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Saw a diver skip his pre-dive comms check and it almost cost him big time
I was working a job on a barge in the Gulf last week, and the diver next to me was suiting up. He got his hat on, gave a thumbs up to the tender, and started to go over. The tender stopped him and asked for a comms check. The diver just waved him off, saying 'it was fine yesterday.' The tender insisted, and sure enough, his mic was totally dead, just static. If he'd gone down with zero comms on that murky bottom, we'd have had a real problem. I've seen this lazy thinking before, and it's how bad things happen. You can't assume gear from one day is good for the next, especially something as basic as talking. Has anyone else had to push back on a crew member skipping a basic safety step like that?
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simon_chen12d ago
Yeah, "good way to get yourself killed" is putting it lightly. I saw a guy on a job once try to skip checking his bailout bottle pressure, saying he just topped it off the day before. Tender made him check it anyway and the gauge was reading zero, the valve was cracked open just a tiny bit and it had all leaked out overnight. That cold sweat feeling when you realize how close it was, you just can't get lazy with the checks. It's two minutes that can save your life.
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