the diver's companions. The case against IHV, aged 58 from San Pedro del Pinatar and JFMN, aged 37, from Murcia is being held at the Magistrates' court in San Javier. Case ongoing (April 2012). Murciatoday.com -
2010 12 14 Not Recorded USA 26 Two Bremerton commercial geoduck divers were taken to hospitals Tuesday after their support boat dragged them into deep water in Port Madison. A 50-year-old woman was flown from Suquamish to Harborview Medical center in Seattle at about 1:30 p.m. The woman was in stable condition as of 7:15 p.m. Her diving companion, a 27-year-old man, was driven to Harrison Medical Center in Bremerton. The divers were working in about 50 feet of water when strong winds pushed their support boat into deeper water. The divers were tethered to the boat, which dragged them to a depth of about 85 feet. They were then pulled to the surface by workers on the support boat. -
2010 12 9 Perez David Venezuela Alianza Servicios Marinos del Lago 7 S/S Air Diving Contractor working for Petrolos de Venezuela. Reported as “Died whilst inspecting oil pipelines in Lake Maracaibo at 12:05 hours�. Reported by La Verdad. Another report indicates that neither the diver nor supervisor had no training certifcates and that the diver got entangled in a downline to the pipeline, lost his helmet and drowned (Longstreath) -
2010 12 8 Agustin Mike Nicaragua Alberto Woo SCUBA Diving off the fishing Vessel 'Marco Polo' for Lobster, they lost his bubble trail, diver disappeared/failed to surface, presumed dead. A few days earlier, another fishing vessel sank, the Captain was never found but two crew members got ashore. The search for the missing diver and Captain was abandoned after 5 days. laprensa.com. No other details. -
2010 12 8 Lightfoot, US Army Captain Juan E USA US Army SCUBA Capt. Juan E. Lightfoot, 34, died at Womack Army Medical Center four days after an accident during pre-SCUBA training. The former Marine who had arrived at the battalion in November, commanded a Special Forces detachment of Fort Bragg's 7th Special Forces Group. As the incident was under investigation, no details were available, including the place or nature of the accident and whether it took place in the water, said a spokesman for 7th Group. The training was intended to prepare soldiers to attend the Combat Divers Qualification Course held at the Special Forces Underwater Operations School in Key West, part of the John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School at Fort Bragg. Reported in the Fay Observer. -
2010 12 2 White Danny Williams Nicaragua Pasenic SCUBA Aged 31, diving to retrieve two anchors from the fishing vessel “Lady Sylvia� owned by Pasenic (Nicaraguan Shellfish growers). Solo dive, 30 minutes into the dive was found by colleagues dead on the seabed between the two anchors. Medical examiner stated cause of death was a heart problem. Survived by wife, 3 year old son and 1 year old daughter. Had worked for Pasenic for 11 years. Reported by GPS Diving -
2010 12 0 Not Recorded Georgia Paraphrased from press reports:- “In December 2010, a 25-year old diver was badly injured when working underwater at the oil port of Kulevi�. Reported in the press articles reporting the deaths of Erkan Karsky and Murad Oglu in January 2011 -
2009 12 17 Peralta Juan Chile Fisherman Topsides Nine miles north of the town of Iquique (Punta Colorada), three man shellfish diving crew in a small (home-made) boat that sailed without authorisation (Port Captain was anticipating storms), vessel overturned in the rough seas, two divers made it ashore - one with a broken arm and were later rescued by helicopter - but the the diver's assistant was swept out to sea and drowned. Body recovered some hours later. Latercera.com -
2009 12 13 Kumar Mukesh India Grafftech Marine and Engineering 37 S/S Air Paraphrased from press reports: Purulia, India .An Indian diver who had is right foot stuck in a pipe for more than two days has died. Rescuers were forced to amputate his leg in order to recover the body after 72 hours. He was attempting to fix a leak inside an underwater chamber of the Purulia Power Project reservoir first noticed in March (The leak was reducing efficiency). The Mumbai-based engineering Company assigned the job to a diving team from Visakhapatnam The job was to locate the leak in the inundated reservoir chamber, find out what had caused it and carry out repairs. The repair work was to have been recorded on camera but there is no footage of Mukesh's dive. During the dive his right foot was sucked into a pipe. A specially trained diving team from Barrackpore called in to assist in the rescue got stuck in a road blockade and took more than 33 hours to reach the accident site. The diver was underwater well over 48 hours before he died. The project manager said amputation was the last resort and a move not without complications. "We had to eliminate all other options and proceed step by step", he said. According to reports Kumar was an experienced diver with 10 years of diving behind him. Purulia, Dec. 16: "Diver Mukesh Kumar's right leg was sawed off and his lifeless body pulled out, 72 hours after his foot got sucked into a drainage pipe in an underwater chamber. The suction at the mouth of the drainage pipe was so great that it had drawn in the leg till almost the thigh, though it was only till the ankle that his had foot got stuck initially. Officials of the Purulia Pumped Storage Project said "The task of locating and repairing the leak has been shelved for the time being". Reported by AHN -
2009 12 8 Kelly Stephen Australia Arafura Pearls Arafura Pearls pearling (farm) operation at Elizabeth Bay, about 50km northwest of Gove in Arnhem Land, 3.15pm on Tuesday. Aged 36, "He had come up from Victoria� (reported as new to the job, had started less than 12 months previously) and “was performing routine farm maintenance work, the water wasn't exceptionally deep but he went down, came up six minutes later, went down again and then when they pulled him back up he wasn't breathing." Transported 48 km to Gove Hospital failed. Doctors declared him dead on arrival in the emergency ward. Awaiting incident report. Reported by NT News.com.au -
2009 12 7 Azoulay Sgt. Gal Israel Naval Commando 3 Rebreather Aged 19. Night training dive for Israeli Naval Commando, simulation of combat dive in enemy port. “The dive was a group exercise, carried out in pairs, simulating a combat dive at an enemy port. The divers had completed similar exercises dozens of times since the beginning of the course. The exercise was supervised by Navy commandos on boats as well as on the beach, and an ambulance and a medic were standing by. The dive was supposed to last two or three hours, and each diver was to take turns being the lead diver. Some 90 minutes after the dive began (Around 02:00), when Azoulay became lead diver, he stopped responding to the routine once-a-minute check. When his partner realized that he was not responding, he carried him to the surface and fired a flare gun to mark their location. Within seconds, a boat arrived and Azoulay was given CPR. He was pronounced dead on shore 40 minutes later.' investigation by Israeli Defence Force concluded that he died from oxygen poisoning. One press reports that this was the first fatal accident in training for the unit since 1995, another states that an 18 year old soldier from the same unit was killed during a training exercise designed to “test underwater breathing about three years ago� Jerusalem Post -
2009 12 6 Not Relevant James Edward USA SCUBA or snorkel James Edward XXXX, aged 61, who was found dead at Swami's Beach in Encinitas in December, drowned in the ocean while under the influence of methamphetamine, the Medical Examiner's Office said Friday. Along with "acute methamphetamine intoxication," cardiovascular disease was a contributing factor to the drowning, the medical examiner said. A surfer found XXXX's body facedown in the sand about 7:40 a.m. on Dec. 9, "clad in a full wet suit and flippers and obviously dead," the medical examiner's report said. His brother told reporters at the time that James XXXX had gone lobster diving late Dec. 6 or early Dec. 7 before a rainstorm hit the county. San Diego Union-Tribune -
2008 12 9 Cuppini Alexander Italy SCUBA Aged 47 years died, maintenance of the Enel dam in San Pellegrino. Contractor prosecuted - diver had no medical, there was no risk assessment, there were no emergency procedures, inadequate diver training, diving equipment in poor state of repair and maintenance (using non-original parts that caused the failure of the regulator's first stage, dirt inside the first stage restricting gas flow) No back up equipment, no communications, no stand-by diver. Cause of death put down to a combination of “hypothermia and respiratory distress with accumulation of carbon dioxide." He appears to have died before anybody on the surface realised he had a problem. Reported in L'Eco di Bergamo.it -
2008 12 6 Parker Jonathon Canada 14 Canadian, aged 21. One of a two man commercial diving team working with a crew to refloat a fishing boat that sank in the Northumberland Strait in September about three kilometres off the coast of Pointe-Sapin. "He was struck or squeezed under the boat� Times & Transcript -
2008 12 2 Sanchez Carlos Julio Ecuador Paraphrased from press reports:- “Aged 28, Diver died in a sewer in the town Manta, Manabi, trapped in a sewage pipe and was overcome by fumes. 
The victim spent more than seven hours inside a manhole until his body was rescued by personnel from the National Police, the Fire Department and Civil Defense, which initially had to use hydraulic drill, and then a bulldozer to dig down to the pipe where the diver was trapped. The head of the Fire Department said that apparently when the diver was in the culvert and pulled out what prevented the passage of water "We believe the current pushed him, prompting him to lose control and stay in a sitting position Four divers entered the pipeline, but all effort was in vain. Eldiario.ec -
2007 12 29 Ernesto Silva Olguin Mexico Pemex Aged 35, Diving off the drilling rig 'Pride California' -
2006 12 9 Vera Daniel Castro Chile Invertec SCUBA Diver, Mapué Cultivation Center (close to Tranqui Island, South of Chiloé), Source: Ecoceanos, based on data from the Dir. of Labor, Directemar, Mariscope and the Tenth and Eleventh Regions District Attorneys Offices. No details -
2006 12 4 ASRV Australia Caldive 130 Atmos. ASRV "Remora" annual trials 'Black Carillon"from "Seahorse Standard", broken winch wire, 2 Caldive personnel on seabed for 15 hours, recovered to near surface, transferred to deck on SCUBA, no injuries, then the other wire broke, (Close to double or even a triple fatality?),"Remora" on seabed. Condition not reported, recovered over 4 months later (April 2007) by a USN team. -
2006 12 3 English Captain Shawn Iraq US Army Topsides Aged 35, killed by a roadside bomb. Bbased in Panama City Beach, Florida, where he lived with his wife and three sons. An Army diver who had been stationed in Iraq helping to train Iraqi Army officers -
2006 12 1 Barron Mike USA Divcon Injury, CNS hit -
2005 12 17 Atienza Juan Jose Spain Cadiz docks SCUBA Paraphrased from Press reports:-- “At four o'clock Sunday, the rescue services managed to recover the body of the diver who went missing on Saturday afternoon at Cadiz. The diver, aged 49 with 25 years of experience, worked at the factory in San Fernando, but participated in the work of putting ships into Cadiz dry dock (The vessel involved was the 'Rotterdam'). Companions of the diver called emergency services about eight o'clock in the evening because the diver who had checking the vessel's position in the dock failed to surface. Source: diariodecadiz.es/ -
2005 12 1 Not Recorded Spain Topsides Paraphrased from press reports:- “Diver killed in harbourside accident. A diver working on the Las Galletas fishing harbour improvement scheme was killed as the result of an onshore accident when he was struck on the head by a large rock. The 56-year-old man died almost immediately and the emergency services called to the scene could do nothing to save his life.� Tenerife News on-line -
2005 12 1 O'Conner Billy Ireland SCUBA Irish, aged 51, searching the wreck of the FV “Rising Sun� (Sank 29/11/2005) for the body of Skipper on behalf of his family, after dive, at 6 metre stop, disappeared. Body recovered some days later by Navy/Guarda dive team. Drowned. Reported by RTE news -
2004 12 21 Not Recorded Global Industries 36" pipeline cracked resulting in pressure differential incident. Safety flash from Global industries on ADCI website and OD -
2004 12 12 Fukai Naoyoshi Japan SCUBA A 48-year-old fisherman (diving for lobsters) was caught in the screw of a 1.2T fishing boat and died soon after off Ukishima beach in Nishina, Nishiizucho, Shizuoka Prefecture. Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. No details, not sure whether this was a sports dive (Not included in professional 'count' TC) -
2003 12 23 Wiggins Neil UK Neil 'Wiggy' Wiggins died on 23 Dec at the age of 47. Paraphrased from MCDOA article:- "Neil joined the Royal Navy in 1972 at the age of 15 as a trainee electrical engineer. He qualified as an engineer but decided on a change of direction in 1977 to pursue a career as a Navy Clearance Diver. One of his first postings was to the Naval base at Rosyth where he was a member of the bomb disposal team. He returned to Portsmouth to complete the Leading Diver’s course at HMS Vernon, subsequently joining the saturation diving team (1981) which involved experimental deep diving and various diving trials. He joined Naval Party 1007 on board MV Seaforth Clansman where he was a member of the diving team that was responsible for the recovery of the navy’s first submarine, Holland One. A personal letter from the then Flag Officer Submarines, Admiral Herbert, read as follows: “His skill and leadership as the main dive team leader clearly provided inspiration to the other divers and he made a marked contribution.� Neil’s time served in the navy gave him a thorough grounding and the necessary discipline to pursue a successful career as a commercial saturation diver, working mainly in the North Sea with many of his old Navy team mates. Neil’s first contract was with the Aberdeen based diving company, Comex. It was in the summer of 1984 whilst working for Comex that he was called upon to carry out the heroic rescue of his colleague George Lawson who was rendered unconscious by an explosion during an underwater cutting operation (4th May 1984, Kingsnorth Explorer). Without a shadow of a doubt, Neil’s clear thinking, professionalism and determination saved George’s life. Neil was awarded the Frank Dearman award for bravery and a Queen’s Commendation. Neil’s calm and selfless bravery was again called upon in 1987 when he saved two hypothermic divers, Fred McNally and Kanute Monstra, from a stranded welding habitat. Again, Neil was recognised for his valour by being presented with the Silk Cut award for Nautical achievements -
2003 12 6 Norwood Michael Palau TV 76 Rebreather British TV presenter filming a documentary in the series “ Deep Sea Detective�. Technical dive on the wreck of the second world war wreck of the USS Perry off Palau. Ran out of gas, attempted sharing, lost consciousness, failed to activate reserve, did not respond to treatment. -
2002 12 16 Arnold Christian UAE CCC Topsides Aged 29, fell from the 12th floor of the International Hotel in Abu Dhabi three days after arrriving in the Middle East. A fire gutted four rooms and set off the fire alarms at 03:00, smoke came under the door of the room he was sharing with a colleague who tried to calm him down (He had a phobia about being trapped by fire), but he jumped from the balconey. A large number of other guests, including 11 other dive team members, were treated for smoke inhalation. The Sun -
