In November, the Coast Guard admitted that one of its divers suffered an "uncontrollable descent to a possible depth of 189 feet" during what was supposed to be a routine exercise with a max depth of 20-30 feet. However, other than this little morsel of news, the Coast Guard has kept brazenly silent about the events that occurred aboard the Healy that August day. Until now. According to a recently-released report, multiple regulations were violated that contributed to the deaths of Lt. Jessica Hill and Petty Officer 2nd Class Steven Duque, including: "Untrained personnel put in charge, faulty equipment used, and the presence of alcohol. " In other words, what happened to Hill and Duque was clearly preventable.
Apparently, when Hill and Duque entered the water, they were tethered to lines handled at the surface. Inexplicably, the two divers were carrying more than twice the amount of lead weights required for the dive. Unable to ditch the weights, the pair quickly entered free fall. Single jerks on the line signaling "stop" were misinterpreted by unqualified dive tenders who erroneously paid out more line. Hill descended to 187 feet, and Duque plummeted more than 200 feet. By the time the tenders realized what happened, the pair was dead.
Want to learn more? This week, the the Coast Guard released a 33-page (PDF) Final Action Memorandum on the tragedy.
1. It really sounds like a serious lack of training was to blame as the main reason for the accident. I don’t know if I mis-read the report but for Lt.Hill to conduct a ice dive with face mask and dry suit after only logging 24 dives in her USCG career sends shivers down my spine.
Posted at 8:17AM on Jan 14th 2007 by marclyng