Incident Report

2014-02-05The dive was going well until the diver bit through one of the mouthpiece lugs. It was surprising how quickly the cut developed from a small break to a complete failure. The broken lug was retrieved and spat out to prevent it jamming in the rebreather valves. The broken gag resulted in a lopsided attachment to gas which isn't life-enhancing. The prospect of using this for another 3 hours wasn't appealing so the dive was turned. For entertainment value the damaged rebreather was used on the return which highlighted the magnetic qualities between a damaged rebreather and rock; every other bend seemed to drag the mouthpiece from the diver's lips and allow water into the no-longer closed circuit. On inspection the other lug had a small cut in exactly the same corresponding place and was all set to repeat the failure.Whilst this was a simple failure to manage at the time and a bailout was available it could easily have developed into something serious had another stressor occurred. This is not a failure that would allow a dive to continue. The mouthpiece was an old friend of at least 10 years' standing - and that was the problem. Familiarity bred complacency. How many other small but important bits of kit have not been subjected to close scrutiny for a long time?