2002 12 15 Roon Reinier Congo Smit 25 S/S Air Dutch, 38 years old, SBM hose, negative pressure incident. See IMCA Safety Flash 01/03 below -
2002 12 13 Not Recorded Liberia Rescue diver Wooden Ferry 'Papa Friends 2000' Lake Piso/Mofo river, rolled over and sank with over 200 onboard (max capacity reported as 100), returning from the funeral of a local footballer , at least 60 dead, but over 100 others not accounted for. Fatalities included a diver trying to rescue people from the wreckage. Reported by BBC, Telegraph, etc. -
2002 12 10 Not Recorded USA 9 S/S Air The dive-boat crew said the diver had been diving for sea cucumbers at a depth of about 30 feet in Canoe Cove near Cedar Point off Metlakatla Island. The diver was the only man in the water when the accident occurred. Just before the accident took place the weather was overcast with winds of approximately 15 knots. However, after the diver had been in the water about 30 minutes, and receiving air through an air hose connected to an on-board compressor, the weather suddenly turned and strong winds, estimated at more than 50 knots, developed. The anchor began to drag, forcing the vessel toward the rocky shore, so a crewman tugged on the air hose line, signalling the diver to abort the dive. But the diver tugged back, indicating his desire to continue his quest for sea cucumbers. A short time later, worried that the vessel was getting precariously close to the rocky shore, the crewman again tugged on the air hose. This time, the diver failed to signal, nor did he surface. Shortly thereafter, the air hose line became taut, indicating the possibility of a problem with the airflow. About five minutes had elapsed since the crewman had signaled the diver to surface, so a crew member immediately donned his dive suit and entered the water. He was too late. The diver was found underneath the vessel, unconscious, his diving mask pulled from his face. He was pulled from the water and CPR applied immediately. Medical technicians arrived shortly and they administered advanced CPR and life-saving measures, also to no effect. There was no evidence of foul play and the diver's death was deemed an accidental drowning. According to the Metlakatla sergeant, the diver had a cut on the bridge of his nose and what appeared to be a bump near the back of his head, suggesting he may have hit his head on the dive boat's keel or a rock. An examination of the dive equipment was conducted and everything appeared in good condition. USCG Report. -
2002 12 9 Not Recorded Australia Australian Army Special Forces Topsides Paraphrased from press reports:- "Oil Rig Raid Death a 'Freak Accident'. The Australian Army Special Air Services was running a mock raid on a oil rig in Bass Straight with four inflatable boats, each carrying six divers were traveling about 3 meters apart in a staggered formation. The coxswain of one boat lost control when a diver caught his flipper strap on the tiller when he was entered the water. The driver slipped and fell onto his knees. He looked and saw a man being dragged by his leg, the boat then veered to the left and struck another diver. He saw a diver about 10 meters away with a face that "looked like it was mangled". The supervising officer said in hindsight, "propeller guards should have been used", however the boat was harder to control with guards. The soldier killed by the propeller was a 33 year old sergeant from Perth� Reported by Polson Enterprises list of propeller incidents/Herald Sun (Australia) -
2002 12 7 Not Recorded USA Topsides Overboard Fatality, Ewing Bank, crew member of a contract work/dive boat rescued a man overboard, later pronounced dead -
2002 12 3 Not Recorded Australia The 22-year-old man was diving for sea cucumber on Kelso Reef, 80km north of Townsville on the Great Barrier Reef was injured when boat propeller sliced open his buttock. Treated in hospital, no details, Reported by AAP -
2001 12 31 Feher Mark USA SCUBA Aged 21, professional golf ball diver, working on the links at Boynton beach with his brother. Both on SCUBA but . Reported as an experienced diver, failed to surface at the end of the dive, recovered by his brother, drowned, no details. St. Petersburg Times -
2001 12 17 James Leslie UK Saturation British, crushed hand during lifting operations. -
2001 12 17 Not Recorded Germany 40 SCUBA Aged 29, wife and six year old daughter, the manager of a 5 man diving contractor from Hamburg, 10 o'clock on a Monday morning, cleaning operations on frond mats at the Droda Dam, two man dive, after 10 minutes partner caught in fronds and had to ditch his weight belt and lost his knife, he surface safely but realised the other diver had not surfaced but could not go down to to lack of weight belt. Body pulled up on a line (lifeline?), may have been without cylinders when recovered (ditched his gear?), entangled, lost his cyliners, no other details. Reported in Schatzsucher.de -
2001 12 4 Cleugh Andrew Ross Netherlands 22 S/S Air British, aged 29, trapped underwater during a pipeline survey, trench wall collapse “caused by an earth tremor�, inquest in March 2006, drowned, no real details. -
2000 12 20 Thorpe Danny Australia Aged 47, abalone diver, one of a two man crew, boat overturned on the Monday, after clinging to the overturned hull for several hours, the skipper swam to shore but was swept 30 kilometres in 15 hours to a remote shore where he wae found on Wednesday. Known shark area, crewman decided to stay with the hull. Shredded remains of a life preserver found washed up later. Presumed shark attack. Skipper vowed he would never go back to sea. Philippine Daily Inquirer. NB Skipper did return to sea, only to lose another crewman to shark attack eleven years later (Peter Clarkson, February 2011) -
1999 12 28 Mahoney Michael C USA Bisso Marine American, Mississippi river barge salvage job, oxy arc explosion, stand-by diver not dressed in. Diver was killed in an underwater explosion while performing "hot work" on the sunken barge. Early court documents from a civil action brought by Bisso Marine against OSHA when the investigation was transferred from USCG to OSHA shows that Mr. Mahoney's "autopsy revealed high levels of cocaine and TCH.....that Mahoney likely smoked crack cocaine on the barge shortly before making the dive." OSHA investigation complete. Citations on Appeal. Fine to be Paid, 4 Citations/$8250 NAOCD/cDiver -
1999 12 22 Militello A USA Paraphrased from press reports:- "Lobster Man Dies After Getting Caught in Propeller Shaft. The man, aged 40 from Goucester was on the 'Dean', a fishing boat, near Bakers Island Massachusetts (about 3 miles from the entrance to Beverly and Salem Harbours, when he became caught in the prop shaft.. A nearby fishing vessel notified the Coast Guard which transported him to Manchester Marina. He was then moved to Beverly Hospital and pronounced dead from "multiple trauma". Not clear if this was a diving accident. Polson Enterprises list of propeller incidents/Associated Press -
1999 12 7 Not Recorded Spain S/S Air Paraphrased from press reports:- “ A court in San Sebastian has sentenced company co-owner to a year and a half in prison for the death of a diver who was killed by the propeller of the boat from which he worked, while trying to clear an anchor that had been trapped at the bottom. The boat's skipper, who was also charged has been acquitted as he only complied with the orders of his superior . The deceased was working on a fish farm in Zumaia when about 12.30 the crew found that the bow anchor was stuck on the bottom. When the diver was in the water, the boat manager twice gave the order to go hard forward to dislodge the anchor and the employee complied with this indication, when the diver was dragged into the propeller and sliced to death. The ruling states that the owner and manager of the company "was directly responsible to provide safe working conditions for their workers', despite which he allowed the work to be performed by a single diver, where the legislation requires two. The court also noted the propeller should not have been used with a surface umbilical diver in the water,' reckless manager’ allowing the maneuver. For this reason, it condemned the manager to one year in prison for a crime of homicide by negligence and six months for another crime against the rights of worker plus banned from managing a diving company three years, plus compensation to the parents of 14,100. -
1998 12 8 Not Recorded South Korea North Korean Navy Diver Dec. 18, 1998 - South Korean navy sinks submersible North Korean spy vessel on east coast. A scuba diver from the North is found dead. Unfree Media/China Daily. (NB This report is quoted in various sources, the Commando (July 1998) is less widely reported. They appear to be different incidents. TC) -
1998 12 7 Not Recorded USA Commercial diver working on a propeller at Continental Lime, Tacoma, critically injured, taken to hospital, no details -
1996 12 15 McFadden Timothy J USA SCUBA American, aged 34, described as “a commercial diver from Ventura", died diving off the fishing vessel "Sea Worthy" harvesting sea urchins, flown to a DDC but died, Daily News, California -
1996 12 4 Engel Yair Israel Navy SCUBA OC Navy has appointed an inquiry committee to determine the cause of the mysterious deaths in a routine training exercise of two IDF frogmen, whose bodies were found yesterday in Haifa Bay 16 hours after they went missing. The two, First-Sgt. Matan Polibuda, 20, from Mevasseret Zion and First-Sgt. Yair Engel, 19, from Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, were veterans of dozens of dives. They were approaching promotion to they were 16 months in the unit and approaching their graduation into the elite Shayetet 13 underwater commando battalion -
1996 12 4 Polibuda Matan Israel Navy SCUBA OC Navy has appointed an inquiry committee to determine the cause of the mysterious deaths in a routine training exercise of two IDF frogmen, whose bodies were found yesterday in Haifa Bay 16 hours after they went missing. The two, First-Sgt. Matan Polibuda, 20, from Mevasseret Zion and First-Sgt. Yair Engel, 19, from Kibbutz Ramat Rahel, were veterans of dozens of dives. They were approaching promotion to they were 16 months in the unit and approaching their graduation into the elite Shayetet 13 underwater commando battalion -
1996 12 0 Brannigan? Norman Canada Dominion Diving Clearing a blocked road culvert in Halifax, Nova Scotia, differential pressure, name not confirmed. PC (Possibly a double report for one of the too culvert deaths reported for 1995? TC) -
1994 12 11 Buckley Todd USA Puget Watermen 18 S/S Air American student at Evergreen State College aged 22, time off to earn money, harvesting sea urchins. Bubbles stopped, pulled to surface, lifeline and weight belt wrapped around airline, unconscious, respiratory arrest, hypothermia and decompression illness, died in hospital. -
1994 12 9 Robinson James USA Aged 42, commercial sea urchin harvesting vessel off San Miguel Island, at the end of a dive as he was leaving the water, attacked by a shark, major leg injuries, died in hospital. Los Angeles Times -
1994 12 5 Not Recorded Canada Diver died while harvesting red urchins in Freeman Passage, BC, from the fishing vessel 'Paul Freeman'. Transportation Safety Board of Canada marine occurence report M94W0096 -
1994 12 1 Rig 'Rowan Odessa' USA Jack Up, Leg hit a pipe (line?), damaged but repaired, 1 fatality. The rig was later reportedmissing, presumed sunk, by hurricane Rita in September 2005 -
1992 12 31 Schumacher Arthur E USA SCUBA Aged 46, assistant chief in charge of rescue with with the Liverpool township fire department, searching for victims of a car crash in Plum creek, trapped in a culvert, drowned. Akron Beacon Journal. -
1992 12 0 Truffant David USA SCUBA Aged 28, Harvesting Sea urchins in Casco bay,reported as his first commercial dive, swam to the surface without exhaling properly, a carpenter by trade with no diving training. The Sun Journal -
1991 12 17 Leager Christopher USA 5 S/S Air Aged 23, working an oyster bed in Chesapeake bay, one and a half miles off Kent Point, pronounced dead at the Anne Arundel Medical Centre. No details. The Washington Post -
1991 12 6 Not Recorded USA SM 0565, P0450, Hildago, Chevron. "While waterblasting sea growth from platform legs, a diver inadvertently passed the waterblaster across his right fool causing a deep laceration. The diver was medivaced to Goleta Valley hospital". OCS Incidents database 1991 to 1994, page 96 -
1991 12 3 Beauregard Robert J USA Pioneer Hydroelectric SCUBA American, aged 30, off duty fireman, working for "Pioneer Hydro" of Ware, Massachusetts, down a tunnel inspecting a turbine, got trapped underwater, tugged on his lifeline, but ran out of air. Unclear if there was a standby diver. -
1990 12 13 Julien Thiery France Comex Topsides Opened a regen pot that was still under pressure, massive chest injuries. An interlock would have prevented this accident. PC -
1990 12 10 Clark Ron L. USA S/S Air Aged 54, Working on repairs at the Archer Daniels Midland plant in Peoria, on the Illinois River. Reported as drowned when he was sucked under river water while working to clean screens on intake pumps at the plant. No other details. Reported in the Pantagraph, Bloomington, Illinois -
1990 12 6 Gunhus Ted USA USN 20 Aged 37, Reserve officer with the Navy Supervisor of Salvage and Naval Reserve Mobile Diving Salvage Unit One Detachment 522 (NRMDSU-1DET 522) attempting to salvage flying boat PBM-5 (sank in 1949) from lake Washington. Described 'a weekend training exercise'. Seattle Times -
1990 12 0 Warrender Stuart UK STS Topsides British, drill support, ROV launch via moon pool, fell out of latches hitting handrails, crushed against container, chest and neck injuries, pronounced dead offshore. -
1989 12 0 Connors USN Lt. John Patrick Panama USN SEAL Topsides Aged 25, Navy SEAL Diver, killed on land in action in Panama, reportedly deployed to Panama Airport to capture General Noriega -
1989 12 0 Not Recorded USA Police SCUBA A 28-year-old member of a fire department dive team lost his life in a lake in Oklahoma in December of 1989. The dive team was conducting a search for the victim of a parasailing accident that had occurred the previous October. While attempting to recover the equipment and the body of the accident victim this diver became thoroughly ensnared in the parachute’s lines -
