DATELINE: 22nd July 2001
DEATH INQUIRY
A Scottish court has heard how a 17-year-old diving school student died during a training dive off the island of Kerrera in Argyll in November 1999.
The Oban Times has reported how a fatal accident inquiry took evidence and statements from diving experts about the circumstances which led to the death of Julia Brandrith, from North Shields.
The inquiry, at Oban Sheriff Court, heard how the school group of seven consisted of three male and two teenage female students, tended by a PADI instructor and assistant instructor from Deep Blue Dive Centre of Tynemouth.
The instructor, Philip Thornton, told the inquiry that the group descended to the seabed at a depth of 28m to carry out training exercises while kneeling on the bottom.
When disturbed silt built up around them, a decision was taken to abort the dive.
Thornton set off with the three male divers, signalling to assistant instructor Richard Crawford to accompany the two girls to the surface. Thornton successfully accompanied his charges to the surface.
The surviving female, 18-year-old Laura Tarplee, told the inquiry that Crawford took her hand, and that she could see he also had hold of Brandrith. But then Tarplee lost a fin and contact with the others before inflating her BC and making a rapid ascent. Her computer showed that she had been to a maximum of 52m.
Crawford confirmed that, on the seabed, he had taken the girls' hands and attempted to ascend, but that they had been dragged down because of a problem with Brandrith's buoyancy. He also confirmed that he lost contact first with Tarplee, then Brandrith, before ascending.
The cover boat's skipper, Scott Bisset, said Tarplee was taken aboard in a state of shock. She was recovered along with the male students, and the Coastguard were called; Tarplee would be hospitalised overnight.
It was decided that the instructors could not redescend to search for Brandrith, because of the risk of decompression illness and a shortage of back-up air aboard the boat. Bisset, however, was able to descend with a local diver, who arrived in response to a call to another dive school for help.
The men noted what they thought were fin marks in the silt, made by a single pair of fins. Following them down, Bisset saw what he thought was a torchlight, then the blurry outline of fins, and found Brandrith.
Brandrith, the inquiry heard, was undergoing PADI Advanced Open Water training. Her previous experience amounted to pool training and four open-water dives to a maximum of 6m.
Neither she nor Tarplee had used drysuits before coming to Oban, so were diving contrary to PADI guidelines, which require a pool familiarisation session for those new to drysuits.
The inquiry was told by a diving instructor from Strathclyde Police Underwater Unit that he would not take such a student to the depth planned by Deep Blue. He also criticised the fact that there was no safety plateau, only a slope extending into the depths. His criticism was backed by a senior Health and Safety Executive inspector.
The plan was to dive to 27-30m, the inquiry heard, but Brandrith was eventually located on the seabed at 50m. The HSE inspector said she was found with air in her cylinder, her weightbelt on but her mask and regulator dislodged.
Scott Bisset stated that the only alternative site in the area was a wreck which had other hazards. PADI's UK director, Mark Caney, said there was nothing unusual about the choice of site. He stated that, while a level bottom had advantages, it was "certainly commonplace" to teach students over sloping bottoms.
On the issue of student-instructor ratios, Michael Morgan of Puffin Dive Centre in Gallanach told the inquiry that the ratio should be one to one when instructing students on deep dives. With such a ratio the build-up of silt would not have led to an uncontrolled situation, he said.
For PADI, lawyer Jan Burges said that PADI listed a maximum ratio of eight students to one instructor for a deep dive, but that this applied in ideal conditions.
Instructors, she said, were told to use discretion based on the circumstances.
Examination of Brandrith's regulator revealed that the bleeding system was not working correctly. The interior pressure chamber contained some water, and the breathing resistance was set quite stiff. However, there was no evidence that the regulator had failed at the time of the accident.
Bisset told the inquiry he had been "extremely shocked" by the incident, and had not taught diving since. Crawford stated that he had given up diving altogether.
As Diver went press, Sheriff Colin McKay was considering the evidence before publishing his report.