Poor buoyancy control is to blame for a dramatic rise in ascent-related diving incidents and should be made a priority in training, according to BSAC's safety adviser. Delivering the National Diving Council Incidents Report at BSAC's Diving Officer's Conference, safety and incidents officer Brian Cumming said that for the first time, the ascent incident category had taken over decompression illness (DCI) as the highest.
'The number of ascent-related incidents has risen dramatically over the last ten years; there have been a number of minor perturbations and this year's total is slightly down over last year, but, overall, the trend has been one of a strong increase,' said Cumming. 'Typically these incidents involve a rapid ascent, often with missed decompression stops.'
The majority of the 91 ascent-related incidents were directly related to poor technique, as well as 'driver-related problems' with drysuits, BCs and delayed surface marker buoys (SMBs), Cumming told the conference.
Overall, the number of diving incidents was down, which Cumming said may reflect the drop in the number of dives as a result of bad weather in 2007. A total of 377 incidents were recorded, 349 of which were UK-based.
Altogether, there were 12 diving related fatalities in 2007. 'This is significantly below the average of 17.7 fatalities per year over the previous ten years,' Cumming explained. 'Often, multiple causes were involved in an incident and in five of the fatal incidents there is insufficient information available to be clear about the cause.'
Four fatalities involved divers using rebreathers. 'While the role of the rebreather in the incident is not clear, problems with, or misuse of, the system cannot be ruled out,' he said. Other fatalities involved entrapment, separation and health-related issues.
Boat and surface incidents remained low at 71, which Cumming said was good news. However, he highlighted the number of cases of lost divers. 'Planning, care and attention will help to prevent the divers from becoming lost in the first place, and effective surface-detection aids will enable the divers to be found rapidly should the first part fail,' he said.
The coastguard and RNLI were thanked for providing the BSAC with incident information. The Marine and Coastguard Agency's recent change to the way it provided data had made it easier to identify and link reports from other sources and build a more accurate picture, Cumming added.
Incidents report highlights buoyancy problems - DIVE Latest News