1988 12 15 Rig 'Rowan Gorilla I' North Atlantic Jack Up built by the Marathon LeTourneau yard at Vicksburg in 1983. Low levels of drilling activity and high maintenance costs led to the initial decision to move the rig from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Trinidad, West Indies. Lack of a contract led to the subsequent decision to move the rig in winter across the North Atlantic to North Sea area. The rig departed Halifax on 08 Dec 1988, towed by the M/V Smit London. On the morning of the 13 December, a storm to the south-west of the rig's position brought winds of 60 knots and waves over 40 feet. Over the following two days, the rig was battered by high seas resulting in some significant damage. Wind and wave action caused the legs of the rig to oscillate and transmit stresses to the supporting structures on the hull. This caused hull fractures to propogate and flood storage tanks in the rig's stern. The lowering of the rig's stern allowed the high seas to break over the deck, causing containers and other deck cargo to break loose and batter top-side hatches, creating more points of flooding. On top of this, the tow line, having suffered two days of abuse, broke and the Smit London could only stand by as the crew of the rig attempted to control the flooding situation. By 1000 on the morning of the 15th December, the captain of the Smit London noted that the rig was considerably heavier by the stern and, noting similarities with the sinking of the Dan Prince jack-up, warned the rig superintendent that the rig was in imminent danger of sinking. Around noon, a series of waves from 50 to 60 foot high hit the rig, dislodging the remaining loose cargo and causing the stern to hang under the seas. After consideration, the rig superintendent then ordered the crew to abandon the rig via the starboard lifeboat. At 1605, the Rowan Gorilla I rolled aft and capsized. Due to the state of the seas, the decision was made to leave the crew in the lifeboat until calmer weather arrived. On 16 Dec 1988, the crew were finally ferried via a Zodiac from the lifeboat to the Smit London, which returned to Halifax. About 6 weeks after the sinking, an inflated liferaft from the Rowan Gorilla I was recovered in the North Atlantic. The liferaft was assumed to be one of the two washed overboard from the main deck by the heavy sea. The immediate cause of the sinking of the Rowan Gorilla I was the uncontrolled flooding of an unknown number of the rig's internal spaces, causing the loss of positive buoyancy. One of the main contributory factors was the formation of fractures in the rig's hull, which flooded the preload tanks and the port thruster room and caused the rig to settle at the stern. These fractures were thought to have been the result of excessive leg oscillation, which imparted severe stresses onto the hull. Also contributing to the sinking was probable damage to hatches, tank vents and other through-deck fittings on the hull's topside, caused by equipment and deck cargo being broken loose by boarding seas. This damage led to numerous downflooding points on the main deck. US Coastguard Marine Casualty Report -
1985 12 15 DSV Huichol II, ex Kattenturm Mexico Condux, a subsidiary of Protexa, working for Pemex Sank in a storm off Cuidad del Carmem inside a Pemex exploration block. 27+, 32 or 33 fatalities out of POB of 71. Rumoured to have sunk with 4 (Oceaneering?) divers in saturation, unclear if other dive team members perished. Salvage operations started 4 days after the vesel sank, the wreck was lifted by the crane barge 'Tolteca' and 21 bodies recovered during February 1986, vessel was partially lifted and then re-sunk in shallow water outside the Pemex exploration block. Lawyers were still arguing with the insurers about the (incompetent) salvage costs 7 years later. The vessel was built in 1966 as the 'Kattenturm', one of eleven '2500' class supply vessels, fitted with a ASK (Honeywell) DP system (with a single bow thruster) and saturation diving system designed by Hans Keller with a unique 'egg shaped' diving bell in 1976. US court of appeals records -
1985 12 15 Not Recorded Mexico Saturation One of four Mexican divers reported as being in saturation when the Huichol II sank in a storm off Cuidad del Carmen, bodies possibly recovered during salvage operations in February. -
1984 12 12 Fusco Quartermaster Seaman Arthur A. Honduras US Special Forces SCUBA Aged 24, Seal team 4 based at Naval Amphibious Base at Little Creek, Va. "Two Navy divers killed blasting Honduran Logjam". Among around 40 special forces dispatched to Honduras to join the Destroyer USS Caron for exercise 'Kings Guard', a coastal surveillance exercise involving the Caron and other vessels from Honduras and El Salvador. As the exercise was winfing down, the Navy dipatched Fusco and Uyedo to the east coast of Honduras for a 'civic action' to help residents of six small villages who had been totally isolated for several years because of log jams on the Amatingri river. The two apparently placed 14 pounds of C4 on a large log jam in a lagoon but they apparently failed to move their small boat far enough away. One man died at the scene, the second died en route to hospital in Comayagua. Shenectady Gazette -
1984 12 12 Not Recorded USA 20 S/S Air NO 03-07, Block 631, OCS-Y 0511, Sedco 708, Well No 1, Atlantic Richfield. "The diver left surface at 11:55 hours to work on an anchor at 65 feet. At approximately 12:35 hours, a garbled message came over the diving phone. The crew could not get an understandable response from the diver. He was observed at the surface trying to climb the ladder to the landing. He fell back into the water. One man climbed down the ladder and another jumped into the water to help. The diver lost consciousness and the two men got him to the landing. He was not breathing and had no pulse. CPR was started and he was moved to the DDC. CPR was continued until the doctor arrived at 18:28 hours and pronounced the victim dead. Cause of death was subsequently determined to be air embolism. OCS incidents database 1956 to 1990, page 306 -
1984 12 12 Uyeda Engine Man 2nd Class Michael R Honduras US Special Forces SCUBA Aged 22, Special Boat Unit 24 based at Naval Amphibious Base at Little Creek, Va. "Two Navy divers killed blasting Honduran Logjam". Among around 40 special forces dispatched to Honduras to join the Destroyer USS Caron for exercise 'Kings Guard', a coastal surveillance exercise involving the Caron and other vessels from Honduras and El Salvador. As the exercise was winfing down, the Navy dipatched Fusco and Uyedo to the east coast of Honduras for a 'civic action' to help residents of six small villages who had been totally isolated for several years because of log jams on the Amatingri river. The two apparently placed 14 pounds of C4 on a large log jam in a lagoon but they apparently failed to move their small boat far enough away. One man died at the scene, the second died en route to hospital in Comayagua. Shenectady Gazette -
1981 12 26 Marmion Mathew USA Aged 20, Long Beach harbour, drowned after getting trapped in an underwater intake of the tanker 'Arco Alaska'. Reported in the Los Angeles times, Telegraph Herald -
1980 12 2 Franklin John Henry USA Power Plant Maintenance Inc SCUBA Aged 35, diving at the South Carolina Electric and Gas Company power dam on the Savannah River, just upstream of Augusta, clearing obsrructions from the dam's intake grate, found dead inside the power plant the following day. He had been sucked into the turbine - Two had been shut off, he was sucked into the third (live) intake. 6 violations (4 serious, 1 wilful). No lifeline, no in-water diver to maintain visual contact, no safety manual, no person in charge, no stand-by diver, no emergency procedures/equipment. The Albany Herald -
1978 12 13 Lim Meng Kian Singapore 2 S/S Air Aged 26. Working on a fishing boat, returning from a voyage into the Indian Ocean when the boat slowed. "Mr Lim, who had some diving experience, volunteered to investigate" using an air hose attached to a compressor. He reported that the vessel's propeller was entangled in rope and took a knife to cut it. After 20 minutes, tugs on his air hose got no response and a second crew member went in to investigate. Diver was motionless in the water, air hose entangled in the propeller, but still had his mask on. Recovered to deck but did not respond to treatment. The coroner commented that there was no apparent reason why he could not have removed his mask and come to the surface from a depth of 2.1 metres and that there was insufficient evidence to show how the diver drowned. "The mask, air hose and compressor were examined and found to be trouble-free". Inquest held in March 1979 recorded an open verdict. Straits Times -
1977 12 12 Hassan Abdul Hamid bin Singapore Selco Malaysian, aged 32, underwater repir work on the American aircraft carrier 'Midway' with fellow diver John Then, off Manof War Anchorage, 'got into difficulties',was found unconscious in the water, died on arrival in hospital. No other details. Straits Times -
1976 12 24 Moore M R or H R UK Comex 0 SCUBA British, aged 29. Drill rig "Sedneth 701". Heavy swell, difficulty getting into basket, tried to swim to stand-by boat, presumed drowned, possibly run over by stand-by vessel, body never recovered. -
1976 12 4 Nabusset Norbert France Comex SCUBA Off Brittany coast. Dived from one moonpool to the other in high current, tide took him away, dragged back by lifeline but lost head gear, drowned. PC -
1974 12 17 Howard-Phillips Jeremy L UK Comex 10 S/S Air British, from Hintlesham in Norfolk, aged 30. McDermott Jet Barge 4, Scapa Flow, Valve knocked off 48" the Occidental pipeline by jet sledge, differential pressure (100' to atmosphere) sucked him into 20cm/8" valve opening, died instantly Standby diver could not release body until pressure equalised. -
1974 12 2 Keane David Ireland 81 British, aged 17. Umbilical severed by bell movement, did not use his bale out, asphyxia/drowning -
1973 12 1 House Timothy UK Strongwork 21 British, aged 24. Semi sub drill rig "Blue Water III", possible diving on SCUBA with a comms/lifeline or might have been S/S Air (Not clear), stand-by diver found surface line cut, body never recovered. Jackie Warner later concluded that the diver had cut his own lifeline, an illogical action brought on by hypothermia, other sources infer umbilical possibly severed by anchor wire/sheave. -
1970 12 30 Strano John Australia Tweed Heads Porpoise Pool “Diver better� SYDNEY. Thursday. “Mr John Strano, 30, of Palm Beach, Queensland, a diver from the Tweed Heads porpoise pool, was recovering today from an injury he received when he was attacked by a 300 lb groper (Newpaper typo, I think….?) in the pool yesterday at feeding time�. The Canberra Times -
1968 12 19 McClung Roger L USA Military SCUBA American police officer aged 32, Virginia Beach, Virginia, drowned in a diving accident -
1968 12 19 Monette Robert R USA Military SCUBA American police officer aged 25, Virginia Beach, Virginia, drowned in a diving accident -
1967 12 4 Clark James USA Aged 35, president of the Ark-La-Tex divers association, fishing competition in lake Caddo, Marshall, Texas. Spear fishing, he surfaced near a tree stump and was then shot by a hunter with a shotgun who mistook the diver in a black wetsuit for an alligator -
1965 12 27 Rig 'Sea Gem' UK BP Converted barge with 10 legs, drilling on block 48, the West Sole field. At around 1345 hours on 27 December 1965, the crew were preparing to move the rig to a new location and commenced jacking down the main deck. A short time later, the passing freighter Baltrover witnessed the main deck lurch then fall towards port. The boat radioed for assistance at 1409 hours before coming to the aid of the Sea Gem's crew. Two of the rig's ten legs had apparently failed, causing the rig to fall sideways. Survivors stated that after about thirty minutes, the rig subsequently capsized and sank with one leg remaining above the sea. Some of the crew were able to launch a liferaft, which 14 of the crew managed to board. The rest of the crew were thrown or jumped into the freezing winter sea. Fortunately, the Baltrover was on scene quickly to pick up survivors. Other men were rescued by passing boats with an RAF and a civilian helicopter assisting. Of the 32 men on board, 19 were rescued, 13 died. -
1962 12 3 Small Peter USA 305 Saturation British, professional journalist, aged 35, record deep dive with Hans Keller, experimental dive to test new breathing mixture, Peter Small died in the bell (reported as 'bends' which he had suffered from in a previous dive, two days earlier), safety diver, Christopher Whittaker, disappeared whilst checking the bell externally at depth and was never found. Keller survived after a safety diver removed a fin jammed in the bell hatch allowing it to seal. Reported by multiple sources. His 21 year old wife, Mary, was found dead in her gas filled apartment two months later. -
1962 12 3 Whittaker Christopher USA 305 Saturation Aged 19, safety diver, record deep dive with Hans Keller, experimental dive to test new breathing mixture, Peter Small died in the bell (reported as 'bends' which he had suffered from in a previous dive, two days earlier),, Christopher Whittaker disappeared whilst checking the bell externally at depth and was never found. Keller survived after a safety diver removed a fin jammed in the bell hatch allowing it to seal. Reported by multiple sources. -
1961 12 0 Matel Andrew Corsica Topsides Frequenting local bars boasting that he had discovered the fabled sunken treasure of General Erwin Rommel. After a couple of nights of such behaviour his bullet riddled body was found in a field near Propriano. Whispered that it was 'the Mafia'. (See 1951, Peter Fleig, another diver who disappeared in strange circumstances) -
1959 12 22 Mielke Donald USA 1 SCUBA Aged 17, diving under ice on the Wolf River at New London with Steven Austen, aged 15, as part of an ongoing search for the body of a three year old boy who apparrently fell into the river a month earlier. Suffocated under the ice when his regulator apparently froze. He was shared regulators with his dive partner, who also nearly sufficated but was rescued by other divers. The Milwaukee Sentinel -
1956 12 1 Rig 'Qatar 1' Arabian Gulf Jack Up, collapsed and sank during towing. 20 fatalities -
1949 12 22 Whap Tom Australia “Diver Finds £3000 Pearl� Darwin, December 28.— “The largest pearl ever found off Thursday Island was recovered last week by diver Tom Whap, in the lugger ‘Galton’, owned by Burns, Philp. It is worth approximately £3000, but owing to its shape it could be worth £4000. It is pear-shaped, of perfect lustre, weighs 40 carats, and is an inch long. The diver, a full-blooded Torres Strait native, will receive 75 per cent, of the value of the pearl�. Reported in the Kalgoorlie Miner, WA. -
1949 12 14 Boitelle Andre Australia S/S Air “Thursday Island Diver Paralysed. A French diver, Andre Boitelle, aboard the lugger ‘Kingfisher’, working new ground at 15 fathoms, fell a further three fathoms in an unexpected crevice on the ocean bed. He was brought to the surface paralysed from the waist down, and at present is in the Thursday Island Hospital. His condition is serious�. Our Thursday Island correspondent. Reported in the Cairns Post, Qld. Another report stated:- DEPTH BEAT WHITE DIVER. One of the few white divers engaged in pearling operations at Thursday Island was admitted to hospital severelv paralvsed with 'diver's bends,' according to information received in Townsville on Thursday. The victim is the French diver, known as Andre, who was brought to Thursday Island by the lugger ‘Kingfisher’ on Sunday night. This is believed to be the first case of the 'bends' this year at Thursday Island. Andre, a former sponge diver from Normandy, has been diving at Thursday Island for about six months. Mr. E. A. Duffield, who has pearling interests at Thursday Island, and is at present visiting Townsville, said on Thursday; 'diver's bends' were usually suffered by divers when about the 13 fathom murk. Present operating depth was about 8 fathoms. Mr. Duffield said susceptibility to 'bends' depended on the diver's stamina. He said the usual practice was to depressurise the victim by raising him by degrees to the surface. Reported in the Townsville Bulletin -
1948 12 9 Not Recorded Russia Headline "Seabed fight with octopus" A seabed fight between two deep sea divers and a giant octopus in the depths of the Pacific Ocean harbour of Nevel in the Soviet Far East is told in the Soviet Navy Paper 'Red Fleet'. Straits Times -
1945 12 5 Graham Macka India Navy Topsides “Two Survivors Of Perils Die� SYDNEY, Tuesday “Two Australian divers of the Commonwealth Salvage Board have lost their lives in the last month, but through all operations during the war and since not a man of the team of over 30 has been killed during diving operations. Diver Macka Graham, of Melbourne, died of meningitis in hospital in Calcutta on Wednesday (5th December). He was one of the crew working under Captain J. P. Williams, under loan from the Australian Government, in raising the British India liner ‘Santhia’ which was on her side in the Hoogli River. ‘Santhia’ has been brought to an upright position ready for refloating. (The other was Joseph Dalley in Papua New Guinea). Reported in the Daily News, Pert, WA -
