Dylan Harrison instructor 'permanently suspended'

The Texas-based instructor conducting the scuba diving course in which 12-year-old Dylan Harrison died has been ‘permanently suspended’ by the operator of the inland dive site where the course was taking place.

William Armstrong, who was teaching the class of eight students with a divemaster, Jonathan Roussel, has been permanently suspended from teaching at The Scuba Ranch in Kaufman County, North Texas.

The dive school through which Armstrong was conducting the class, Scuba Toys, has also been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation into the incident.

Dylan Harrison died on 16 August after becoming separated from her dive group while making a descent to a 5-metre deep training platform at The Scuba Ranch.

Dylan’s body was found at a depth of around 13 metres (45ft) by an instructor from a different dive school, after Armstrong had already exited the water.

Richard Thomas, owner of International Scuba in Carrollton, was teaching an instructor course at The Scuba Ranch at the same time, and said during an interview with Fox News that he had serious concerns about Armstrong’s conduct following the incident.

As Thomas’ instructors were already wearing their gear, he asked them to get in the water to search for the missing girl.

He said that his diver found her body in just seven minutes, and called into question how long Armstrong had already been out of the water, as he said the instructor appeared to be ‘bone dry’.

‘When I arrived, no one was doing anything. They were all standing shell-shocked,’ Thomas said during the interview. ‘I asked, ‘Who is the instructor here? Is there a professional here? What’s going on? Where did you see her last?

‘It was very difficult to get information out of him,’ Thomas said.

‘He was bone dry. I went to the hospital with the family, and I was still wet running into the hospital, so I have questions about that,’ he said, adding, ‘seven minutes is the time people are able to be brought back from a drowning, potentially’

Serious questions raised

Questions have also been raised over the conduct of the Kaufman County Sheriff’s Office, which the Harrison family’s attorney, David Concannon, said had failed to retrieve data from any of the dive computers in use that day, which might have explained the sequence of events leading up to Dylan’s death.

Armstrong – who is himself an Assistant Chief Deputy with the Collin County Sheriff’s Office – claimed that the group were descending one-by-one down a line, but students have said that they descended as a group without using the line.

Neither Dylan’s computer nor that of the other students has had any data retrieved from them which might confirm which version of the descent took place.

Divemaster Roussel’s computer has also since been ‘lost’, reportedly in a 27-m deep lake, despite a requirement by both his insurance company and training agency (the agency has not as yet been disclosed) to have filed a witness report, including an accurate dive profile, within 24 hours of the accident.

‘In the 200+ underwater fatality investigations I have been involved with since downloadable dive-computers first came on the market, I have never seen a dive-computer with exculpatory evidence stored on it become lost,’ said Concannon in an interview with Fox News.

‘I have seen multiple instances where the dive-computers were stolen from bodies before the authorities arrived, not downloaded or the data was intentionally erased or corrupted, but never when the data would have corroborated someone’s account of what happened.’

Scuba Ranch statement

The Scuba Ranch has issued a statement following the tragedy

We are heartbroken by the recent tragic loss of a young life at our lake. Our deepest sympathy and prayers are with her family and friends, during this unimaginably difficult time.

The Scuba Ranch exists to provide a safe and accessible freshwater environment for qualified Dive Instructors to conduct their training. The Scuba Ranch does not employ Dive Instructors, and does not provide, direct, or supervise instruction received. All Dive Instructors are independent of The Scuba Ranch and not affiliated with us other than as a customer. We do require that all instructors using our facilities follow recognized scuba safety standards outlined by their credentialing agency, as well as professional judgment, to train students safely.

Immediately after this event occurred, out of an abundance of caution, we permanently suspended the instructor (Bill Armstrong) from teaching at our facility. Scuba Toys was also suspended from training pending the results of this investigation. This step was taken solely to ensure that safety remains the top priority for divers while at The Scuba Ranch.

This tragedy has deeply affected the entire dive community, and we will continue to support those impacted as best we can. We, along with all of you, are awaiting the facts and details to be released with complete transparency so that we may learn from what happened.

The Scuba Ranch has and continues to be fully cooperating with the ongoing investigation and remains committed to supporting all efforts to understand what happened. We pray this family receives the answers, justice, and closure they deserve, and that all of the dive community would be strengthened through what we learn from this tragedy.

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Mark 'Crowley' Russell

Crowley (known to his mum as Mark), packed in his IT job in 2005 and spent the next nine years working as a full-time scuba diving professional. He started writing for DIVE in 2010 and hasn't stopped since.

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