Articles

Gary Young shared a plea on Facebook regarding the plight of Eric Pomponi, who has a MAJOR medical problem. There is a link to a fund raising site. PLEASE contribute on the GoFundMe site!

This and other divers' situations prompts me to again put forward the suggestion that ALL of us should be protecting our futures. Too often a person cannot have the financial assets to meet emergency needs. As a profession, we can amass a Fund which can at least help when one of our colleagues must deal with health issues.

 

There is one unfortunate constant in the diving industry: accidents. Scarcely a week goes by that we do not hear of a diver dying in an accident. This week it may be offshore, next week it may be in a harbor; it seems to happen in every country on this earth where divers are working. To someone new to the industry, it would appear that all of these accidents are different and unrelated. But to those of us who have been around for any length of time, the sickening reality is that they are all the same – we keep making the same mistakes over and over, and young divers are dying because we are making these mistakes.

 

Decade after decade we hear diving stories. We hear constant bitching about low wages, crappy conditions, heartless management and clients who only care about the bottom line. Some areas have managed to get divers covered under Union agreements. Then the complaints vary somewhat, but they go on.

A few improvements are made in equipment, some of the Operators realize that improving safety is less costly than paying court ordered settlements and there are always voices, usually in the background, calling for improved safety procedures. In most instances, it takes multiple incidents of a similar nature to get attention. IMCA has improved diving safety in many areas and the ADCI has also. There is a LOT yet to improve.

Girija Shettar, senior editor | 28 January 2016

UPDATE: 16th February 2016, Louise Ellman MP for Liverpool Riverside and the MP for Stephen O’Malley has informed me that following her debate in parliament and representations by the Minister, the Danish authorities have agreed to re-open the investigation and there will be a police investigation.

The Divers Association wants t thank Derek Moore for his unrelenting efforts in getting this case re-opened. Keep in mind the following when you read the article below: Derek spoke to MP Louise Ellman, who tells him this, “The Danish authorities have since confirmed that their State Attorney is reviewing the case, and is expected to make a decision on whether to re-open the case or agree that the original findings were correct”. So the press articles were somewhat premature as the Danish Authorities have only agreed to review the case, not reopen it. We believe this is a great step forward.

Updated 10:28, 21 Jan 2016

By Luke Traynor

Stephen O'Malley, who died while working as a commercial diver at an off shore wind farm in 2012

THE USE OF SCUBA IN COMMERCIAL DIVING AND ITS IMPACT ON FATALITIES

By Kyra Richter; Board member The Divers Association International.

If the most recent fatality is not enough to convince someone that SCUBA has no business in the commercial industry, perhaps these graphs will help paint the picture.

“When it comes to safety and protecting the lives of divers with improved regulations, we need to break free of the mindset that we’re only looking at offshore safety revisions. Permitting SCUBA in regulations is an unspoken way of giving approval to untrained commercial divers to perform activities which cross the line into the realm of commercial diving. “ Down Load attached PDF