1945 12 0 Dalley Joseph Papua New Guinea Navy Topsides “Two Survivors Of Perils Die� SYDNEY, Tuesday “Two Australian divers of the Commonwealth Salvage Board have lost their lives in the last month, but through all operations during the war and since not a man of the team of over 30 has been killed during diving operations. (Macka Graham, in India) Other diver to lose his life was Joseph Dalley, also of Melbourne. He was in the messroom of the salvage ship Cambrian Salvor in Rabaul making some toast when a detonator from a Japanese bomb being handled by some of the men exploded and killed him�. Reported in the Daily News, Pert, WA -
1943 12 0 Not Recorded USA Military 3 S/S Air Naval diver, Deep Sea Diving School, Washington Naval base, training tank, welding, apparently electrocuted, only reported case of USN diver electrocution (Article by Robert Murray, US Naval Sea Systems Command). -
1942 12 31 Anderson, RN R Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Bonnell, RCNVR, DSC Lt. G Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Goss, RN Sub.Lt G Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Kerr, RN Lt. K Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Mappleback, RN R Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Pridham, RN P Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Revethan B Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Rickwood, RN M Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Sargent, RNVR Sub-Lt. J Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Stretton-Smith, RNVR Lt. S Sardinia Military Submarine One of 10 divers trained in the use of the Mark I chariots at the HHZ training base on Loch Cairbawn (Scotland) who boarded the 'T' class submarine P-311 with their chariots in Malta to undertake operation 'Principle', an attack on shipping in the Port of Maddalena (Sardinia). Last signal was on the 31st December as the submarine approached Sardinia. Probably sunk by a mine, submarine was reported as lost at sea with all hands. Underwater Trust, Wikipedia etc -
1942 12 31 Submarine P-311 Sardinia Military Submarine HMS P311, only unnamed T-class submarine (Was due to have been named "Tutenkhamen"). Fitted to carry 2 human torpedoes (Chariots). Lost while engaged in Operation Principle, a chariot attack on Italian cruisers at La Maddalena. Left Scotland in November 1942 with sister-boats Thunderbolt and Trooper after addition of human torpedo deck-mounted watertight containers direct for Malta. From there, sailed with two (Or three, accounts differ) Chariots (10 charioteers) for Operation Principle. Last signal on 31st December. Probably sunk by Italian mines in the approaches to Maddalena. Lost with all 80+ hands -
1942 12 8 Leone Sgt Salvatore Gibraltar Military Submarine Three Italian Navy divers were killed by depth charges by British harbour defences at Gibraltar during an attack by “Human Torpedoes� from a mother ship (the ‘Olterra’). Among the dead were Lt Licio Visintini, commander of the torpedo unit, Petty Officer Giovanni Magro and Sergeant Salvatore Leone, from Sicily. Sgt. Leone's body was never found, he was awarded the Medaglia d'oro al Valor Militare and a memorial was erected in the Community Gardens in Taormina (his home town in Sicily) on the 50th anniversary of the attack. The memorial includes a rebuilt torpedo ('maiale', Italian for 'pig', a reference to it's poor handling) and a description of the events. Wikipedia and other historical sources -
1942 12 8 Magro PO Giovanni Gibraltar Military Submarine Three Italian Navy divers were killed by depth charges by British harbour defences at Gibraltar during an attack by “Human Torpedoes� from a mother ship (the ‘Olterra’). Among the dead were Lt Licio Visintini, commander of the torpedo unit, Petty Officer Giovanni Magro and Sergeant Salvatore Leone, from Sicily. Sgt. Leone's body was never found, he was awarded the Medaglia d'oro al Valor Militare and a memorial was erected in the Community Gardens in Taormina (his home town in Sicily) on the 50th anniversary of the attack. The memorial includes a rebuilt torpedo ('maiale', Italian for 'pig', a reference to it's poor handling) and a description of the events. Wikipedia and other historical sources -
1942 12 8 Visintini Lt Licio Gibraltar Military Submarine Three Italian Navy divers were killed by depth charges by British harbour defences at Gibraltar during an attack by “Human Torpedoes� from a mother ship (the ‘Olterra’). Among the dead were Lt Licio Visintini, commander of the torpedo unit, Petty Officer Giovanni Magro and Sergeant Salvatore Leone, from Sicily. Sgt. Leone's body was never found, he was awarded the Medaglia d'oro al Valor Militare and a memorial was erected in the Community Gardens in Taormina (his home town in Sicily) on the 50th anniversary of the attack. The memorial includes a rebuilt torpedo ('maiale', Italian for 'pig', a reference to it's poor handling) and a description of the events. Wikipedia and other historical sources -
1940 12 13 Not Recorded UK S/S Air "How Fife diver met his death. Cut his air pipe when it fouled. Efforts to rescue a diver whose air pipe became fouled while he was …" No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Dundee Courier/The British Newspaper Archive Same death as reported 1st November? -
1940 12 1 Not Recorded UK S/S Air "Fife diver drowned at work. Strenuous but unavailing efforts were made to save a diver whose life-line…" …" No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Dundee Courier/The British Newspaper Archive. Same diver as report for 13th December? -
1937 12 16 Stroud Fred UK S/S Air "Diver's Death. Engaged on operations off the Devon Coast, Mr Fred Stroud, diver employed on the salvage steamer 'Ophir' which has been…" No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Western Morning news/The British Newspaper Archive -
1937 12 0 Nohl Max USA 128 S/S Mixed Gas First deep dive using a heliox mixture and DESCO gear (Developed by Diving Equipment and Salvage Company set up in Winsconsin by divers Max Nohl and Jack Browne with hyperbaric physiologist Edgar End) in Lake Michigan -
1935 12 5 Fukami Maso Australia 30 S/S Air Aged 23, Japanese apprentice Pearl diver working 30 miles off Bathurst Island. His second dive of the day, had sent up one bage of shellthen "While he was waiting for the bag, a snake, estimated to be about eight feet long and four inches around the middle of its body, and like the python which is found in the Northern Territory, swam close to him and seized his left wrist in its jaws" Hauled to deck and found to have his wrist torn apart by the snake's fangs. They put on a tournequet and put him back down to 10 fathoms but shortly after he signalled to be pulled up, but then floated to the surface unconscious. His body had turned black 'the result, his mates thought, of the poison from the snake and paralysis'. Straits Times -
1935 12 5 Miyao Ichitaro Australia Morey & Co. 9 S/S Air BRISBANE, Saturday. — When the pearling lugger ‘Aldinia’ reached Thursday Island today she had on board two iead men. They were a Japanese diver, Ichitaro Miyao, 35, and a Mapoon native, Sammy Myquick, 17. The lugger was working at Warrior island with the diver down five fathoms. When no signals had been received for some time the captain went down and found Miyao dead in his driving dress. As the lugger was returning to Thursday Island Myquick was found dead in the hold. 'The Government officer at the island found that the diver had died from heart failure, while the aborigine had been poisoned by fumes from a broken exhaust pipe in the engine. The Mail, Adelaide, SA -
1935 12 5 Miyao Shitarao or Ichitaro Australia Topsides BRISBANE, Saturday. — When the pearling lugger ‘Aldinia’ reached Thursday Island today she had on board two iead men. They were a Japanese diver, Ichitaro Miyao, 35, and a Mapoon native, Sammy Myquick, 17. The lugger was working at Warrior island with the diver down five fathoms. When no signals had been received for some time the captain went down and found Miyao dead in his driving dress. As the lugger was returning to Thursday Island Myquick was found dead in the hold. 'The Government officer at the island found that the diver had died from heart failure, while the aborigine had been poisoned by fumes from a broken exhaust pipe in the engine. The Mail, Adelaide, SA -
1935 12 5 Myquick Sammy Australia BRISBANE, Saturday. — When the pearling lugger ‘Aldinia’ reached Thursday Island today she had on board two iead men. They were a Japanese diver, Ichitaro Miyao, 35, and a Mapoon native, Sammy Myquick, 17. The lugger was working at Warrior island with the diver down five fathoms. When no signals had been received for some time the captain went down and found Miyao dead in his driving dress. As the lugger was returning to Thursday Island Myquick was found dead in the hold. 'The Government officer at the island found that the diver had died from heart failure, while the aborigine had been poisoned by fumes from a broken exhaust pipe in the engine. The Mail, Adelaide, SA -
1933 12 14 Evans Lloyd J. USA 34 S/S Air 40 years old from Bremerton, Washington, went to San Francisco to work on the San Francisco - Oakland Bridge project. He "was raised by easy stages for the usual rest period from 112 feet below the surface where he had been removing pins from a caisson. As his heavy equipment was being removed, he collapsed and became unconscious. He was taken to a dockside decompression chamber and treated under the supervision of Dr. J. Minton who entered the chamber to be with the diver. "The diver died after several hours of efforts had failed to revive him". The first death "on the project from the affliction ("the bends") against which officials said every precaution had been taken". Prescott Evening Courier. -
1930 12 7 Bargellini Alberto France Gianni and Co Topsides One of three Italian divers who made the deepest to date salvage dives from the “Artiglio� (134m, wreck of the “Egypt�, summer 1930) before working on the wreck of the Florence (9000 tonnes munitions ship sank of St Nazaire in 1917). Munitions exploded sinking the salvage vessel. They were using explosives to dismantle the wreck and to save time, reduced the stand-off distance from 2 miles to being virtually overhead. -
1930 12 7 Franceschi Aristide France Gianni and Co Topsides One of three Italian divers who made the deepest to date salvage dives from the “Artiglio� (134m, wreck of the “Egypt�, summer 1930) before working on the wreck of the Florence (9000 tonnes munitions ship sank of St Nazaire in 1917). Munitions exploded sinking the salvage vessel. They were using explosives to dismantle the wreck and to save time, reduced the stand-off distance from 2 miles to being virtually overhead. -
1930 12 7 Gianni Alberto France Gianni and Co Topsides One of three Italian divers who made the deepest to date salvage dives from the “Artiglio� (134m, wreck of the “Egypt�, summer 1930) before working on the wreck of the Florence (9000 tonnes munitions ship sank of St Nazaire in 1917). Munitions exploded sinking the salvage vessel. They were using explosives to dismantle the wreck and to save time, reduced the stand-off distance from 2 miles to being virtually overhead. -
1928 12 12 Christophe Lambiris USA 18 S/S Air Aged 25, Sponge diver out of Tarpon springs onboard the vessel “Bessie�, 100 miles out, reported as “drowned when his airline parted�. The Evening Independent -
1928 12 7 Ali Amat bin Australia Gregory & Castilla 37 S/S Air “PEARL DIVER'S DEATH. Collapsed in 20 fathoms�. PERTH, Friday – “A message from Broome states that Amat Bin Ali, a pearl. diver, collapsed and died in 20 fathoms of water yesterday, when pearling off Lacepede Island. Ali signalled to be pulled up again, then he hastily signalled: "Stage me, quick." He was "staged" at 15 fathoms for five minutes, but when brought up he was dead A doctor certified that death was due to syncope� Reported by the Recorder, Port Pirie, SA -
1928 12 6 O'Hara Fumio Australia Topsides Japanese Diver's Death. The death of Fumio O'Hara, a Japanese diver, at Broome on Thursday was reported to the Commissioner of Police (Mr. R. Connell) yesterday by Inspector Leen. O'Hara disappeared from his boarding house in the morning and four hours later his body was found on a derelict lugger on the beach. The stomach had been ripped open, evidently with a razor found near by. O'Hara had been under medical treatment. Inspector Leen stated, and had been suffering from mental depression. The inspector said he thought it was a case of suicide. The West Australian -
1928 12 3 Not Recorded Brazil S/S Air 3rd of December, build up to big celebration in Rio de Janeiro for the return home of famous airman Alberto Santos-Dumont. A Dornier Wal (Seaplane) carrying Politicians and dignitaries crashed into the sea killing all 14 onboard. A diver died during an operation to recover the bodies from the plane when his air lines became entangled. Reported in The New York Times -
1927 12 24 Caisson incident USA Caisson Caisson work during construction of Hudson river bridge, 3 drowned -
1925 12 19 Parsons William UK S/S Air Reported as "Death of diver during tests at Collingwood docks, Liverpool" "Divers tragic Death. Death drom misadaventure was the verdict at Liverpool. Saturday on William Parsons, Liverpool, who died after...." "Death from misadventure was the verdict at Liverpool.." No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in The Post (Lanarkshire)/Aberdeen Journal/The British Newspaper Archive -
1921 12 20 Torrance Captain william UK S/S Air "Diver drowned. Through air pipe becoming severed, William Torrance, diver, lost his life while…" "Weymouth diver's tragic end. Asphyxiated underwater through air pipe bursting. Weymouth, Wednesday. Verdict of death by asphyxiation was returned today.." "Diver suffocated. Fatal accident in Portland Harbour while diving operations were in progress from the tug..." No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette/The British Newspaper Archive -
1921 12 2 Not Recorded Australia Morley Pearling 11 S/S Air Pearl Diver Killed. Further information has been received by the Inspector of Police, Cairns, regarding the recent death of a Japanese diver, aged 20 years, off Thursday Island. The deceased was engaged by the Morley Pearling Co. of Thursday Island, and was diver and captain of a ketch named "Dart." He was at work in six fathoms of water when the spring of the pump burst, and he was immediately hauled to the surface. When his head-gear was removed he was found to be dead. The scene of the fatality was at the fishing grounds, 60 miles from Thursday Island, known as Badu. Deceased was-taken to Thursday Island, where death was declared to be due to suffocation while diving in apparatus. Reported in the Cairns post, Qld. -
1909 12 3 Not Recorded UK S/S Air "Fatal Diving accident. Engineer's sudden illness underwater. A sad accident which resulted in the …" No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Dover Express/The British Newspaper Archive -
1908 12 14 Smith George USA 15 S/S Air Diving off the wrecking steamer W. H. Morse working on the wreck of the H. M. Whitney, the two sailors working his air pump had a fight over who was in charge ending with one unconscious with a fractured skull, the other rowing away. Other crew members turned out, found the unconscious sailor, started pumping but got no response on the diver's signal line. Pulled him to the surface, unconscious, hospitalised but survived. -
1904 12 18 Hatrickichi Sakamoto Australia Topsides Apparently murdered by two Malays. Data to add, TC -
