YORKSHIRE, UK (18 Sep 2006) -- A scuba diver died only minutes into a dive at a popular wreck site off the East Coast of Yorkshire after running into problems with his equipment. Mieczyslaw Jedras, 53, was diving with a group including his daughter, on the wreck of the Cadmus seven miles off Hornsea when the tragedy happened in June. An inquest in Hull heard that Mr Jedras, who qualified under a Professional Association of Diving Instructors' scheme as a master scuba diver, was among the last of 12 divers to go into the water. He had descended some eight metres on a shotline to the wreck when he came back up, apparently in distress. Commercial diver Neville Cockerham, who was on board the charter boat Providence, saw Mr Jedras holding onto a buoy and waving. "We went towards him," he said. "I climbed out onto the ladder to reach him. He didn't have his mouthpiece and tried to swim towards us. Unfortunately having let go of the down line, he only managed to swim two feet before he sank." When all the divers had returned to the boat and realised Mr Jedras, of Belper in Derbyshire, was not amongst them, some started rekitting to go and look for him. But skipper Tony Pockley, who had been hired to take the party to the site, was concerned that would put their own lives at risk. He said: "I took the decision it would be unwise. They'd already completed the dive and in my eyes weren't in a proper state of mind to attempt something like that." Mr Jedras' body was found four days later just off the wreck by police divers, who spotted that the inflation hose, which injected air into his dry suit, and would have provided a degree of bouyancy, was dangling free. A post mortem examination concluded he had drowned. In a statement his daughter Sarah Jedras said she and her fiancé went down the shotline to the wreck first, expecting her father to follow with two other divers. When the other pair descended they signalled he had gone back to the surface. Diver Stephen Bowers, one of Mr Jedras' buddies, saw him pause on the shotline and assumed he was having problems equalising the pressure in his ears. He signalled that he was OK to another diver. | | Thinking he would be picked up by the boat, they continued the dive. RNLI lifeboats from Humber and Bridlington were called and a helicopter was scrambled from RAF Boulmer, in Northumberland, but they could not find him. Exhaustive tests were later carried out on Mr Jedras' gear, which was found to be in good working order. Mr Jedras, who was an engineer for Rolls Royce, started diving three years previously and had done over 130 dives. Police diver David Robinson said it appeared no one had carried out a so-called "buddy check" with Mr Jedras, prior to the dive to check his gear was in order. He said Mr Jedras' dry suit inflator may have come loose when he rolled backwards into the sea from the boat, or become detached because of the numerous items he was carrying. Attempts to reconnect it would have been restricted by having to hold onto the line with one hand. He could have put air into his main buoyancy control device, but its inflator may have been displaced. A final option was dumping his weight belt. "There's evidence he attempted this but unfortunately he released the buckle of his wing harness, similar to his weight belt buckle. It is my opinion he became overwhelmed with a developing situation and became distressed." Coroner Geoffrey Saul recorded a verdict of accidental death. SOURCE - Yorkshire PostSCUBA FORUMDISCUSS THIS TOPIC - Dive in and have your say at Scuba Forum |
