Incident Reports [Click here] to return to Incident Reports list.
Please remember, by accessing this information you have agreed to the following restrictions:
The IUCRR does not claim to report the final status of any accident. Information and facts are gathered on a best-effort basis. No conclusions as to cause of death are expressed or implied. The IUCRR is not responsible for any misuse of the information. It is the policy of the IUCRR to report all accidents for which it is informed. If there is an accident that you know about and have information on that is not included in the list, please contact us at IUCRR-Info@iucrr.org. IMPORTANT NOTES: At an accident site, there are actually very few real facts. The IUCRR reports state facts only, and specifically exclude any speculation. Information derived from bystanders is often included if corroborated. Fields shown below that are blank or “n/a” indicate factual information was not available, or not relevant. It is the policy of the IUCRR not to make any substantive changes to the reports as submitted by the IUCRR team member, so any mistakes are theirs. BUT TO THE IUCRR at IUCRR-Info@iucrr.org |
◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊ ◊
2007-11-30 Incident
November 30, 2007 – The Arches, near Puerta Vallarta, Mexico
Date of Fatality: November 30, 2007
Date of Recovery: n/a
Deceased: 3 victims
Sergio Lopez Gomez
Alejandro Tovar Garcia
Adan Ulises Sanchez Mayorga
Location: Los Arcos, Puerta Vallarta, Jalisco, Mexico
Report compiled and submitted by Jeff Bozanic and R.D. Milhollin. This report should not be considered final.
The recent IUCRR mobilization for a cave recovery at Puerto Vallarta turned out not to involve caves. At the time of the call-out there were several varying reports concerning what had actually happened. What was apparent was Friday, November 30, 2007 three divers had failed to return from dives off the north face of the wall that starts from the small islands known as Los Arcos.
Initial news received in the United States reported that a diver had entered an underwater cave and failed to return, and that two official divers had been sent in to recover the first, and these also failed to return. Upon arrival the reports had shifted to include a collapse of the shallow coastal ledge into a submarine cavern, literally sucking the three divers all at once into the void.
The facts gathered at the site are as follow:
1. Three instructors with 12 students utilizing significant support resources and personnel were conducting a deep diver course under the standards of an open water certification agency.
2. Each instructor had four students under their direct supervision.
3. The students, including a news reporter and a commandant (comandante) of the Seguridad y Protecci�n Civil (SPC) and two other SPC divers were in the water conducting skill assessments at the time the incident occurred. The reporter and two SPC divers disappeared, but the commandant was saved by one of the instructors. (SPC is an agency of the state of Jalisco that deals with natural disasters and other civil disturbances, analogous to a combined State National Guard and FEMA in the United States. It will be referred to as �Civil Defense� from this point forward.)
4. The missing divers are: Sergio L�pez G�mez (television reporter), Alejandro Tovar Garc�a and Ad�n Ulises S�nchez Mayorga (both with Civil Defense).
5. Visibility was reported to be less than 3 feet, so a downline was used to help students descend to the bottom. Below about 15 fsw, there was no natural light at all.
6. At the time of the incident divers observed a drastic change in water temperature, a sudden decrease in visibility, a sudden strong downward current, and an apparent unusual number of fish in the water. (At the time IUCRR divers conducted their dives, water temperature and visibility was 69oF and 5 feet on the surface, and about 54oF and 50 feet at depths exceeding about 130 fsw. There was insufficient natural light to see below about 60 fsw.)
7. The instructor�s dive computer log showed an extremely rapid descent, reportedly going from 70 to 200 fsw in a matter of seconds.
8. Observers from the boats reported that the water turned from green to reddish-brown very quickly.
9. The downline being utilized by the divers sank below the surface. The downline had significant weight on it, with only a small boat fender to float the surface end. (To date the line has not been found nor recovered.)
Because there are supposedly several caves and overhangs in the 150 fsw range in the vicinity, it was determined that IUCRR divers would deploy to eliminate these locations as possible sites in which the bodies might be trapped.
IUCRR cave divers RD Milhollin from Fort Worth, TX and Jeffrey Bozanic from Huntington Beach, CA executed two deep dives at the site of the incident to determine if remains were trapped in overhead environments reported to exist in the area, or under any sort of overhang in the vicinity. No caves, tunnels, or significant overhangs likely to prevent an uninterrupted return to the surface for disoriented divers were found. They did search a large fishing net found draped over the wall in the immediate vicinity to ensure that the divers were not entangled in it.
An on-site incident response meeting was conducted Wednesday evening, chaired by the Director of the Jalisco State Civil Defense group. About 60 people were in attendance, including Search and Rescue, Civil Defense, the State Attorney General�s office, other governmental units, as well as the press. Bozanic and Milhollin represented the IUCRR, reporting their findings from the day�s dive as well as making recommendations based on observations during the same.
The active search was called off Thursday evening although high-resolution remote sensing capabilities will continue to be used to search for remains in the extreme deep sediments of the bay.
Information from the Jalisco liaison, Francisco Alvarez: “The day you left arrived the ROV and finally yesterday we found a fin, a snorkel and a weight belt. Today we found two caves right where you did the last inmersion at about 300 Ft; the sonar survey was great and we have very important information in order to warn future dives in the place…. We are sure the fins and snorkel do not belong to our divers. We will continue non stop the surface search. The ROV has been as deep as 620 feet. We will go as deep as 1000 ft early January.”
[approved by Regional Coordinator]