1898 12 6 Brennan USA Military Topsides Headline “SUBMARINE MINE EXPLODES. Four Men Killed in Boston - Three of Them Are Blown Into Irrecoverable Fragments�. Four men were killed and several seriously injured at Fort Independence, on Castle Island, in Boston Harbor this afternoon, by the explosion of a mine which had been removed from the channel. Those killed were Sergt. Morris McGrath, Hiram Vaughn, Private Brennan, (a diver.) and a man named Ryan. The accident occurred about 2 o’clock. Vaughn, Brennan, and Ryan had placed the mine on a cart, and started to take it to the place where the other ammunition was stored, when from no apparent cause the mine burst. The horse and cart and the three men were blown to fragments. Sergt. McGrath was standing fully twenty feet away. He was instantly killed by the concussion. His body does not bear a mark of any sort. As soon as possible after the explosion, a careful search was begun by Lieut. Raymond, who had charge of removing the mines, but not a fragment of the three men or their clothing could be found. Lieut. Raymond says that he cannot explain how the explosion occurred. He says that since the order was issued from Washington hundreds of mines have been handled in precisely the same way as was this one and transported over the same road, and no harm had resulted. Ryan was a civilian, assisting in the work. Vaughn was a member of the Engineer Corps. Sergt. McGrath was the keeper of the island, and was well known throughout Boston and its vicinity. New York Times -
1897 12 0 Not Recorded Australia S/S Air “Another Japanese diver in Torres Straits his died from paralysis caused by deep diving.� No details. Reported in the Brisbane Courier -
1896 12 26 Hobbs RN Mediterranean Navy "Death of a Naval Diver. News has been received from HMS Anson (Pre-deadnought battleship commissioned 1889, broken up in 1909 on Mediterranean Station that leading shipwright Hobbs, of that vessel, while diving for a lost anchor..." No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Worcester Journa/The British Newspaper Archive -
1895 12 14 Grant George Australia S/S Air "A diver named George Grant was drowned whilst proceeding with his occupation at Townsville, Queensland, on Saturday. He went down with the faceplate of his diving suit off". Another report says "through his faceplate somehow becoming detached". Reported in the Northern Argus (Clare, SA). Another report states:-A Diver Drowned. BRISBANE, Monday. — A wire from Townsville states that George Grant, a diver, who has been in Government employ for twenty-seven years, met his death very mysteriously on Saturday. He was engaged in clearing the anchor of a punt, and as he stopped down for more than three minutes without making any sign, his mates became anxious, and hauled him up. He was then found to have been drowned. The face-piece, of his diving suit had either fallen off or been, torn away in some unexplainable away. The unfortunate fellow leaves a wife and nine children. He was a prominent member of the local Naval Brigade, and was accordingly buried with naval honors on Sunday. Evening News, Sydney -
1895 12 0 Not Recorded Australia Topsides Thursday island. “A diver named John Anderson reported on Saturday that three mainland natives, who formed part of the crew of his lugger Dart, mutinied when anchored out of sight of all land to the westward of Badu. The balance of the crew was composed of two Malays and one Cooktown native. Just before daylight the three Binghies attacked the two Malays and Anderson with shell-knives. Anderson grappled with his man, and both fell overboard, but Anderson got safely back to the lugger. The Cooktown native assisted the Malays, and eventually the two assaulters were either thrown or jumped overboard. The three natives were evidently afraid to attempt to return to the lugger, and relied for deliverance upon the extremely remote chance of reaching some land. If they were saved it would be little short of a miracle�. The Brisbane Courier -
1895 12 0 Not Recorded Australia 26 S/S Air “The pearling lugger 'Waterlily' returned to port on Saturday with the body of a Japanese diver who had died from the effects of diving in about fourteen fathoms of water off the 'Warrior reef. He was a young diver� The Brisbane Courier -
1893 12 9 Gray Thomas USA S/S Air Described as 'an inexperienced diver' working on the wreck of the Pelican off Ashtabula (A schooner that sank in May 1893, of the crew of 7, 3 were lost, two injured). Descended to the wreck at 2 pm, sent up distress signals an hour later, but could not be pulled up. Surface crew telegraphed for a rescue diver. Distress signals ceased around 6 pm. Rescue diver, Edwin Welsh, arrived and went down around 9 pm and found that Gray had fallen though a hatch and become entangled in wires. Recovered to surface but found to be dead. “The air connections were all right and there was no water in his suit. Gray either died of fright or chills� New York Times -
1892 12 31 Fairchild Adoniram USA S/S Air "Diver Killed By Dynamite." ". …to the diver. And reply was received they began immediately pulling up. When the diver was brought to the surface, was found to...." "A Diver Killed. An unusual and painfully sad accident occurred on Friday at New York harbour. While a diver was below placing dynamite in the prepared borings, an explosion took place which was clearly indicated to those in charge of the work." (NB This incident is also reported in early January 1893 but appears to have happened in late December 1892) No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Derby Daily Telegraph/The British Newspaper Archive. Dual report for the death of Adrian Fairchild (Same date). Boston Evening Transcript -
1892 12 31 Fairchild Adrian USA S/S Air “Adrian Fairchild, for forty years a diver In the employ of the city was at work on the north bed of the river ramming a charge of dynamite........� No other details, Los Angeles Times -
1891 12 1 Smith Christian Australia Neil Anderson Topsides "Two divers (double fatality with Peter Rasmossan) were drowned at the pearl fishing grounds near Nadoo Island last Tuesday. "The Dingy in which they left the lugger was subsequently found at sea, bottom upwards".The Advertiser, Adelaide. -
1891 12 1 Rasmassen or Rosmossan Peter Australia Neil Anderson Topsides "Two divers (double fatality with Christian Smith) were drowned at the pearl fishing grounds near Nadoo Island last Tuesday. "The Dingy in which they left the lugger was subsequently found at sea, bottom upwards".The Advertiser, Adelaide. -
1877 12 18 Not Recorded UK "Shocking Accident To A Diver. Strange fatality occurred at Her Majesty's Devonport Dockyard yesterday. A heavy spar…." No other details (Pay for access archive) Reported in the Manchester Evening News/The British Newspaper Archive -
1876 12 0 Not Recorded Australia S/S Air Cape Verde Islander, one of two pearl divers killed in December working out of Somerset (North Australia, on the York Penninsula). "He was walking along the bottom when his when his life line became entangled around a large piece of cup shaped coral, the only obstruuction for a considerable distance. The boat to which he was attached was drifting with the tide as he walked on, and, the life line getting foul, the boat was anchored as it were.The strain thus brought on the life line would appear to have drawn the diver down to the coral, thereby creating such alarm as to cause him so far as to lose his presence of mind as to cut the line. He might just as well cut his throat as by his thoughtless act he transferred the boat's strain from the rope to the air pipe, which was soon pulled out of its socket on the helmet" When the body, sometime later, was recovered, "It was on it's back and a knife firmly clutched in the right hand. No blame appears to have been attached to the boat's crew". Grey River Argus, Papers Past, National Library of New Zealand. -
1872 12 10 Collins USA S/S Air American, formally a member of the 99th Regiment of New York Volunteers, searching for a propeller lost off a Navy steam launch at Norfolk, Virginia. About 1 o'clock a diver by the name of Collins met his death by suffocation while engaged in diving. Pulled to the surface and found to be dead. New York Times -
1862 12 19 Barrett Lucas Jamaica S/S Air English, Aged 25, The first director of Geological Survey of Jamaica. He used mollusc shells for fossil dating, Started collecting living shells underwater from the Port Royal Cays, south of Kingston Harbour. On his second dive collecting shells on a reef, closed air valve and inflated suit to surface, floated to surface some distance from his boat, dead before brought ashore. J B S Haldane suggested that this rapid ascent was the cause of death due to a pulmonary air embolism ('the bends'). A shell, now in the natural history museum in London, found on his body is one of only two known specimens of a smooth shelled micromorphic brachiopod 'Argyrotheca woodardiana'. -
2013 12 1 Argoncillo Alex UAE Scamp / Gubunco 60m S/S Air One of two divers employed by Scamp Middle East reported as having died in November/December 2013 (The second was not named but was initially reported 'not diving related' but no details, waiting on clarification from Scamp. Later reported that the other death occurred on November 14th and was diving related). Philippino, Vessel husbandry job off Fujairah, unclear whether he got entangled in a brush cart umbilical or his diving umbilical was caught in the vessel propellor. No details, his best friend, Alex Tejedar, died in Italy in April 2013 (Costa Concordia salvage works, but death was not diving related). PC. Another report states that the incident occurred on surface supply when the divers umbilical caught in cleaning chariot brush, diver surfaced and removed band mask, chariot started to pull diver under water, standby diver launched ( in SCUBA) and gives second stage to diver in distress, diver bites off 2nd stage, rescue abandoned, diver pulled under water and drowned. PC -
2014 12 22 Bermudez Morfy Alex Nicaragua Alberto Woo 25m SCUBA Honduran, lobster diving from the "Lady Di III" (Licensed to sail with 25, sailed with 24 but because several 'registered' divers did not turn up, sailed with additional unlisted crew including the deceased) out of Bilwi. Navy base personnel reported that he died of DCI as "like most lobstermen, the diver was working without the necessary stops" and there was no time to transfer him ashore to the recompression chamber at the New Dawn Bilwi Hospital.Reported to be the sixth lobster diver to die in the northern caribbean in the second half of this year. elnuevodiario.com.ni -
2016 12 19 Castiglione Leticia Nerina Argentina Raul A. Negro S.R.L Salvage and Diving Company SS/Air Approx. 18:10 hs. Monday 19-Dec Commercial diver Leticia Castiglione, an Argentine. 37 years of age Diving for the Company Raul Negro. Operating in reflotamiebro on a sunken barge TAF 317. Km 1204,5 MI RP. Leaving bottom and arriving on the surface assisted by the two surface divers who with personal from the PNA used CPR. Unconscious she was transferred to land and taken to the School Hospital where they performed life saving tasks of reanimacion.amplia CORR Hs. At 20:20 The Head of Intensive Therapy reported the death of the Commercial Diver Leticia Castiglione, cause of death to be determined by the coroner. Federal Court Judgment No. 1 was given to Dr. Carlos Soto Dávila - Facebook -
2015 12 11 Kuehn Wayne Douglas Jnr USA SCUBA Aged 48. married with a son and daughter, had a full time job, but as a side line sold second hand golf balls at a dollar each. SCUBA diving at night (Illegally) for golf balls at the Star Ranch golf course. Cause of death not reported ('waiting on toxicology reports'). His father reported him missing after finding his car at the golf course, took two days to find his body in the pond. Reported in Mystatesman -
2017 12 17 Gubhela Nhlakanipho South Africa Aqua-tech SCUBA Aged 23, Pier 104, Durban Harbour, Vessel maintenance of the Chinese vessel Rui-Ning 2. "At 18h05, Sunday, 17th December, NSRI Durban duty crew were activated by the Transnet National Ports Authority (TNPA) following a request for assistance from Aquatech reporting a diver missing in the Port of Durban. We believe that the diver reportedly went into the water on a dive to relieve another diver who was already under a ship during dive maintenance operations under a ship berthed in Port. At 17h00, reportedly after it appeared that the diver had not arrived to relieve the diver who was already under water (under the ship), Aquatech divers initiated a search and at 17h15 raised the alarm calling TNPA Port Control. 'The diver went missing while working on the hull of a vessel on Sunday. He was not wearing a lifeline at the time‚ a device that could easily have identified his position in the murky water, his body was recovered on Thursday morning.“He was found in the area where he went missing‚ strong winds blew his partially decomposed body back to the wharf where he was found this morning. “The official cause of death still needs to be investigated‚ but the diver is believed to have died from drowning. “He was dressed in diving gear with his cylinders attached‚ but he was not wearing a mask at the time of recovery.” The police diver said many questions needed to be asked about why proper safety precautions hadn’t been followed. Reported in the Daily News -
2017 12 20 Not Reported Roberto Spain Grambasa SCUBA Aged 34, married with two daughters aged 3 years and 2 months. Fish Farm two miles offshore Guardamar de Segura, near Alicante, run by by Grupo Culmarex. Solo SCUBA dive in a fish cage to between 10 and 27 msw. Surfaced with mask flooded, taken ashore but declared dead by medics 'Under Investigation' www.diarioinformacion.com -
2016 12 13 Nava Pascasio Nino Mexico CAPAMA Aged 58, working for the Acapulco Municipal Water and Sewage Commission (CAPAMA), Papagayo 2 catchment are in the town of Salsipuedes, pumps still running, took six hours to recover the body (Nobody could authorise turning off the pumps), appears to have been another differential pressure incident. Reported by El Sur, periodico de guerrero -
2016 12 15 Scott David USA TK Potable Diving Aged 47, inspecting the inside of a water storage tank in Braintree, Texas, reported lost air and then became unconscious, his 'spotter' went in to rescue him and was himself rescued by firemen and taken to hospital with hypothermia, diver's body recovered 17 hours later. Diver's 14 year old son was on site at the time of the incident. Wind gusting 50-60 mph, air temp 25 degrees F, overflowing water freezing on the exposed roof of the tank. -
2016 12 23 Not Reported Spain SCUBA Aged 40, cable entangled in propeller of fish farm support boat in Puerto Calero (Lanzarotte, Canary Islands), went in to clear it, surfaced, went back down and 'suffered a series of fatal cuts' with the boat's propeller. Reported by La Voz de Lanzarote -
2016 12 28 Bahamonde Jose Chile Aged 56, shellfish diving from the vessel 'Javiera' (Registered in Achao) near Shilling Island, died, reported as decompression illness. Reported by biobiochile.cl -
2019 12 27 Galletti Wolfrang Angola Rana Diving S.p.a. / Aquatic Deepwater Sonangol P&P 82m Sat Commercial Diver 42 years old born in Trieste . Italy on December 28th 1976. Working for RANA Diving S.p.a.onboard of the SBM Installer at Block 3 in Angola , blowdown on December 23rd 2019. When bell run 011 on December 27th 2019 working at seabed around 82 m.s.w. like Diver2 was smashed between a pipe (long ~10 meters/ weight ~ 1 tone) and one DMA in a fatal accident not yet clarified . 24 days to repatriate the corpse that arrive Italy on January 20th 2020. From the autopsy made in Angola and performed in Portuguese First: Wolfrang died of a shock resulting from a thoracic trauma that compromised the aorta. On the body there are also wounds and bruises on the head, in particular on the cheekbones and on the occipital part. Second: the Angolan coroner who performed the autopsy classifies the death as "accident at work". On Tuesday 11th February 2020 forty five days after his death was buried in Trieste his Italian city. No Company or IMCA information about this fatality yet. -
