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Fatal accident in NEMO33
- Thread startertrux
- Start date
Thread Status: Hello
, There was no answer in this thread for more than 60 days.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
It can take a long time to get an up-to-date response or contact with relevant users.
ok...why is that all those deep tanks?
only for tingeling the scubadivers ego...???
as an architect i allways thaught that any space must fullfiled the most logical need
freedivers that cannot acces a good environement for CWT, such as no sea or sea with shallow waters at shores, or cold sea or foggy sea, must have a posibility to train for this discipline for a fee of course...
we are drowning, and the manager explain us that the water is wet, in stead of throwing us a life-line........:vangry
I found this post on a Dutch diving forum. Apparently it is from an eye witness.
Dodelijk ongeval in Nemo 33 - Pagina 5
(google translate works pretty well ... )
Rough translation of the post:
I was on the fateful night in Nemo33. And this is what actually happened:
At 22:00 after having left the water, the diver did breathing exercises at the edge of the deep part of the pool. At 22:05 hours, one of my companions watched the diver make a dive to 33 meters through a window.
After a few seconds the diver surfaced and had a samba/lmc. My companion went directly to the bar staff to mention that something was wrong. The bar staff only had a look through the window to see if something happened . Since the diver already dropped to the bottom of the pool there was nothing unusual to see.
The staff told my companion that it was ok and nothing was wrong. You cannot see through the window if the diver was taken out the pool. Assuming that everything was ok we had a drink and discussed our dives.
After more than 30 MINUTES !!!!!! somebody yelled in French and people were running. A few minutes later we saw someone diving to the bottom of the pool to get the diver.
I tried to tell my story that evening but we got a snarl and were sent away and told to go home.
The next day I tried to tell someone of Nemo33 my side of the story and perhaps give some clarification since one of my companions saw what happened.The receptionist promised me that I would be called back that same day and that she was very happy that we wanted to tell them our side of the story because they had many questions. To this day nobody has ever called back, which I find very careless of Nemo. I called them 2 times but that had no result.
I also reported this incident to PADI, and I have also spoken to the police in Uccle who has recorded my statement for their investigation.
I think we can speak of great negligence from Nemo33. They have violated their own rules and nothing was done with our message that something serious was wrong.
Unfortunately for this individual this all could have been avoided if rules were followed.......
My thoughts are with his daughter and family!
Dodelijk ongeval in Nemo 33 - Pagina 5
(google translate works pretty well ... )
Rough translation of the post:
I was on the fateful night in Nemo33. And this is what actually happened:
At 22:00 after having left the water, the diver did breathing exercises at the edge of the deep part of the pool. At 22:05 hours, one of my companions watched the diver make a dive to 33 meters through a window.
After a few seconds the diver surfaced and had a samba/lmc. My companion went directly to the bar staff to mention that something was wrong. The bar staff only had a look through the window to see if something happened . Since the diver already dropped to the bottom of the pool there was nothing unusual to see.
The staff told my companion that it was ok and nothing was wrong. You cannot see through the window if the diver was taken out the pool. Assuming that everything was ok we had a drink and discussed our dives.
After more than 30 MINUTES !!!!!! somebody yelled in French and people were running. A few minutes later we saw someone diving to the bottom of the pool to get the diver.
I tried to tell my story that evening but we got a snarl and were sent away and told to go home.
The next day I tried to tell someone of Nemo33 my side of the story and perhaps give some clarification since one of my companions saw what happened.The receptionist promised me that I would be called back that same day and that she was very happy that we wanted to tell them our side of the story because they had many questions. To this day nobody has ever called back, which I find very careless of Nemo. I called them 2 times but that had no result.
I also reported this incident to PADI, and I have also spoken to the police in Uccle who has recorded my statement for their investigation.
I think we can speak of great negligence from Nemo33. They have violated their own rules and nothing was done with our message that something serious was wrong.
Unfortunately for this individual this all could have been avoided if rules were followed.......
My thoughts are with his daughter and family!
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And there is now also the statement of the facilty management, with some more details, and especially with the freediving ban that they applied immediately:
Cours école plongée formation PADI débutant magasin club Bruxelles Belgique Resto thai jolie terrasse NEMO33 World's deepest scuba diving pool duiken - Décès de Didier HULDERS
Google Translate
Cours école plongée formation PADI débutant magasin club Bruxelles Belgique Resto thai jolie terrasse NEMO33 World's deepest scuba diving pool duiken - Décès de Didier HULDERS
Google Translate
i'm very curious...if an scuba-diving accident will ocur...they will bann scuba to?
and all the managemet team will go cleaning the poll....because there will be no others activityes in that poll what so ever....
hahahahahaha!!!!
what ashame!!!!
and all the managemet team will go cleaning the poll....because there will be no others activityes in that poll what so ever....
hahahahahaha!!!!
what ashame!!!!
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Unbelievable... So they finally ban any freediving activity full of ignorance and anger against "amateur freedivers" when an scuba diver instructor after doing an immersion with bottles commits a tremendous irresponsibility doing "snorkelling"...
I couldn't see the freediving fact in all the statement... am I blind or what?
I couldn't see the freediving fact in all the statement... am I blind or what?
