Coroner’s report says disconnected BCD inflator hose led to the 2021 death of David Pleace during a dive on the wreck of the SMS Brummer.
A coroner has ruled that the death of a British diver in Scapa Flow in 2021 was accidental, but could have been prevented if pre-dive safety checks had been properly conducted.
David Pleace, 57, of Chellaston, Derbyshire, was diving the wreck of the SMS Brummer in Scapa Flow, off the island of Orkney, Scotland, with a group of friends when the tragedy occurred.
SMS Brummer was a minelayer cruiser of the German fleet, scuttled in Scapa Flow in 1919 at the end of the First World War. The wreck is popular with recreational divers as the ship remains mostly intact, lying on its starboard side at a depth of 36m.
Pleace, an experienced diver whom the coroner’s report describes as having ‘undertaken several training courses’ went missing during a dive on 27 June 2021, during a week-long holiday with friends.
He was found the next day by a local diver, face down in the water approximately 20 metres from the wreck. A post-mortem reported the cause of his death as drowning.
In a hearing at Derby Coroner’s Court on Thursday, 26 September, assistant coroner Sophie Lomas said that Pleace’s death was an accident, but could have been prevented.
During the inquest into Pleace’s death, a dive expert who inspected his equipment found that there were no mechanical defects with his kit, but that his wing’s inflator hose was disconnected when he entered the water.
Although Ms Lomas said it was ‘unclear’ whether or not proper pre-dive safety checks had been conducted, the evidence presented to the court suggested that they had ‘not been carried out to an appropriate level’.
‘The reality is because the hose was not connected, from the moment David entered the water, sadly the outcome was set,’ Ms Lomas told the court.
‘On the evidence, such checks had not been carried out to an appropriate level. Had those checks happened, the wing inflator hose could have been noticed and corrected prior to his entry to the water.
‘He was unable to control his buoyancy and descended quickly. It is unlikely his team members would have been able to do anything in the limited time available.’
Ms Lomas extended her sincere condolences to Mr Pleace’s family and the wider dive community, but warned that the missed safety check was likely the result of a complacent attitude to dive safety commonly exhibited by experienced divers, who tend to do fewer ‘team checks’
Telling the court that she had decided not to complete a future prevention of deaths report, Ms Lomas said: ‘my view is that this is not a gap in training or knowledge or something the organisations are not doing properly – it is attitudinal.’
‘I would like to highlight to all of the diving community that these checks are very important and that carrying out personal and body checks regardless of your level of expertise can have a significant impact in terms of what follows.’
