The below letter was forwarded to me in regards to the show Deep Sea Detective.

It was written by John Chatterton about the accident that took the life of
Mike Norwood a member of that show.

I have heard and seen many versions on what happened now you can read it
written by the person that were there.

Take Care
Louie Schreiner
Remember
Down Below The Waves
There Is Peace and Tranquility For All That Are Willing To Explore.  
(Dive Safe Always)
NorthEastAquanauts.com Click on the blue and enjoy!
Yahoo! Groups : Northeastaquanauts Join our online Newsgroup!

01/14/2004 5:05PM

Michael Norwood, passed away on December 6, 2003. I
thought the world of him. I thought he was a good man, a good partner, and
he was my friend. I miss him every day.

Michael, Danny Crowell, and I were diving in Palau in about 250 feet
of water, with a strong current and about 100+ feet of visibility. It
was our third day of deep diving on the site. Prior to that, on our
first day there, we dove a wreck in about 100 feet of water, to check out
our gear. Danny and I were both diving rebreathers and Michael was on
OC trimix. On the day of the accident, Michael had analyzed his gas
with both oxygen and helium analyzers, on camera, as part of the show.

The order of descent was Danny, Michael, and finally myself. Michael and
I got to the bottom about the same time, in spite of the fact Michael
had a 3 minute head start on me (for filming reasons). My descent time
was about 7 minutes. Danny had descended 5 minutes ahead of us to set
up his camera for the shoot. On the bottom, Danny had concluded that
it was not suitable for filming, due to the current. He was waiting
for us to arrive and decide what, if anything, we could still accomplish.

As Michael arrived at the bottom of the anchor line, he was only
about 2 or 3 feet in front of me and about 15 feet away from Danny when he
signaled "out of air". I immediately gave him my OC bail out
regulator, as his regulator fell from his mouth. Michael appeared
lethargic, confused, and disoriented. He was in fact out of trimix
in his back mounts, and this was the first thing I checked. His side
bottles were both full and operational. He was unable to respond to
either Danny or I, and he would not release the anchor line to
ascend in spite of vigorous coaxing. His left hand was bound around the
anchor line in a firm grip, while his right hand was limp and
flaccid.
He did not seem panicked, with his eyes open at some times, closed
at others. It was painfully slow dragging him up the line. He did not
acknowledge us or assist us, and would not release the anchor line.

When he bottomed out my bail out tank, he held on to the mouthpiece
of the empty tank regulator between his teeth so tight that it
separated from the regulator as we tried to get him on his 40% nitrox
regulator.
Danny had to pry the mouthpiece out of his mouth, so we could get
the nitrox regulator in. At about 150' he went unconscious, his
regulator fell from his mouth, and he finally released the anchor line. We
tried unsuccessfully to re-insert his regulator several times. His
buoyancy became negative, indicating to me that he was taking water into his
lungs. I manually inflated his BC, and brought him to about 100
feet before I released his body to the surface. Danny and I returned to
about 166 feet to complete our deco. The crew topside was waiting
with a suited up safety diver. They recovered the body immediately and
began CPR. As you might imagine, their best efforts were unsuccessful.

Michael was an experienced trimix diver, and a trimix instructor.
He learned technical wreck diving in the cold, dark waters of the
English Channel. He had numerous dives in excess of 300 feet. By
comparison, diving in Palau was no where near as challenging.

Michael apparently did not fully understand that he was running out
of gas, or he would have turned the dive. Once he had run out of gas
in his mains, all he had to do was switch to his deco gas, ascend, and
do a drift decompression in the current (which was our plan anyway).
With the visibility as it was, Danny and I would have seen him and joined
him. Essentially, he had what he needed with him to safely ascend
without any help from Danny or me. For some unknown reason he was
unable to. It is still speculation, but it seems obvious that he
had some serious problem other than just being out of gas in his mains.
His descent was slow, much slower than mine, and he used a
tremendous amount of gas. It is my opinion that he developed a serious medical
problem during this descent. What that problem was, we will most
likely never know.

The coroner in the UK is still investigating, and all of the tests
are not completed including the toxicology. Both the death certificate
and the national police report from the Republic of Palau, list the
death as "Possible myocardial infarction" apparently leading to drowning.
Although I think that this is possible, it is far from conclusive.
It is my experience that deep diving accidents seldom reveal a
conclusive cause of depth due to the biological complexities of deep diving.

Deep diving is inherently dangerous. Those of us that participate
in it understand and accept that, but Michael's passing is both sad and
tragic.

Regardless, I would like to thank all of you who have written me
with your condolences to Michael's lovely wife, Diana.

Cheers
John Chatterton