Russian tourist dies scuba diving in Surat Thani's dam

[buksida]

A Russian tourist died while scuba diving in the reservoir of the Ratchaprapha dam in Surat Thani Sunday afternoon.

Police said Dmitry Dokuchave, 46, and three friends rented a boat to go scuba diving in the dam at 2 pm. Three went down with six oxygen tanks while another waiting on the boat.

After 20 minutes had passed, the friend on the boat notice one of his friends floated on the water surface unconsciously, he shouted for nearby boats for help and plug him from the water, and immediately alerted rescue officials on the shore.

He was found to have died before being admitted to hospital.

Another Russian scuba diver also came out to the surface, almost unconsciously. But he was rescued and survived in time by rescue officials.

It was not immediately known the exact cause of the incident and police are investigating.

Initial investigation might be from water pressure after they went too deep down the reservoir.

Source: Thaipbs

Thought: I've been to that reservoir and its over 300 meters deep in places, not a dive to be taken lightly. RIP.

[Nereus]

I've been to that reservoir and its over 300 meters deep in places,..............

300 meters. If the report is correct, with another one of them nearly being unconscious, it would have to be asked if it was equipment failure, or polluted air in the tanks.
Very sad, RIP.

[kendo]

Could it have been the Bends decompression sickness from surfacing to quickly.

[buksida]

Dive computers (if they had them) should reveal ascent rate.

[BOZ]

I am leaning towards bad air with 2 of them in distress after 20 mins... Then again if they were too deep they could have gotten narcoious and all bets are off on that outcome... Hopefully we will get an autopsy on this guy and they can get details from the survivor... RIP!!

[migrant]

I wonder about how much training they had, and if licensed. Too many just want to jump in not knowing the rules, too bad

[Nereus]

^^^^^^ Unfortunately, he did not survive. Maybe one got into trouble and the other has come up to fast in an attempt to save his mate.

2 Russian divers die in Surat Thani

http://www.bangkokpost.com/news/general ... urat-thani

[buksida]

Mystery surrounds deaths of Phuket cave divers at Khao Sok National Park
Two experienced Phuket cave divers died after a diving accident on technical rebreathers near the entrance of Tiger Cave in the Chio Lan Reservoir, Surat Thani, on Monday.
Dmitry Dokuchave, 46, died at the scene, while fellow Russian national Alexander Solomatin was pronounced dead at Surat Thani Hospital.

"Both bodies were transferred to Vachira Phuket Hospital, with the preliminary cause of death cited as decompression sickness," said a Surat Thani Hospital staffer who declined to be named.

The Russians were with two other divers, who altogether had rented out a boat and were using their own dive equipment at the time of the accident, a technical diving school manager who knew the divers explained to the Phuket Gazette.

"They were highly certified technical, rebreather and cave divers who had done many cave dives and rebreather dives before. They knew what they were doing," said the manager, who declined to be named.

However, something went wrong. The group had split into two teams, with two divers exploring the wall to search for a second entrance to the cave, while the Russians planned to use the main entrance of the cave, which sits at about 24 meters below the surface.

"According to a dive computer used by the Russians, [it looks like] one them probably noticed that something was wrong. He most likely than told his buddy that he would have to abort the dive… and probably told the other diver to continue his dive while he sorted out the problem," the manger said.

"What the problem was, at this stage, we don't know," she added, as she has been in close contact with the two surviving divers.

"According to his [Mr Dokuchave's] dive computer, he was at about 20 meters [depth] when the problem started, so he wasn't inside the cave yet. He stayed there for about two minutes, probably trying to fix the problem. Then, according the dive computer profile, he shot up to the surface."

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/nationa ... 50628.html