2021 12 12 Sawiran Herman Indonesia 11m S/S Air Palembang, South Sumatra. Family diving team of two bothers and a brother-in-law (the victim) led by father installing a PDAM pump (high volume unit weighing 3 tons). Diving on an air compressor with a 100 metre hose hookah set up to check pump status. Hose went tight then broke, stand-by dived in. Diver had gone head first into the pump, head and torso missing, hips and legs recovered to surface. Divers questioned why the pump was running whilst they were doing the inspection. Reported in Indonesian Press. -
2021 12 24 Williams Rodney Dale USA Canon's Service SCUBA Aged 57, died in a retention pond. OSHA report stated "Investigation Nr: 142251.015, Event: 12/24/2021, Employee Is Killed, Drowned When Diving With Defective Equipment. At 10:20 a.m. on December 24, 2021, an employee who worked as an independent con tract diver was entering a retention pond for a second dive to place a buoy on pipe that was broken. A coworker (the employer) who was observing from the shore noticed about 15 minutes into the second dive that employee's bubble trail had made a circle and then stopped. Coworker #1 called 911 immediately as Coworker #2 entered the water and tried to rescue the employee. Local police and Fire/EMS a rrived on scene, but were unable to rescue the employee. EMS called for the Coun ty Dive Team to assist but by the time the team arrived the rescue operation had turned into a recovery. The employee was retrieved from the pond approximately two (2) hours after he was last seen. The employee was pronounced dead at the sc ene due to drowning. The employee's personal dive equipment was not functioning properly which potentially lead to hypoxia and then death. -
2012 11 13 Lucyk Corpoal Lionel France Fireman SCUBA Aged 38, professional diver/firefighter, diving with a partner as part of a 4 man team from the St Nazaire fire and rescue centre in heavy seas to cut nets off the propellor of a disabled trawler in the bay between Le Pouliguen and Pornichet, details unclear, but failed to surface, found unconscious near the fishing boat but failed to respond to treatment. Married with a daughter. Reported by Letelegramme.com -
2012 11 3 Montozzi Maximilian Argentina Police Aged 37, Buenos Aries Province police diver, one of a team searching the Roggero Dam in Moreno on Monday for the bodies of two young men who disappeared the previous Saurday 3rd (presumed drowned, both bodies were subsequently recovered). Went missing during the morning, his lifeless body was recovered from a few metres away from where he disappeared in the afternoon. Reported swept away by strong current and trapped on a grill, drowned. His brother Marcos, also a policeman, had also died in the line of duty. Noticas Argentinas -
2011 11 14 Compresor shutdown Canada S/S Air Paraphrased from CDAC report:- �MONTREAL —Quebec’s labour minister said it’s “unimaginable� that wildcat strikers would cut off the air supply to two construction divers on a worksite north of Montreal on Monday. The divers in Trois-Rivieres, about 140 km north of Montreal, were shaken but unharmed when a roving group of union delegates forcibly shut down the waterfront worksite. The revelations were made Thursday in Quebec City during legislative hearings for proposed union reform legislation (Bill-33). The president of the union representing the divers told the Labour Minister that delegates from a larger union demanded the waterfront site be shut down the moment they arrived. When workers refused, one of the delegates shut down a generator which supplied electricity to radios, lights and the air compressor that fed air to the underwater divers. The two divers in the water used their emergency air supplies to resurface safely. A member of the diving team who was on shore when the generator was shut off said that the union reps threatened him. “I told them that there could have been an incident, or something serious, like a death� he said. “They told me that I could also be involved in an accident.� The company running the worksite has not pressed charges. Two larger unions represent 70% of construction workers in the province. They are fighting Bill-33 which strips them of their power to decide which and how many workers are assigned to construction sites. The government argues the two larger unions use this right to intimidate workers who are part of smaller unions by banning them from certain construction sites. The smaller unions, which collectively represent 30% of Quebec construction workers, favour the bill. Meanwhile, the union said Monday’s situation was a misunderstanding. “The version of the incident that I heard, is that one of the workers, in a moment of confusion, stopped the generator,� a spokesperson for the QFL said. “If they shut down the generator on purpose, then that is unacceptable.� CDAC -
2011 11 1 Not Recorded Iraq Leighton S/S Air Diver off the 'Leighton Eclipse' recovered to deck after suffering a leg injury (required knee surgery) from a crushing incident with a DMA whilst working in black water, transferred to hospital ashore for treatment. In a separate incident, dive team DMTs were called in to assist with a deck hand on a tug who suffered a near full leg amputation working wires in rough weather (Reported that the DMT reached into the wound, pulled out the artery and tied a knot in it, an action the Kuwait hospital confirmed as having saved his life). Longstreath. -
2010 11 29 McCarthy Peter Joseph Thailand 80 Rebreather British, aged 47, diving instructor, disappeared on an 80 metre deep dive into the mouth of a submerged volcano off the Thai island of Koh Tao with a party of eight other British and Italian divers at about noon, local time, on Monday. The other instructor on the dive told Thai media that Mr McCarthy did not come up after the nine man hour-long dive. Each of the divers had two hours of oxygen. The other divers used up their remaining oxygen in searching for their instructor, reports said. The instructor was described as a very experienced technical diver - expert in a specialised type of scuba diving that uses a mix of gases to allow divers dive go deeper and for longe (Technical diving). The original diving group consisted of the two instructors, four men and three women. Mr McCarthy had a diving licence issued in the Gulf of Thailand province of Chumpon. Daily Mail UK -
2010 11 27 Not Recorded Norway Aged 47, Reports described him as 'A professional diver in his 40s was killed during a working dive at a pumping station at the Husqvarna factory in Sarpsborg, Ostfold on Saturday morning'. Possibly trapped underwater and/or lost air supply, but no details. Checking the factory inlet was an annual job he had done several times previousl. Water was ice covered at the time. The diver appears to have been a volunteer/sports diver from the Sarpsborg diving club but employed to undertake a commercial (water inlet) diving job. Does not appear to fit in with Norwegian regulations. No published incident report found to date. Reported by NTu -
2010 11 18 Nolesolo Roberto Villata Peru SCUBA Aged 38, one of two shellfish divers (Valiente Zapata Wilbert was killed) diving from the scallop boat 'Robert Alexander' off the island 'Lobos de Tierra' involved in a decompression incident. No details. Reported by GPS Diving -
2010 11 18 Wilbert Valiente Zapata Peru SCUBA Aged 38, one of two shellfish divers (Roberto Villata Nolesolo was seriously injured) diving from the scallop boat 'Robert Alexander' off the island 'Lobos de Tierra' involved in a decompression incident. No details. Reported by GPS Diving -
2010 11 13 Rain Javier Gueichapiren Chile SCUBA Shellfish diver working on the 'Westhoff' 20 miles south of Puerto Melinka Weste, disappeared. Search by Navy personnel located his body on the North coast of Puerto Llancos two days later. www.armada.cl -
2010 11 4 Dau Nguyen Van Vietnam Cienco No 1 32 S/S Air Paraphrased from press reports:- "A diver drowned in Da Nang Thursday while fixing a broken drill tip at a bridge construction site. The Diver, aged 33 was paid VND10 million (US$513) to bring up a drill tip from 32 meters below the surface of the Han River. His first dive was successful; and he surfaced after 15 minutes with part of the tip. He descended once again and didn't resurface. Another worker from  the Tran Thi Ly bridge construction site dived to check on Dau and found his dead body. Some of the workers said the tube supplying oxygen to Dau was narrow and might have twisted, diminishing Dau's air supply. Workers also said the cold water might have weakened him. Rescuers managed to bring his body to the surface on Thursday evening, seven hours after the event. First investigation showed that Dau had been stuck in a pipe, which is part of the bridge construction�. Thanh Nien News.com -
2010 11 4 Not Recorded Earl'? USA, New York Reicon S/S Air American, aged 35. Paraphrased from reports:- “Commercial diving team working at a restoration project at Chelsea Pier 59 on the Hudson River. End of dive, divers were being pulled back to the barge they were working from, fellow workers saw that one of the divers was in distress. Police said his umbilical had become entangled in the pier and was frantically waving his hands as he was pulled in along the 250’ umbilical and had taken off the mask that presumably because he was not able to get air through it. He was pulled out of the water blue and unconscious about 5:45 p.m. Police said that attempts by his fellow workers to revive the man were unsuccessful, but that emergency crews responding to the scene were able to resuscitate him. He was incoherent at first, but was brought to Bellevue hospital in stable condition, police said�. DNAinfo (Manhattan Local News) Unsubstantiated rumours of no standby diver, no bail out, self tending, pulled out by another (none diver) worker, possibly a 'single man dive team', but no details in the public domain. In hospital recovering, breathing tube removed 5 days later. -
2010 11 2 Tejeda Miguel Angel Molina Chile Chilean Navy Aged 23, Salvage diver, Chief of staff stated that he made a very shallow dive but afterwards reported not feeling well. He was sent to the Naval hospital 'Admiral Nef' in Vina del Mar but during the transfer suffered a possible cardiac arrest. No other details. Reported by GPS Divinig -
2009 11 30 Jao Peter Philippines CJMS Diving Services Topsides Dive team working at the gas powered power plant in Limay. Paraphrased from press reports:- “A diver died while a colleague is in critical condition after they entered a nine-meter chlorination tank inside the power plant in Alangan, Limay, Bataan, last Monday. The newly designated police chief reported that Peter Jao, a diving expert of the CJMS Diving Services, did not reach the hospital alive. He suffered broken ribs and skull. The police report stated that the cause of the falling incident was due to a foul odor that the victim inhaled while climbing the ladder on his way out of the chlorination tank. As Jao fell into the cemented flooring of the chlorination tank, his companion identified as Nenito Quintana, also a diver, went down the tank and tried to rescue him. Quintana was assisted by other employees using a crane. As Quintana was climbing the ladder on his way out, he also fell. Rescuers rushed Quintana into the St. Michael Hospital in Orion town. Investigation showed that the two victims proceeded to the chlorination tank at around 9 a.m. Monday to open the water intake valve from the sea. After opening the valve, Jao climbed the ladder but fell after he allegedly inhaled a poisonous substance inside�. Reported in the Manila Bulletin. NB. The power plant uses LPG from the local refinery which reported a death and two unconscious at the sour water treatment plant in September and a vessel chief officer and two seamen injured when a loading hose parted in August (Manila Times) -
2009 11 30 Quntana Nenito Philippines CJMS Diving Services Topsides Dive team working at the gas powered power plant in Limay. Paraphrased from press reports:- “A diver died while a colleague is in critical condition after they entered a nine-meter chlorination tank inside the power plant in Alangan, Limay, Bataan, last Monday. The newly designated police chief reported that Peter Jao, a diving expert of the CJMS Diving Services, did not reach the hospital alive. He suffered broken ribs and skull. The police report stated that the cause of the falling incident was due to a foul odor that the victim inhaled while climbing the ladder on his way out of the chlorination tank. As Jao fell into the cemented flooring of the chlorination tank, his companion identified as Nenito Quintana, also a diver, went down the tank and tried to rescue him. Quintana was assisted by other employees using a crane. As Quintana was climbing the ladder on his way out, he also fell. Rescuers rushed Quintana into the St. Michael Hospital in Orion town. Investigation showed that the two victims proceeded to the chlorination tank at around 9 a.m. Monday to open the water intake valve from the sea. After opening the valve, Jao climbed the ladder but fell after he allegedly inhaled a poisonous substance inside�. Reported in the Manila Bulletin. NB. The power plant uses LPG from the local refinery which reported a death and two unconscious at the sour water treatment plant in September and a vessel chief officer and two seamen injured when a loading hose parted in August (Manila Times) -
2009 11 22 Allen Steve UK RBG 15 S/S Air Aged 43, Braefoot terminal (Fife, Scotland), last dive of the day, completed his dive without comment, reported having difficulties removing his fins at the bottom of the ladder, assisted by stand-by and hoisted to jetty, unconscious, failed to respond to treatment. Update January 2013:- A Fatal Accident Inquiry has ruled that the death of a commercial diver at a Fife harbour was not the result of an accident or any kind of medical or professional malpractice. The inquiry at Dunfermline Sheriff Court heard evidence from 13 witnesses over five days. The Sheriff concluded that the death was as a result of “some kind of cardiac event or arrhythmia� resulting from existing heart and liver problems, not the result of any diving-related procedures, and that he could have died at any time. The inquiry also dismissed criticisms from a Health and Safety inspector that no rescue practice had been rehearsed on the day of the incident. He held a valid certificate of fitness to dive and was a qualified and competent diver, diving as part of a six-strong dive team, the diving operation had started on November 20 and involved an inspection to ascertain the condition of the piles supporting the jetty and, in addition, the installation of a new current-monitoring buoy on the seabed next to the jetty. During the morning he was inside dive control on board the diving vessel. At 5.02pm he entered the water to carry out the final dive of the day to undertake an “as left� survey of the cable installation for the buoy. At no time did he indicate to any of the team or any other person that he was unfit to dive. At 5.07pm he reached the seabed at a dive depth of 15 metres. He then carried out a video survey by slowly ascending the pile and demonstrated that the current-monitoring buoy cable was securely attached to the jetty pile. At 5.21pm he surfaced and swam to the bow of the diving vessel to access the deck via a vertical ladder. At 5.22pm he reported that he was having difficulty removing one of his fins. Given assistance, as he lifted his left leg for fin removal, he continued to roll backwards and started to invert in the water. He appeared to have lost consciousness and emergency recovery was initiated. He was not breathing and there was no carotid pulse, members of the diving team gave CPR. Paramedics then took over but he was pronounced dead at 6.05pm. The Sheriff noted medicine was an “inexact science� but concluded that he could have died at any time. There was no evidence of anything related to the diving operation which might have caused death. The Sheriff concluded: “There is no evidence that the failure to have a diver rescue practice on the day in question was relevant to his death. There were no other facts relevant to the circumstances of his death. The Courier -
