From the diveaccidents mail list:

Finally a more detailed report(s) from an accident last year...

First from August 9th:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2304901.html

Second from August 12th:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2309489.html

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Deaths of divers 'may have been avoided'
By Simon de Bruxelles

THE world's leading diving course was criticised yesterday for allowing
novices to progress too quickly, during inquests into the deaths of
three men off the coast of Cornwall.

The US-based Professional Association of Diving Instructors (Padi)
course, which is undertaken by a million people a year, was singled out
for allowing beginners to gain an advanced level after just eight
dives, four of them in a pool.

A diving expert and a police diver said that people were risking death
by going out with insufficient training and experience. Philip Bryson,
head of the Diving Diseases Research Centre in Plymouth, told one
hearing: "I do not believe that someone with eight dives should be
classified as an advanced diver. It is madness."

Peter Tapper, a diver with Devon and Cornwall police, said: "The whole
process moves along far too quickly."

Nigel Meadows, the Plymouth Coroner, was told that the common factors
in the deaths last June were existing medical conditions, alcohol and a
lack of experience.

Mark Jackson, 41, from Southwell, Nottinghamshire, dropped his weights
when his diving partner ran short of oxygen. He died from an embolism
when air trapped in his lungs formed bubbles in his blood.

In a separate incident, Albert Tythecott, 65, from Barnstaple, North
Devon, suffered a cerebral gas embolism due to rapid decompression.

Christopher Sidgwick, 40, of Chelmsford, Essex, drowned after he
mistakenly used a reserve tank of air that ran out. A verdict of
accidental death was recorded at all three inquests.

Padi defended its course, saying: "Accidents do occur."

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Diving 'experts' not ready for the deeps
By Will Pavia

Too many novices who gained qualifications on holiday are not prepared
for more dangerous British waters
IN GLOOMY waters off the coast of Cornwall, Kerry Sale lost her grip on
the diving line.

Before that day in June last year, she had completed four dives in the
calm waters of a disused Midlands quarry.

Then, armed with an Open Water Diver certificate from the Professional
Association of Dive Instructors (Padi), she travelled to the South
Coast with a diving instructor and a friend, Mark Jackson, for a
weekend exploring sunken wrecks.

"If I'm doing something I tend to follow the rules," she told The
Times. "A Padi instructor suggested that we dive the wrecks. It never
occurred to me to say, 'Will it be all right?' " But rolling off the
back of the boat on her second dive that day, she felt unprepared for
the dark waters and currents that swept over the James Egan Layne, a
merchant ship that had been sunk by a U-boat's torpedo in 1945.

Ms Sale ran short of oxygen. "As I was ascending, I got separated from
Mark," she said. "I just lost control."

Mr Jackson, 41, the head of a Nottinghamshire building company,
jettisoned his weights and made a rapid break for the surface to call
for help. Having done so, he fell unconscious. He had ascended too
fast. Air trapped in his lungs had formed bubbles in his blood, and he
died of an embolism.

This week the story was retold in a coroner's court in Plymouth,
together with the tales of the deaths of two other relatively
inexperienced divers.

Ms Sale, 38, was told that she should not have been in the water and
was lucky to be alive.

Mr Jackson was said to have been overweight, and suffering from high
blood pressure, asthma and depression, which he had failed to declare
on his Padi medical form. He had been drinking the night before.

At a second inquest a novice diver, 64, was said to have died after
surfacing too fast, and at a third, a builder, 40, who had been diving
for a year, was said to have mixed up his air supply tanks. Both had
also been drinking the night before. The coroner, Nigel Meadows, said
he hoped that the hearings would serve "as a warning to all the schools
and novice divers".

Two expert witnesses at the hearing were less cautious in criticising
the set-up of what is one of Britain's fastest growing sports. PC Peter
Tapper, a diver for Devon and Cornwall Police, said that too many
novices took short courses on holiday, in calm clear waters, and
returned thinking themselves fully qualified for the colder, rougher,
darker waters of Britain. Philip Bryson, the head of the Diving
Diseases Research Centre in Plymouth, said that British training bodies
had streamlined their courses to compete with Padi, the world's largest
diving training organisation. "We have people presently diving who feel
they are advanced but have no experience whatsoever. The diving
community needs to be totally re-educated."

Ms Sale has not dived since that day in June.

Mr Jackson's widow, Julie Jackson, a mother of four, told The Times:
"He had dived in Kos, and in Florida and Egypt. I thought he was pretty

experienced until I listened to the expert witness, who doesn't call
anyone an expert until they have done 200 dives. I think the training
organisations need to tighten up."

Next month Rick Raeburn, the chairman of the British Diving Safety
Group, will consider the coroner's findings at the organisation's
meeting. "We will look at anything we can do to improve safety," he
said.