----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, September 30, 2006 6:16
PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nekton
fatality
Alpha and Beta were doing a recovery on a 26' speedboat from 200
plus feet. They got slings under the boat's bow and stern and started
the lift. Alpha surfaced and Beta stayed to oversee the lift. The
speedboat's bow sling slipped and its hull slewed to one side as it
fell free, hitting the sub in the conning tower and breaking one viewport
completely in half!!! The sub flooded immediately and sank (and boy howdy,
that must have been some ride). The pilot and co-pilot were alright at that
point, discussed the blow and go technique which was their only option. When
the hatch popped, the remaining air bubble held captive in the
conn roared up and sucked the pilot right out of the boat. He surfaced
about half dead, and says he doesn't remember that ascent to this
day. He survived to build and operate Delta for its entire
lifetime. His copilot was less fortunate, and was found by the Alpha on the
bottom near the sunken sub. Alpha retrieved th! ! e body and then went back
to retrieve Beta. It was a tragic case of bad luck and poor judgement, not
improved by time or hindsight. I think this happened during Beta's first
year of operation, but don't hold me to that.
I'd say there was plenty to learn. The sling was not attached to the
boat, for instance, and the sub was too damned close to a load. I don't know
about pre-job planning and briefings. These were serious people, and
this was no lark. They were working, and something went badly wrong.
Armchair quarterbacks could point a finger or two, and if you and I were
doing the same job today, we'd probably call around and try to glean some
lessons learned from the folks who were there. I've done a bunch of lifts
using submarines, but I'll have to say that we didn't stay near loads in
midwater. Get hooked up, test the load then get the hell out seemed like
good advice, and that's the way we generally played it. Nobody wanted to be
UNDER a load and with iffy visibility, about two seconds could be the
difference between seeing the lift, and running into it.
This was the first of four fatalities in the business (that I knew of
at the time) three in the US and one in France, which served the rest
of us as lessons learned. Painful lessons, to be sure, and sad. One to two
surface and/or saturation divers died per year (on average) during the
construction days in the North Sea, for instance. But none of them were
submersible related. No lockout divers, no pilots, no crew. A hundred
percent safety record was considered the minimum goal, as the penalties for
screwing up were draconian, and often fatal. Looking back, I suspect we had
some help from the lucky stars, or the fates or the hand of God, depending
on which way you swing. We ran those boats right on the hairy edge of
disaster sometimes, but the accumulated experience and expertise pulled
us through.
I got a nice little attaboy from the Navy guys once, just for
doing something they thought was downright crazy. An experienced
Trieste pilot might have 200 dives in his resume for his entire career,
and there I was, diving 150 to 250 dives EVERY YEAR!!! And I was just
one maniac in a crowded asylum. Together, the dozen or so subs operating in
the oil fields at any given time were doing thousands of dives per
year...thousands!!! There were plenty of incidents, I can assure you, and a
few accidents for spice--but no fatalities. None.
The Navy was mightily impressed by that, but this was
back when I all but took it for granted. In retrospect, it seems fairly
obvious that this fashionable and distinguished gray that I wear at my
temples these days might really be a marker for overuse of cheek
and sheer luck, eh, what? And just as a side note consider this: Delta
Oceanographics runs twice as many dives per year than I did, and in perfect
safety as far as I know. Alpha, Beta, Gamma and Delta have done ten or
twelve thousand dives between them, with one fatality in nearly forty years
of operations. That's pretty impressive. Mind you, I'll bet they could tell
you a hair-raising story or two. In fact, I know they could. I've heard some
of them.
Vance
-----Original Message-----
From:
joeperkel@hotmail.com
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Sat,
30 Sep 2006 8:41 AM
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST] ebay subs
"an operational error that resulted in a broken viewport in Beta",
Vance, I'd be curious to know what happened here? I'll guess this was a
deep dive considering the lines design depth but, is this something to learn
from?
Joe
From: vbra676539@aol.com
Reply-To:
personal_submersibles@psubs.org
To:
personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: Re: [PSUBS-MAILIST]
ebay subs
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 08:03:56 -0400
The 1 atm is the old Nekton Alpha. It was the 1st of its class, not
certified by ABS, and sold off when Nekton, Inc. went belly up. The
odd cage around it is someone's idea of safety. Mostly it looks like it
always did, shinier perhaps, but intact. This boat evolved from the little
Submaray (I think) and led the way for a series that has done more than
10,000 dives with only one fatality (which was an operational
error that resulted in a broken viewport in Beta, rather than a
failure of design). You gotta love those Nekton boats!!! And I agree, a
hundred grand is a whole bucket full of money--but then again, ask some of
the builders what a certifiable 1000 foot sub cost, and they'll quote
125K to half a million and not even bat an eye. The difference is that Dan
or somebody could build this boat for a third to a half of what they're
asking--as long as you don't count his time. And hey, who's
counting?
Vance
-----Original Message-----
From:
irox@ix.netcom.com
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Sent: Fri, 29
Sep 2006 6:21 PM
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] ebay subs
The big food version of scuba tow:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260036619314
And a 1ATM that looks very much like a delta sub:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220032301940
Ian.
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