2009 11 15 Morales Miguel Angel Chile 2 SCUBA Aged 49, Cleaning operation in a 'pond' (9 billion m3 storage facility) owned by the National oil Company, described as having 30 years diving experience and working for a diving sub-contractor. One other team member (A none-diver, so effectively a solo SCUBA dive) raised the alarm when he failed to surface. Body recovered 7 hours later. No other details. La Estrella/Cronica -
2009 11 3 Johnson Michael USA US Aqua Vac Inc SCUBA Aged 45, specialist lake and pond clearing contractor working at the Baxter health Care campus where there are a string of retention ponds. Diver got into difficulty, a co-worker went in to aid him (hospitalised with hypothermia) but unable to pull him out. Recovered from the pond bottom 45 minutes later by fire department rescue divers, helicopter to hospital but pronounced dead. "Air hose had broken",. Chicago Daily Herald -
2008 11 21 Grewal Satpal Singh India ONGC Topsides Indian, aged 52, diver was working on deck of the MSV “Hal Anant� with a grinding machine, wheel disintegrated, pieces entered his left eye/scalp, medivac ashore but declared dead on arrival at hospital. -
2008 11 21 Not Recorded Argentina Navy Topsides Navy tactical diver undergoing training, died in a parachute accident -
2008 11 18 Not Recorded Greece Shellfish diver off the vessel 'Agios Dimitrios' with two other crew in the Palaiomanas Gulf, working 2 to 12 metres for two or three dives a day up to two and a half hours each (No decompression). Diver apparently recovered unconscious from the water. Vessel returned to Kalamarias Port and diver transferred to hospital where he was pronounced dead. 'Relevant Port Authorities investigating'. No details. Divers Union of Thessalonika website -
2008 11 17 B AC Spain Broth SA or Consomar SA 28 SCUBA Aged 50, head of a diving contractor from Valencia, Broth Sa, working (Inspection and filming) on an outfall 1 kilometre off the town of Moraira-Teulada (Spanish East coast, South of Valencia), failed to surface. Supervisor dived but could not find him. The next day, after a two hour search by a combined fire/civil guard diving team, his body was discovered trapped in fishing nets. He had ditched his cylinders/buoyancy vest in a last attempt to escape the nets when his air ran out. Reported by Levante-EMV.com -
2008 11 14 Cordoba Cayetano Mexico Potable Water Inspection (Canadian contractor) Aged 43, one of two divers (With Manolo Diaz) who went into the three metre diameter Cutzamala fresh water pipeline system, suffocated and swept away by the water. Bodies (and those of the two resuce divers) recovered two days later. "There was no intentional homicide in the death of the divers who technically died of lack of breathable air" - they entered the confined space without using diving gear. Quadruple fatality. El Siglo de Torreon.com.mx -
2008 11 14 Diaz Manolo Mexico Potable Water Inspection (Canadian contractor) Aged 45, one of two divers (With Cayetano Cordoba) who went into the three metre diameter Cutzamala fresh water pipeline system, suffocated and swept away by the water. Bodies (and those of the two resuce divers) recovered two days later. "There was no intentional homicide in the death of the divers who technically died of lack of breathable air" - they entered the confined space without using diving gear. Quadruple fatality. El Siglo de Torreon.com.mx -
2008 11 14 Hernandez Raciel Mexico Potable Water Inspection (Canadian contractor) Aged 36, one of two rescue divers (with Juan Camal Yan) who went into the three metre diameter Cutzamala fresh water pipeline system to rescue two divers who had gone missing earlier in the day (Cayetano Cordoba and Manolo Diaz) , like the divers they were trying to rescue, they suffocated and were swept away by the water. All four bodies were recovered two days later. "There was no intentional homicide in the death of the divers who technically died of lack of breathable air"" - they entered the confined space without using diving gear. Quadruple fatality. El Siglo de Torreon.com.mx.com.mx -
2008 11 14 Yan Juan Camal Mexico Potable Water Inspection (Canadian contractor) Aged 36, one of two rescue divers (with Raciel Hernandez) who went into the three metre diameter Cutzamala fresh water pipeline system to rescue two divers who had gone missing earlier in the day (Cayetano Cordoba and Manolo Diaz) , like the divers they were trying to rescue, they suffocated and were swept away by the water. All four bodies were recovered two days later. "There was no intentional homicide in the death of the divers who technically died of lack of breathable air" - they entered the confined space without using diving gear. Quadruple fatality. El Siglo de Torreon.com.mx.com.mx -
2008 11 13 Barklay S. USA Global Industries Saturation DSV “Sea Lion� sinking off Fourchon, 4 divers in saturation at 375', no HRV, deliberately grounded. All 4 divers transferred to bell, bell lifted to deck and transferred to “Global Pioneer� and locked onto Pioneer sat system. Transfer took 90 minutes. -
2008 11 13 Bell R USA Global Industries Saturation DSV “Sea Lion� sinking off Fourchon, 4 divers in saturation at 375', no HRV, deliberately grounded. All 4 divers transferred to bell, bell lifted to deck and transferred to “Global Pioneer� and locked onto Pioneer sat system. Transfer took 90 minutes. -
2008 11 12 Brumlow Leonard USA Global Industries Saturation DSV “Sea Lion� sinking off Fourchon, 4 divers in saturation at 375', no HRV, deliberately grounded. All 4 divers transferred to bell, bell lifted to deck and transferred to “Global Pioneer� and locked onto Pioneer sat system. Transfer took 90 minutes. -
2008 11 12 Hanson Eddie USA Global Industries Saturation DSV “Sea Lion� sinking off Fourchon, 4 divers in saturation at 375', no HRV, deliberately grounded. All 4 divers transferred to bell, bell lifted to deck and transferred to “Global Pioneer� and locked onto Pioneer sat system. Transfer took 90 minutes. -
2007 11 17 Chen-Lu Hsu Taipei 30 S/S Air Aged 51, diving off the commercial fishing vessel 'Hsinlienfa 168' off Turtle Island. Two divers died and two injured. Authorities stated they would prosecute (occupational negligent manslaughter) the vessel operator, Tu Chuen-yi, for improper operation of the vessel and allowing the propeller to cut all four airlines leaving the divers at depth with no air supplies. None of the divers had licences, no standby or safety equipment. -
2007 11 17 Pie-Chun Sun Taipei 30 S/S Air Aged 33, diving off the commercial fishing vessel 'Hsinlienfa 168' off Turtle Island. Two divers died and two injured. Authorities stated they would prosecute (occupational negligent manslaughter) the vessel operator, Tu Chuen-yi, for improper operation of the vessel and allowing the propeller to cut all four airlines leaving the divers at depth with no air supplies. None of the divers had licences, no standby or safety equipment. -
2007 11 11 Not Recorded France La Schaphandre 10 SCUBA Aged 39, French commercial diver, died during completion of work on the lock downstream of the slew bridge in Rochefort Harbour, no details -
2007 11 5 Not Recorded Poland Tri-Marine Diving services Polish diver working on an unmanned PetroBaltic platform north of Wladyslawowo, described as 'during ascent, taken ill underwater'. Died. No details. NB, it was a Petrobaltic survey vessel (the St Barbara) that found the lost wreck of the second world war German aircraft carrier 'Graf Zeppelin�in 87 metres water depth off the port of Leba in 2006 (She went missing in transit to Russia in 1947). Reported by dlavego.co m.pl. -
2007 11 0 Not Recorded Egypt 7 SCUBA Abu Quir harbour, team sent to work but Supervisor decided his team were too inexperienced and decided to do the job himself. 7 hour dive. Failed to surface, found drowned. No details, though same diving contractor is reported to have had fatalities in March 2004 and October 2008. -
2006 11 29 Not Recorded Fiji Aged 25 from Yanuca Island, lost his life while diving for bech-de-mer. The Divisional media liaison officer said the deceased was with other divers but he failed to surface after a dive. A search was undertaken by officers of the Navua Police station and villagers. The body was recovered on Thursday. No other details. Reported by Fiji Times on line -
2006 11 23 Johnson Chris USA Veolia 9 S/S Air MMS report dated 31 Jan 2006 (typo?) published 4/4/2007 (See 2006 GOM MMS.doc) Block ST 300 (South Timbalier platform), at 19:50 hours, Underwater Oxy Arc explosion, knocked unconscious, facial lacerations, chipped tooth, sore ribs. Evacuated to Terrebone General Medical Centre, stabilised, kept in overnight, released 10:50 hours 26/11/2006. "Will be out of work for three weeks" 'No violation" (MMS report) but diving medical revoked, may not ever dive commercially again (OD). -
2005 11 24 Jones Zakarij Mason USA PDCoF 60 SCUBA American, Professional Diving Charters of Florida, Ft Lauderdale, Vessel "Pro diver II", He drowned, Contrary to initial USCG report, it was a sports dive, hospital "lost the medical records", reports contradictory -
2005 11 23 Cherapanoy Dmitry USSR Navy 35 Navy diver undergoing compulsory military service, reported as having died in the Northern Fleet because of serious decompression sickness during a training dive to the depth of 35 m. bur report sates “This was an ordinary dive to a standard depth. Unexpectedly, 20 seconds after the dive, the sailor suddenly came to the surface� so was unlikely to be DCI. No details -
2005 11 21 Bustamente Pedro Alvarado Chile Cultivos Marinos Chiloe SCUBA Shellfish cultivation centre, Dalcahue. Source: Ecoceanos, based on data from the Dir. of Labor, Directemar, Mariscope and the Tenth and Eleventh Regions District Attorneys Offices. No details -
2005 11 21 Whitekettle John W Romania Titan American, aged 48, Underwater burning in during salvage of the 'Rostok' from the Danube (second fatality earlier, see Eke, 02/01/2005) European press reported his surname as 'Warren', suspect that his full name was John warren Whitekettle (TC) -
2005 11 0 Not Recorded “In November 2005 a diver died following a misunderstanding between the master and the dive team which resulted in the main pump to the vessel’s bow thruster being started in error�. This incident is referenced in MAIB report 3/2009 into the 'Norma' thruster incident in June 2008. No other details -
2004 11 12 Watts Superior Saturation Injury claim and counter claim, court case, no details -
2004 11 5 Not Recorded USA Killed in a lift boat propeller accident -
2002 11 28 McAulay Lt Paul UK RN 3 Surface Swimmer British, aged 27, Breath holding exercise, (recovery of mask from bottom of lake) during training at Horsea island, dived at 10pm after eating, vomited, inhaled, choked, heart attack. No stand-by diver. MOD prosecuted, family awarded £750,000 damages -
2002 11 27 Kaluom Jengi USA Stolt Offshore Topsides Malaysian, pipe facing machine operator, injured onboard the DLB 801, medivac, no details -
2002 11 5 K Bernhard Austria Lestin, Vienna Diving and Salvage Company S/S Air Aged 24 from Gfohol, one of a four man diving team installing wooden strakes on a water inlet to the Pernegg power plant at the Mur dam run by Austrian Hydro Power, possiobly disoriented in low visibilty, pulled into the inlet, lifeline boke, disappeared. After a large scale search his body was located downstream of the dam. Cause of death may have been a broken neck. News At -
2001 11 13 Bray Thomas M USA Police SCUBA American aged 52, Philadelphia police force, assigned to the marine unit, recovering a buoy in the Delaware river near Fort Mifflin in Douth Philadelphia, entangled in the line, drowned. Reported in the Philadelphia Inquirer. -
2000 11 30 Cote Martine Canada Hydro-Quebec 6 S/S Air Aged 28. Paraphrased from the press report:- A team of engineers, commercial divers and their support staff were conducting a routine underwater video inspection of the power-house dam, generating station Hull 2. Martine Côté went under the surface at 12:30 p.m. and within less than half an hour, radioed that she was in trouble. According to the public relations officer for Hydro-Québec, Côté had encountered what is known as "suction." Suction occurs when there is a hole or fissure in the dam wall on the upstream side, and it means death for divers. "We had no idea. The basin had been seen dry, and there was no hole at that time. At 20 feet of water, the visibility isn't so great, unless there was a vortex you can't see it." It is also not clear how she died--whether from hypothermia, suffocation or the tremendous pressure on her body which could have caused a cardiac arrest. Officials at Hydro-Québec say only that she was declared dead at the hospital after resuscitation attempts had failed. The suction pulling on Côté's body was approximately 3,000 pounds per square feet in 20 feet of water. It was so strong that it ripped off her suit. There was no crane on the site, so the 14 workers on the surface were trying to pull her up manually. She was also not wearing a crotch harness. During the pulling from above, her body harness fell apart and her umbilical--a cord that provides air--was severed. They pulled unsuccessfully with nylon cables, finally getting her out at about 2 pm. "This woman was special, she was Hydro's [and Quebec's] only female commercial diver." reported in the Montreal Mirror -
2000 11 29 Not Recorded Fiji 130 SCUBA Two Fijian divers, 'one a master diver, the other less experienced' were hired to recover an anchor lost in 130 metres off Gau island. When they failed to surface, another diver attempted to rescue them, began to lose consciousness and inflated his ABLJ, he was admitted to the CWM hospital in Suva, given therapeutic decompression in a chamber and reported as having survived. No other details. Reported in the Fiji Times Online. (NB As far as I can ascertain, the facts are correct – two divers were hired, agreed to, and then attempted to, recover an anchor in 130 metres on air in SCUBA, TC) -
2000 11 23 Moscow USSR Military An elite, specially-trained team of combat divers guards the Kremlin against potential attackers trying to gain access to the Kremlin through the sewers underwater from the River Moskva and the underground network of sewers. But any would-be transgressors would be met by sinister-looking combat divers - known as strategic-purpose divers. The first units of combat divers were set up in the 1960s to combat underwater saboteurs. They now form part of the Presidential Bodyguard Service. The divers all have officer's rank and get free flats in Moscow. As well as patrolling the sewers, they also inspect the River Moskva around the Kremlin, protect all the presidential residences from offshore and accompany the president when he goes to the Black Sea resort of Sochi. A special underwater pistol was designed as a non-automatic four-barrel gun loaded in the same way as a hunter's rifle, by opening the breach. The bullets look strange too. A bullet is actually a long needle or a "nail" as the divers call it. The nails can kill at a distance of six to 17 metres, depending on the depth. The divers say that underwater fighting with knives only exists in films. A basic principle of underwater combat is that whoever attacks first, wins. Even the slightest wound could be lethal underwater because water pressure leads to massive loss of blood which renders the diver useless in seconds. If their oxygen supply is cut, the special purpose divers have a small reserve balloon attached to their chest with enough oxygen to get to the surface, Reported in the Russian weekly newspaper Versiya and BBC -
