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Yet another diver has died while working, this time in Gijon, Spain. Fernando Robles Aller, aged 42, born in Leon, married with two children.

We moved to this news, today Spain and worldwide Professional diving this Mourning, unions and companies responsible conduct a relentless struggle to end these absurd deaths. In many cases the diver's own negligence and partly by companies run by people from outside the profession who show no respect for the safety of Professionals:

We are moving forward!!

Unless there were two fatalities in Curacao last October involving cleaning/ship's husbandry, this relates to the death of Paul de Waal.

This young divers experience and advice on attending a Commercial Diving School hit the mark worldwide. "Buyer Be Aware"

This story illustrates exactly how a responsible diving contractor acts when they have an incident. By sharing lessons learned and exactly what happened, every incident becomes a teaching tool, and the industry become a little safer as a result. Well done, Bibby!!

This November safety alert of the ADCI reminds us that not all hazards are visible and/or completely obvious to us. We routinely work around, near, or with compressed air/gas cylinders and the dangers these necessary items bring to the work area. The diver wears one of these on his/her back, and we always check the PSI of this life support devise to ensure an adequate supply of breathing medium is verified. These reading will vary from 2600 – 2900 PSI. We all have seen safety videos where one of these valves have failed, and the end results of such a failure. Imagine being under water and such a failure should occur. You can only guess what might happen to the diver should this amount of stored energy suddenly be released into a column of water. Now imagine what could happen IF the diver was working near, or in the proximity of, a live component and the now “jet pack” that he/she is strapped to just happens to be headed in that direction. We all can visualize that outcome. According to the information provided by the ADCI, 5 divers were injured by such a failure. Apparently this was due to incapability of threads between the tank and valve. This reinforces the importance of using commercial diving companies who support and follow the ADCI recommendations. By doing so, we are provided the certifications of the crew and inspection documents of all equipment brought on site. We also have the opportunity to review and question each item listed and address any concerns we may have. This provides us with a critical “point of intervention” in our line of defense of mitigating hazards from our work. Remember, ZERO HARM is our mission. Anything else is a failure, and failure is NOT an option. The following items of information are provided to bring your attention to recent industry developments, initiatives, or safety notices.

The tragic last dive of a commercial diver from Wirra was shown to members of his family at an inquest in Liverpool. The upsetting footage, captured on his helmet camera, recorded Stephen O’Malley screaming for help as he struggled for breath while working on an off-shore wind farm in Bokum, Germany in May 2012.

The International Marine Contractors Association (IMCA) has recently published the revised document ‘Hyperbaric Evacuation Systems (HES) Interface Requirements’ (IMCA D 051 Rev. 1); and an Information Note that demonstrates the importance of cross-industry collaboration of a topic as vital to safety as hyperbaric evacuation.

The following post has been made by Derek Moore, Association Advisor, and RMT representative, regarding a letter he has received from the European Commission. Things may be moving slowly, but they are definitely looking up!