4 ms·
I posted this because, of course, of the ongoing rescue operation but more for the helicopter pilot-like checklists to stay safe and stay alive. I understand th
by wallflower 8y ago
I posted this because, of course, of the ongoing rescue operation but more for the helicopter pilot-like checklists to stay safe and stay alive. I understand that recommendation #4, #7, and #8 are practically nil'd in the case of the Thai rescue operation (cold iced coffee-like water and the untrained, not-in-great-health kids).
It reminds me a lot about how methodical planning and preparation can help prepare for a better outcome, especially when problems occur. Particularly, the part of how they practice buddy breathing and hand signal communication before going into the real depths reminds me of the proverbial testing before you are ready to "go live in production" (without life/death consequences, just 'revenue' of course). I won't belabor the metaphor but there is something that can be learned from those who go into some of the riskiest situations that a person can put themselves into precisely by "de-risking" as much as possible. For example, the probability of all three lights failing is a fraction of a percent. In a non-silt situation, having a light fail is equivalent to becoming blind.
If you are like me, this X-Ray Mag site below is a fascinating armchair way to read about the small world of cave divers. I know that the closest I will ever get to cave diving is with a full-immersive VR experience when the great, great grand-children of Oculus arrive. My scuba-loving friends all called it at open water night diving. Even wreck diving was regarded with awe. Cave diving was like being an astronaut.
https://xray-mag.com/technical-diving/cave-diving https://xray-mag.com/technical-diving/cave-diving
Also, the accident reports are NTSB-level in their analysis.
https://caves.org/pub/aca/ https://caves.org/pub/aca/
The "Ten Recommendations for Safe Cafe Diving"
1. Always use a single, continuous guideline from the entrance of the cave throughout the dive.
2. Always use the "third rule" in planning your air supply (this means 1/3 to go to where you want to go, 2/3 to return and for emergencies)
3. Avoid deep diving in caves
4. Avoid panic by building up experience slowly and being prepared for emergencies
5. Always use at least three lights per diver
6. Always carry the safest possible scuba.
7. Avoid stirring up silt.
8. Practice emergency procedures with your partner before going diving, and review them often.
9. Always carry the equipment necessary for handling emergencies, and know how to use it.
10. Never permit overconfidence to allow you to rationalize violating recommended safety procedures.
- mediocrejoker 8y agoAre those accident reports publicly available online? The site you linked seems to have a one line summary of each accident but no link to further details.
- wallflower 8y agoNo, sorry. I linked that site in error. That site only has reports available for NSS members. The only accident reports that I have read have come from googling "accident analysis + cave diving" or "aquacorps + accident analysis". For example the Aquacorps archives on archive.org https://web.archive.org/web/20020611235343/http://www.cisatlantic.com:80/trimix/AQUAcorps/Incidentreps/incidentcontent.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20020611235343/http://www.cisatl...
- callahad 8y agoThe IUCRR maintains a few public incident reports at http://www.iucrr.org/ http://www.iucrr.org/. Look under the"Accident Analysis" heading on the left. At least ten years ago, when I went through cave training, incident reports were a significant fraction of the curriculum between Apprentice and Full Cave certifications. If you weren't in the overhead, you were reading about people who didn't make it back and figuring out how to structurally reduce the risk of suffering the same specific misfortune.
- InternetOfStuff 8y ago> Cave diving was like being an astronaut. At age 16 (or so), I dived into an undersea cave in Sardinia, pretty much completely unprepared. I had scuba gear, but only a "waterproof" flashlight (read: not a proper diving lamp by any means), no line, no backups, no nothing. Just a teenager's sense of invincibility. It was almost literally otherworldly, floating through bone-white passages full of strangely shaped rocks, and being so palpably close to my own fate. It was also very scary for reasons both objective (I knew it was monumentally stupid going in) and imagined (the darkness beyond the cone of your lamp is full of sharks, giant kraken, and Cthulhu). I turned around after five minutes. On the way back, noticed a fork in the cave. Had a horrible sinking feeling and cursed myself for not looking back on the way in. Picked a path at random, and apparently picked right. It was the best experience I never want to repeat again.