British diver Michael Norwood was diving the wreck USS Perry in 70m (240 feet), for the History Channel programme 'Deep Sea Detectives' when the fatal accident occurred.

36-year-old Norwood, known to his British friends as 'Nobby', was a former police officer and an experienced mixed-gas diver. He had moved to the US over 2 years ago, continuing to dive, and had joined forces with John Chatterton for the popular US-based History Channel programme Deep Sea Detectives.

Unconfirmed reports indicate that Norwood was diving the wreck on open-circuit trimix, and had experienced problems at depth when encountering strong currents.

Other divers on the project came to his assistance, but he appears to have lost consciousness underwater. He was sent to the surface in the hope that he could be recovered, resuscitated and recompressed.

Unfortunately, he did not survive.

John Chatterton gave Divernet permission to publish his account of the incident, below.
"Michael, Danny Crowell, and I were diving in about 250 feet of water, in a strong current with about 100+ feet of visibility. It was our third day of diving to the site, and prior to that we had made a 100 foot dive to initially check out our gear. Danny and I were both diving rebreathers and Michael was on open circuit trimix. Michael had analyzed his gas with both oxygen and helium analyzers, this particular day actually on camera as part of the show. The order of descent was Danny, Michael, and finally myself. Michael and I got to the bottom about the same time, in spite of the fact Michael had a 3 minute head start on me. My descent time was about 7 minutes. Danny had descended 5 minutes ahead of us to set up his camera. Danny had concluded that the current was not suitable for filming and was waiting for us to arrive to decide what, if anything, we could do.

"Michael was on the bottom, only about 2 or 3 feet in front of me and about 15 feet from Danny, when he signaled 'out of air'. I immediately gave him my open circuit bail out regulator as his regulator fell from his mouth. Michael appeared lethargic, confused, and disoriented. He was in fact out of trimix in his back mounts. His side bottles were both full and operational. He was unable to respond to either Danny or I, and he would not release the anchor line to ascend in spite of vigorous coaxing. He did not seem panicked, with his eyes open at some times, closed at others. It was painfully slow dragging him up the line. He was conscious, but did not acknowledge us or assist us, and maintained a firm grip on the anchor line with his left arm wrapped around it.

"When he bottomed out my bail out tank, he held on to the mouthpiece of the empty tank regulator between his teeth so tight it separated from the regulator as we tried to get him on his 40% nitrox. Danny had to pry the mouthpiece out of his mouth, so we could get the nitrox regulator in. At about 150 feet he went unconscious and finally released the anchor line. We tried unsuccessfully to re-insert his regulator. His buoyancy became negative indicating to me that he was taking water into his lungs. I manually inflated his BC, and brought him to about 100 feet before I released his body to the surface and Danny and I returned to about 160 feet to complete our deco. The crew topside was waiting with a suited up safety diver. They recovered the body immediately and began CPR. As you might imagine, their efforts were unsuccessful.

"Michael apparently did not fully understand that he was running out of gas, or he would have turned the dive. Once he had run out of gas in his mains, all he had to do was switch to his deco gas, ascend, and do a drift decompression in the current (which was our plan anyway). With the visibility as it was, Danny and I would have simply joined him. Essentially, he had what he needed with him to safely ascend without any help from Danny or me. Why he did not, is still speculation at this point, but it seems obvious that he had some serious problem other than just being out of gas in his mains.

"The coroner in the UK is still investigating, and all of the tests are not completed including the toxicology. The death certificate and the national police report from Palau, both list the death as "Possible myocardial infarction" apparently leading to drowning. However, the Republic of Palau does not have the facilities and/or technology to do the kind of sophisticated analysis we would expect in North America or Europe. In addition, there are the physical complications of damage to the body caused by surfacing with little or no decompression."


Related link
USS Perry expedition information
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