2000 11 11 Davis Ted USA Energy Partners or D & W Welding Services 23 South Pass 28, The diver was working on a severed pipeline when he lost communication with the surface. A second diver was unable to locate the first diver. Pressure differential, sucked into a pipe when dredging cleared blocked pipe opening, body reciovered the following day. -
2000 11 8 Miller Gary A UK Arkal Ltd British, aged 36, experienced commercial diver, ex-Navy, bridge construction at Canary Wharf, indications of poor equipment (one missing crutch strap, the other taped on) and band mask may have been incorrectly assembled such that the band holding the hood on parted and the pieces separated. Recorded verdict “diver was unlawfully killed�. -
2000 11 6 Ferreiro Eduardo Spain Tycsub 40 SCUBA Paraphrased from Press reports: “The accident killed a 35 year old diver carrying out commercial diving on a sewage outfall pipe at Mompos in San Sebastian. Contractor did not have the required permission from Maritime to carry out the work, no insurance, the diver had no medical, no in date SCUBA cylinder certificate, The ruling states that "The incident occurred about 11:00 pm on 6 December 2000, when the victim, who was turning 32, was unconscious with narcosis, anxiety, shortness of breath or over-exertion that could lead to carbon dioxide poisoning that caused death by cardiac arrest. These deficiencies pose serious violation of the applicable regulations posing a grave risk to workers leading to the death of the diver which would have been avoided had if the legally required security measures had been adopted by the accused�. Diver had no qualifications, and even if so would only have been certified to 25 metres under current legislation, no permit to dive from harbourmaster, no stand-by diver. The company manager was sentenced to a year and a half in prison, a fine of 1,080 euros, and ordered to compensate the family of the deceased with a total of 160,000 euros 5 years after the fatality. Bajoelagua.com -
1999 11 11 Not Recorded USA Southwest Marine American, San Diego, This was reported as a drowning fatality by a possibly untrained SCUBA diver doing commercial work. No details, possibly dual report of death of Ramsey Downie reported a month earlier (Died 8/10/1999). NAOCD/cDiver. -
1998 11 13 Not Recorded Canada RCMP A police diver was drowned in Cambridge, Ontario when he was trying to recover the body of a boy who drowned. The name of the officer has not been released. No other details. Reported by CBC News -
1997 11 20 Carriere, RCMP Constable Joseph Francois "Frank" Canada RCMP 10 SCUBA Aged 41, Cape Breton, part of a police team carrying out a drugs search on the hull of a Danish registered bulk carrier (The "Donia Portland", beam 80', length 450') at little narrows on the Bras d'Or akes (Cape Bretn). 5 man diving eam, zodiac and spotter, on AGA masks with micom comms. Ran out of air, tried buddy sharing, got separated, lost in bad visibility, body recovered the day after. Drowned. Leaking mask, gauge 'over-reading, possible contaminated air. RCMP prosecuted and fined. Now they use S/S equipment. Halifax Chronicle. Canadian Coastguard vessel ("CCGS Constable Carriere"), launched 2013 is to be one of nine vessels named after fallen Canadian heroes. -
1996 11 16 Rig 'Maersk Victory' Australia Apache Jack Up, built 1981 by Mitsui, Japan. Suffered fire and expolsion and damage to the aft legs from an air attack during the Iran/Iraq war (October 1986). Transferred from Australian Northwest shelf to South Australia by the Mighty Servant II in November 1996. No site survey. During pre-load with 2 metre air gap the rig listed, punch through, after attempts to jack level it was found that the legs were severely damaged. Divers were used to cut the legs free and the hull was towed to Port Adelaide. The legs were salvaged by the Dock Express 10 and delivered, along with the hull, to the Far east Levingston ship yard in Singapore for repairs. The South Australia Department of Mines and Energy Resources (MESA) undertook the investigation and determined that the immediate cause of damage was the failure of the sub-sea sediments beneath the rig. There was no evidence of structural failure contributing to the incident. The report concluded that there was a failure to fully evaluate the risks of a new drilling location, a failure to fully evaluate the geotechnical data of the sub-sea sediments with particular reference to the load bearing capacity of the sub-sea sediments, and a failure in management systems and procedures for locating the rig -
1993 11 21 Bisley Richard Australia "Pearl diver killed by a Tiger Shark off Roebuck bay, Broome" No othr details. Reported by PerthNow -
1993 11 3 Maxwell David USA SCUBA Aged 25, off Maine, less than two weeks diving experience, trying to untangle catch bag alongside rocks, caught in surf, found 20 minutes later, drowned, boat owner cited for violations of commercial diving standards -
1993 11 1 Knowles Keith B Bahamas UNEXSO SCUBA American aged 22, working for the Underwater Explorers Society , lost at sea of Grand Bahama -
1993 11 0 Rig "D. M. Saunders' Arabian Gulf Jack Up, flooded and sank during towing (caught in a storm). -
1992 11 20 Mavrostomos Theo France Comex Saturation The deepest trial saturation dive on record, in Toulon with the Hydra programme reaching 701 metres using Hydreliox. The deepest Hydreliox working dive is still Comex with a simulated pipeline intervention in the Mediterranean in 1988 with the Hydra 8 dives to 534 metres (The 'Atlantis' trials (Duke University, USA,) reached 686 metres in 1981, Comex ran a series of deep diving programmes (Physalie, Janus, Sagittaire, Hydra, etc) mostly in France and finally Aurora at the NHC in Aberdeen reaching 470 metres in 1993In September 2010). In September 2010, 4 Chinese divers were reported to have reached a storage depth of 480 metres with an excursion to 493 metres on Heliox. -
1991 11 18 Goh Cpt. Chong Kiat Singapore Aged 35, Singaporean Naval Officer, went missing during a training exercise, body found by Singapore Authorities tugboat 2 km north of Pulau Bukom and recovered by the Republic of Singapore Navy. Inquiry was held in February 1994. No other details. Straits Times -
1990 11 15 Bartholomew Captain Al 'Black Bart' USA USN SCUBA Aged 50, director of ocean engineering for the Navy and supervisor of its salvage and diving operations, died during a diving recertification exercise, disappeared from sight in 200 feet of water. His body was recovered Nov. 17, but the cause of death was not been determined. -
1990 11 1 Miles Carl USA Undersea Systems Inc Aged 34, one of a three man team conducting 'routine maintenance' on the screens at the New Johnsonville power plant (Part of the Tennessee Valley power Authority) near Waverly. They drained the water intake tunnel to recover the body. No details but inference is compromised screen, SCUBA, no lifeline, pumps running, sucked in) -
1989 11 30 Not Recorded USA US Armry Corps A U.S. Army Corps of Engineers diver installing a boom to catch ice in the St. Marys River died when he lost his safety line -
1989 11 8 Rig 'Interocean II' UK Whilst on tow to a new location in the Southern North Sea ran into a gale with 85 mph winds and 25 foot seas. Lost one of its towlines, the coast guard was notified and two helicopters were scrambled from Bristow's North Denes base in Norfolk to extract 43 of the rig's 51 crew. The first chopper reached the rig 30 minutes later to find the rig pitching and rolling, with the helideck tilted at 10 degrees. In driving rain, with the rig heaving up to 25 feet, the first 10 crew were airlifted and flown to a neighbouring platform. The second chopper arrived to find the rig corkscrewing in heavy seas, resulting in the need for the pilot to reverse his chopper onto the helideck. After two more extractions, only 11 men were left on board, of which eight were expecting to remain behind as a skeleton crew. The first chopper returned for the last extraction but was unable to find the rig as the final towline had parted, allowing the rig to drift away. It became obvious that this would be the last landing attempted and the remaining crew were advised to abandon the rig due to the increasingly difficult conditions. The last 11 men had to crawl across the helideck before the chopper departed. Several minutes later, the Interocean II capsized and sank as a result of structural failure and flooding. Helicopter pilots all received the Queen's Award for Gallantry for the courage shown during the rescue. Reported in the Times -
1989 11 4 Benny Thailand Oceaneering Indonesian diver, died when the Seacrest sank in Typhoon Gay. Reported by Longstreath/PC -
1989 11 4 Clegg Phil Thailand Oceaneering Diving Supervisor on the drillship 'Seacrest' that was capsised by typhoon Gay. Possibly a dive team in saturation, two divers possibly among the 6 survivors, remainder of the dive team believed to have perished with the rest of the crew. -
1989 11 4 DB 15 Thailand McDermott After the typhoon (Gay), divers from the DB 15 put an airspread on a tug and headed towards the Seacrest location. On the way they rescued two fishermen clinging to a float. They arrived at night (after a helicopter had landed on the upturned hull and resuers had banged on the hull to try to locate survivors during daylight) and made an initial survey dive recovring one body caught in the rigging. The following day more bodies were recovered from the accommodation and more 5 from the bridge. Later, after autopsy, they were told that most of the dead recovered after the disaster had died from drowning from what they believed to be wind driven rain leading to the recommendation that rain b;ocking hoods be built into lifejackets. The surviving Indonesian diver's haliburton briefcase was recovered during the accommodation search. (Fraser diving's first saturation diving system broke off from the DB 15 during the storm (lost overside and sank) before anyone was in it. Longstreath. -
1989 11 4 Drillship Seacrest Thailand Unocal 72 Ex 'Scan Queen', sister ship to the "Chancellorsville". Overturned in typhoon 'Gay' (Recorded as killing over 500 people and leaving 160,000 homeless in Thailand) in the Platong gas field with the loss of around 91 lives, 5 or six suvivors (very confused records). A helicopter landed two men on the upturned hull the morning after but no survivors - or indications of survivors (Tapping on the hull) were found. Oceaneering and McDermott divers recovered several bodies from inside the hull, (25 bodies recovered after the sinking in all). vessel was scuttled in 75metres water depth about three weeks later. Conflicting reports that there was an excessive amount of drill pipe on deck (therefore top heavy), that she was still connected to the welhead (though radio reports pieced together after the event indicate that the BOP was disconnected and the majority of pipe was left 'in hole' but may have left the well abandonment too late and not had time to de-anchor), or that modifications carried out in the Port of Satahip, Thailand, immediately before the storm were causal factors (addition of a heavy topdrive unit without the addition of compensating ballast and then sailing to site without carrying out inclination tests), also that the drill tower started tearing the deck plates as it rolled, peeling them back and allowing wave ingress -
1989 11 4 George Kevin Thailand Oceaneering Malaysian diver, from Penang, died when the Seacrest sank in Typhoon Gay. Reported by Longstreath/PC -
1989 11 4 Randy Thailand Oceaneering Philippino diver, died when the Seacrest sank in Typhoon Gay. Reported by Longstreath/PC -
1989 11 4 Romy Thailand Oceaneering Philippino diver, died when the Seacrest sank in Typhoon Gay. Reported by Longstreath/PC -
1988 11 0 McCasland Martin USA Aged 41, retrieving Oxygen bottles that had rolled off the deck of a vessel in Dutch Harbour. Dry suit malfunction, rapid ascent. Family awarded $1.73 million on the grounds that the dry suit inflation valve malfunction was partly to blame for his death. No details -
1987 11 18 Batuecas Sgt. Francisco Javier Arroyo Spain Army Army engineer died during a training dive at the Navy diving centre in Cartagena whilst on a diving course. Reported as 'death may be due to natural causes and not an accident' by the forces spokesman, but no details. Reported in 'El Pais' -
1987 11 14 MacMillan Mark T Antarctic SCUBA Aged 22, research dive 50 miles west of the US base at McMurdo Sound on Ross Island. No details. Reported in the San Jose Mercury News -
1986 11 20 Rig 'Dixilyn Field 83' India Jack Up, sank off Mumbai, Starboard leg punched through, capsised -
1986 11 5 Tennant Leroy J USA Roy Tennant Co. 2 SCUBA Aged 62, Owner of the diving Company, inspecting an underwater gas line in the Shetucket river, witnesses on shore observed in trouble but sank below the surface before being rescued. Body recovered 40 minutes later -
1985 11 17 Rao Mathew J USA Caldwell Diving Company 6 S/S Air Removing silt from a dockside water when his air supply was accidentally cut off, 'His air hose got sucked into the intake of the ejection pump, cutting off his air supply,'' NY Times -
1984 11 24 Edie Winfield S USA Police 4 SCUBA American police diver aged 29, Wenatchee, Washington State. First open water training dive, surfaced, yelled for help, sank, resurfaced, yelled again and sank, found on the bottom in 12' of water, could not be resuscitated -
1984 11 16 Vessel 'Brigitta Montanari' Yugoslavia 82 The Maltese flagged, Italian owned, chemical tanker, the Brigitta Montanari (Built 1975, 68 metres in length, 1297 GRT) carrying 1,390 tonnes of vinyl chloride monomer (‘VCM’, toxic, explosive and carcinogenic) sank in a storm in the Adriatic Sea on 16 November 1984 in 82m water depth 15 miles off the coastal town of Sibenik (Yugoslavia) with the loss of 3 of its 12 man crew. The sinking was attributed to a loss of stability (improperly loaded cargo, raised metacentre) following a sudden change of course. The VCM was carried in four tanks, two below deck (each 523 tonnes) and two above deck (202 and 247 tonnes). The wreck was known to be leaking toxic chemicals adjacent to the Kornati national park, an area popular with tourists. An initial salvage operation in 1985 was suspended after the death of two Navy divers (Dragutin Siljevinac and Hussein Hadzic) and injury of a third (Dragisa Koprivica) in an uncontrolled bell ascent incident (Lost bell weights) on the 25th September 1985. During successive salvage campaigns the wreck was righted (It had sunk on it’s starboard side), lifted to between 25 and 30 metres water depth (Above that depth the VCM goes from liquid to gaseous phase), and moved to a sheltered area. The VCM was then displaced by seawater and pumped into surface vessels. Following the aborted salvage using saturation divers in 1985, subsequent dives were completed using either gas bounce or air (Over 150 heliox bounce dives were undertaken below 55 metres, the dive between 30 and 55 metres were done using the same bell system on air). There does not appear to have been any follow up study on diver’s health after their exposure to VCM throughout the salvage operation. Centre of Marine Research, Zagreb