From: vbra676539@aol.com
Reply-To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
To: personal_submersibles@psubs.org
Subject: [PSUBS-MAILIST] nekton fatality
Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2006 21:16:10 -0400
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
the body and then went back to retrie!
ve 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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