Incident Report

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Incident Report 2020-05-01T16:26:00+00:00

Sticking drysuit inflation valve

Incident Date

2016-01-02

Incident Description

Whilst descending from the entrance to the deep section the diver injected air into the drysuit at various times. It was noted that the valve did not close as cleanly/ crisply as it should. On the last injection the valve failed to close as expected and the suit continued to inflate. Fortunately the diver was just under a roof flake (at -28m) which prevented drastic buoyancy problems. Disconnecting the hose was attempted at which point the diver probably accidentally caught the inflation button again which caused the valve to close. The dive was subsequently aborted at the bottom of the Hindenburg to avoid similar problems and a safe return to base was made.

Lessons Learned

With hindsight the valve had probably been sticking slightly for a few dives. Cleaning out the port later revealed an accumulation of very fine silt. The auto-dump valve on the suit would have kicked in at some point and the manual dump valave could have been used at any time had the buoyancy problem become critical.
Factors
Line Management Negligible
Gas Management Negligible
Equipment Management Major
Equipment Failure Major
Training Negligible
Medical Negligible
Planning Negligible
Procedural Error Negligible
Cave Environment Negligible
Weather Negligible
Other Factor Negligible