I totally agree that it is indded very paradoxal to ban freediving courses and training in the facility - as others wrote, it is as if a pool managment banned swimming lessons because a non-swimmer drowned in their pool. But in the same time I do not know why people go on telling that he did snorkelling after scuba diving. I do not see anything indicating it in any of the reports I saw. In the statement of NEMO33 they tell he had a free day, but surprisingly has shown up at the closing hour for some freediving training. So I do not think scuba diving was involved, and although he was not a trained freedviver, I would not call the dive where he suffered the samba "snorkeling".
Whilst I agree with the facts and debate here, I think a few people may need to remember there WAS a death involved, stupid or not, the man still passed away and it might do well for us to remember and show some respect towards this. Right now there are a few posts dismissing, and in fact almost finding some of it humorous, the tragedy of the death altogether.
@trux: an eye witness said:
I was on the fateful night in Nemo33. And this is what actually happened:
At 22:00 after having left the water, the diver did breathing exercises at the edge of the deep part of the pool. At 22:05 hours, one of my companions watched the diver make a dive to 33 meters through a window.
Probably "After having left the water" could means so many things but if the witness makes a difference between this fact and the latter is because they were different processes: scuba/freediving (apparently).
And is quite clear reading the Nemo33 letter that they assume it's an scuba diver negligence for doing freediving without the safety and knowledge needed so...
why don't ban scuba divers? it'll make more sense, right?
I was on the fateful night in Nemo33. And this is what actually happened:
At 22:00 after having left the water, the diver did breathing exercises at the edge of the deep part of the pool. At 22:05 hours, one of my companions watched the diver make a dive to 33 meters through a window.
Probably "After having left the water" could means so many things but if the witness makes a difference between this fact and the latter is because they were different processes: scuba/freediving (apparently).
And is quite clear reading the Nemo33 letter that they assume it's an scuba diver negligence for doing freediving without the safety and knowledge needed so...
why don't ban scuba divers? it'll make more sense, right?
@ReefTroll: I don't get the impression that people are disrespectful or making fun of what happened.
It is just the notion that Nemo33 has about freediving that is quite silly.
@Buddha: Strictly speaking the phrase 'After having left the water' is quite ambiguous, thats true. But in this case the writer meant that he (or she?) and his/her companions had left the water.
They were having a drink just before closing time at the bar and the witness watched the diver preparing himself by doing breathing excercises at the edge of the pool.
It's really no surprise that Nemo33 has banned freediving, I think. If you look at the original policy for freediving (a single samba or blackout and freediving would be restricted) and some phrases in the official statement that Trux mentioned, it is pretty clear that Nemo never had warm feelings for freediving and having freedivers in their pool.
The facts don't really matter I guess, except for the fact that someone drowned by freediving in their eyes and that is enough for them to confirm their opions about freediving an ban this activity in their pool.
It is just the notion that Nemo33 has about freediving that is quite silly.
@Buddha: Strictly speaking the phrase 'After having left the water' is quite ambiguous, thats true. But in this case the writer meant that he (or she?) and his/her companions had left the water.
They were having a drink just before closing time at the bar and the witness watched the diver preparing himself by doing breathing excercises at the edge of the pool.
It's really no surprise that Nemo33 has banned freediving, I think. If you look at the original policy for freediving (a single samba or blackout and freediving would be restricted) and some phrases in the official statement that Trux mentioned, it is pretty clear that Nemo never had warm feelings for freediving and having freedivers in their pool.
The facts don't really matter I guess, except for the fact that someone drowned by freediving in their eyes and that is enough for them to confirm their opions about freediving an ban this activity in their pool.
This is a Google translation, and you can easily interpret it that after THEY left the water, they saw the diver preparing at the edge of the deep pool. Nowhere I saw mentioned that the guy used a scuba gear that day, so please avoid jumping to conclusions and spreading rumours just based on a Google translation of a sentence, which does not suggest it anyway.
Edit: ah, MikeM was quicker
In New Zealand it is normal to find a Landfill. This is a valley in a corner of a city or town that no one really wants. The residents all take their rubbish there and the Landfill operators compact the refuse down into the valley for decades until the valley is filled.
It seems to me that a freediving community would be wise to think about joining with the local authority in building a deep, round pool at such a place. The pool base is placed and then every year or so another few meters of height (depth) can be added.
The landfill would probably permanently support the exterior of this growing, buried tower, so the costs would be relatively low and the project could be gradually funded over several decades.
A 60 meter pool built for, and operated by freedivers. Yeah.
It seems to me that a freediving community would be wise to think about joining with the local authority in building a deep, round pool at such a place. The pool base is placed and then every year or so another few meters of height (depth) can be added.
The landfill would probably permanently support the exterior of this growing, buried tower, so the costs would be relatively low and the project could be gradually funded over several decades.
A 60 meter pool built for, and operated by freedivers. Yeah.
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This gets me a bit, how on one hand it seems this person KNEW you couldn't see the whole pool from that window yet goes off to keep relaxing etc.
I think in regards to my "disrespectful comments" mate that 99% of threads here ARE very respectful yes, and I understand why there is frustration in here towards Nemo etc, but one or two posts seem to have some laughter and snide comments towards other possible deaths etc.
I think a pool of this depth it IS understandable that they wouldn't allow straight up freediving with only SCUBA instructors in their workplace. I also think however that it would be better suited for them to have training or an accredited freediving branch there to make it safe.
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