Report on accident at Sisteme Cocodrilo
I am writing this today as a chosen representative of the Cocodrilo/Dos Coronas Exploration and Mapping Expedition. On Sun October 16 we had a member of our team (Brendan Lee Nappier) die during a survey dive in the Sisteme Cocodrilo System on the island of Cozumel. The team has asked me to post this report to prevent and dispel any misinformation or misconceptions of this tragic accident. The team is understandably distraught about the loss of our good friend. I will use no names in this report other then the victim’s. The Expedition was to survey, map and document the Sisteme Cocodrilo cave system. Sisteme Cocodrilo is a land locked system that contains several thousand feet of passage most never getting deeper than 40 feet. The Cocodrilo team arrive onsite at approximately 10 am and began gearing up in the parking lot of the dive site. The team consisted of 5 divers. The dive plan was to swim to the “Air Dome ” approximately 4200 feet into the cave and video map the room. The plan was cut very short. Two divers were using Passive Semi-closed Rebreathers driven by two Al 80’s. One Al 80 had 32% nitrox while the other contained air. The 32% drove the rebreathers while the air was bail out. The other 3 divers were on open circuit side mount. Each open circuit diver carried an addition stage. All open circuit tanks contained air. The day before the dive 3 more 80 cubic foot tanks containing air were staged along the dive route. These were placed as additional emergency bailouts bottles. At 11:19 am the team entered the water. The victim led the team. The team planned on a slow paced swim. At about 15 minutes in to the dive the victim began to accelerate his swim pace causing the team to string out into two groups, two divers in front trying to kept pace with the leader, followed by the second pair falling behind. At approximately two minutes later, the victim had outpaced the second and third diver and began convulsing, he then drifted to the ceiling. When the two closest buddies got to him he was unconscious and his regulators were out of his mouth. The victim’s bailout regulator was observed to be deployed and dangling. His Rebreather loop and his bailout tank had been closed, however neither buddy saw when he closed it. Both buddies, each, deployed and attempted to get a regulator in the victim’s mouth. The victim’s jaw was clenched and had to be pried open to insert the regulator. The regulator was purged into his mouth. By this point all 5 members had got to the victim and began a coordinated rescue attempt. Three divers began swimming the victim out of the system while also keeping the regulator in his mouth and purging it. The last team member kept the line out well lit and guided the team out of the system. It took approximately 18 minutes to get the victim to the surface. His gear and suit was cut away and CPR was administered in round robin by three team members. The last member called for help and got people on the surface to call for EMTs. After about 20 minutes an ambulance and local police arrived and took control of the body. An autopsy was performed and the team was informed by local officials that the cause of death was carbon monoxide poisoning. Both Brandon’s rebreather and one other teammate’s rebreater were found to be in working order. We, the team have now been led to believe (but we have no way of verifying ) that this is not the first case of “bad” nitrox fills on the island. We have halted all diving till we can be certain of what we are breathing. We also urge anyone going on any similar expedition to please add a carbon monoxide analyzer to their dive kit. We all are buying one now. We all are emotional, stressed, and angry by Brendon’s passing. We ask out of respect for the victim and his family, to please refrain from any online speculation or comments that might cause additional stress. Brendon was young, intelligent and in shape, he did nothing wrong nor was any rules broken. There is no good reason why Brendon was taken from us. He died because he had the misfortune of breathing “bad” air. Brendon was our friend and he was taken from us too soon. Thank you Michael Angelo Gagliardi --- On Thu, 10/20/11, Julia Germany <[email protected]> wrote: From: Julia Germany <[email protected]> Subject: Re: [Texascavers] Cave Diving Fatality To: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] Date: Thursday, October 20, 2011, 11:54 AM This story is blocked by my employer because they think the Web site I want to access is for Social Networking. ARGH! Will have to read it from home tonight! julia -----Original Message----- From: Mark Minton <[email protected]> To: texascavers <[email protected]>; swr <[email protected]> Sent: Thu, Oct 20, 2011 9:41 am Subject: [Texascavers] Cave Diving Fatality Missouri cave diver Brendan Nappier died in Cozumel early this week: <http://www.rebreatherpro.com/2011/10/report-on-mexico-rebreather-fatality.html>. Brendan was an enthusiastic member of the 2011 Río Encantado expedition in Puerto Rico last March. What a terrible reason to die. :-( Mark Minton Please reply to [email protected] Permanent email address is [email protected] --------------------------------------------------------------------- Visit our website: http://texascavers.com To unsubscribe, e-mail: [email protected] For additional commands, e-mail: [email protected]
