2002-02-27 Incident

Cove Mine, Pickens County, GA. Note: As of this date (3/18/2002), no body has been found and no report has been generated. However, in the interest of gathering what little is known, the following items are temporarily published. Keep in mind that none of the following can be considered factual, verified, or corroborated. These notes are in chronological order, the most recent being at the bottom.

The following was reported by Steve Poll, NACD Int’l Safety Officer, on 2/27/2002:

Yesterday, 2/26/02, two divers went into a quarry in Jasper, GA (Pickens County). They were open water divers (unknown if they were even certified) using a single aluminum 80 each and standard OW gear. They were not even cavern certified. They did run a reel/line of some sort. They had some problem. One buddy surfaced after a line entanglement on the way out causing a siltout. The quarry is described as “like swiss cheese” with big rooms and tunnels 40′-50′ across and high. There is a lot of silt and percolation.

Yesterday my Regional Safety Officer for that region, Lewis Puckett, and another diver made the first attempt to do a recovery. They were met with real bad vis and a max tie off depth of 78′. Situation is difficult due to large passage/rooms, bad vis, silt, no water flow. They did not locate the lost diver on that dive. There had also been an old guideline in the tunnel.

They are going back today with the help of Gene Jones and two other cave divers. Lewis is a member of a nearby fire department and has good access to all the air fills they need.

The divers that got in difficulty had read Blueprint For Survival and perhaps other cave/cavern books to obtain their cave diving knowledge.

The recovery is ongoing at this time. I’ll post any additional information as it becomes available.

This report is from Lamar Hires, dated 2/27/2002:

I talked with John Jones (IUCRR Regional Coordinator) today about the accident in Jasper, Ga. Two divers went in roped together using a reel The lead diver jammed the reel and after dealing with it found his buddy to be no where around him. Both were in open water gear and one light each. The buddy surfaced and contacted the Sheriff Department. John Jones was called and the team is activated with trained recovery divers. One of the divers is Lewis Pucket (forgive me if I misspelled the name) from the Gwinnett Cty Fire Department. He did the assessment dive and has a team for more dives. They are letting the visibility improve before going in again. They suspect the victim will be close to the entrance. It looks like they have it under control for now. The problem is lack of visibility since it is a marble mine shaft and silted quickly.

This report is from John Jones, IUCRR Regional Coordinator, dated 2/27/2002:

The City of Jasper and the mine owners decided to call off the diving and pump it down to recover the body. Lewis Pucket and Russel Bice made three dives today and Mark Pergram and John Cooper were there to relieve them. Scooter Sellers, David Lennon, Jim Womble, Brett Dotson and myself were to go up in the morning to continue the search. I will co-ordinate with the City and Lewis to get as good of report out as we can. Thanks to all that helped and were planning on helping.

This report is from the Pickens County Progress (newspaper), dated March 14, 2002. Please note that all of the following is considered by the IUCRR to be “hearsay”:

Second Cove Mine Diver says they weren’t in over their heads
on fatal exploration

Travis Jenkins, the dive buddy of Dale Fisher who died while diving
in the Cove Road mines two weeks ago, says they were fully-trained and had
the necessary experience for diving there. He said the main purpose of the
diving had been research, not any business plans.

Jenkins, a Memphis, Tennessee resident, said he wanted to deny
claims made in previous media reports that he and Fisher had simply gotten
in over their heads.

“All I can do for my buddy now is see that his reputation isn’t
tarnished,” he said. “To represent us as renegade divers who went and
jumped in over their heads is inaccurate.”

He said he is an open water diving instructor and Fisher held
advanced technical certifications for diving.

Although the Cove mines were a dangerous spot, he said they had the
necessary training and experience with the hundreds of dives they had both
previously made and had agreed to a detailed safety plan.

“We were definitely trained and experienced to be doing what we
were doing,” he said.

The fact that his dive buddy suddenly abandoned all the plans and
plunged ahead may indicate he suffered some type of health problem not
related to diving which lead to his death, Jenkins said.

The Memphis firefighter and paramedic said the coroner’s report,
which had not been completed by Tuesday, may shed some light onto Fisher’s
death.

In the original report on the death, Jenkins said Fisher complained
of being tired after hauling the 100 pounds of equipment into the mines to
the water’s edge.

Jenkins said the plan was for Fisher to follow him on this third
dive in the abandoned mines and doesn’t know why Fisher let go of the rope
and proceeded past him into the dark, low visibility water.

“I don’t know why he lost contact with the line,” he said. “I don’t
know why he kept going. Until the state medical report is complete, I don’t
want to speculate about what happened. It may turn out to not be a scuba
accident at all.”

Jenkins said he had worked out an agreement with the city of Jasper
to explore the mines through his company Mid-South Divers, more for a
research opportunity than for any potential business related to a diving
site.

“By the second dive we realized because of the high concentration
of marble sediment in the water, it would never be a good place for public
diving,” he said. “It looks so alluring at the surface where it’s clear,
but the marble dust is the most unbelievable sediment I’ve ever seen.”

Fisher was not an employee of Mid-South Divers.

Jenkins, who is a volunteer diver for the Tennessee Aquarium, said
the main purpose of the dives was to search for “sauna” — microscopic
creatures that live in zero light.

He said they did find one interesting tiny creature. They planned
to gather samples on later dives to take to the aquarium for further study.

Jenkins said they were not actually cave diving. While the water’s
entrance is located in a mine, they did not plan to enter any underwater
tunnels where they would be blocked from the surface.

Cave diving is defined as being in an “overhead environment,” which
they did not enter, he said.

Jenkins said they were following cave diving procedures and using
cave diving techniques, such as fixed lines, as a precaution even though
their dives plans were only to descend directly to the bottom in the open
water of the shafts.

“If there was a need for further research, we might have grown into
cave diving in the future,” he said. “But we planned to stay in the open
water of the shafts.”

Jenkins said he heard from rescue divers that Fisher’s body was
found in a tunnel which further leads him to believe that something had
caused Fisher to lose any awareness of where he was.

The city of Jasper had agreed to let Mid South Divers explore the
mines in exchange for reports on water quality and to compare their
findings with existing maps. “They wanted to know about things like
cave-ins,” he said.

Jenkins wished to thank all the police, fire and emergency
personnel as well as volunteers and local businesses who helped with the
body recovery which took a week.

However, Jenkins criticized Jasper Mayor John Weaver and the
decision made to begin pumping water out of the mines and abandon rescue
and recovery dives.

Jenkins said it was “silly” to believe they could suspend diving
and start pumping the water and find the body quicker.

There were national diving recovery teams which weren’t even
contacted, he said.

Jenkins said the fact that they were suspending dives even as they
were expressing hope that Fisher might have found an air pocket and still
be alive shows the poor decision-making.