Preliminary Incident Report

Date: 27th July 2009 Vessel: Da Li Hao Location: Champion Field, East Brunie Time / Date of Incident: 20:00 26th July 27, 2009 Type of Incident: DCI Diver: Mark Mah Diving Supervisor: Joe Kissick Diving Superintendent: James Rigney Brief Summary of events leading to and incident: The diver was working in 62 installing a riser clamp and the work that he was undertaking would be best described as arduous i.e. using Cum-ALongs, rigging etc. The diver completed 67 minutes bottom time and in accordance with our policy of; Up one depth and Up one time was decompressed on a USN Surface 02 80/ 85 table. The diver had a controlled and un-eventful ascent and arrived on surface and was re-pressurised to 50 within 2 minutes. The Chamber operator was instructed by the supervisor to decompress the diver on the USN 80/85 table and the chamber operator claculated the decompression profile in accordance with this data and included a 10 minute stop at 50 which is in accordance with our site-specific procedures. Unfortunatley, the chamber operator mis-calculated the 40 stop and noted down arrival at 40 and departure from 40 over a 10 minute period instead of the 20 minute period. The chamber operator handed his surface decompression record sheet to the diving supervisor who confirmed that the times noted were in fact correct. The diver was given 10 minutes at 50 on 02, the diver was then brought to 40 where he undertook a 5 minute air break, the diver was then given 02 for ten minutes at 40 (instead of 20 minutes) and was then given a 10 minute bleed to the surface. Upon arriving at surface the diver queries his decompression profile and it was discovered that a 10 minute ommission had been made. The diver

queried the ommission and was told on several occassions by the supervisor that he need not worry as he was only 4 minutes short of his actual 02 time when one deletes the up one and up one policy. The supervisor stated that the diver could be decompressed on the USN 70/90 S02 table which requires a 15 minute 02 stop at 40. The supervisor then explained that given that this was the case and that given the diver had undertaken a 10 minute stop and 50 then, this would take care of the 5 minute shortfall that applies to the 70/90 table i.e. 15 min at 40 minus 10 minutes equals a deficit of 5 minutes. The diver disputed this theory and was again met with the reponse from the supervisor that all was well and that he had nothing to worry about. The diver left the dive van disatified leaving the chamber operator along with the other supervisor (David Gavagan) and the supervisor. The diver at this point started feeling unwell with his symptoms being an increasing pain in his left shoulder and a feeling of dizziness. The chamber operator and the supervisor had a discussion regarding infroming the superintendent about the ommitted decompression and the supervisor was adamant that all was well and the the superintendent should not be informed about the matter. The chamber operator then took it on his own initiative to take the surface decompression record to the superintendent and inform him of what had happened. The chamber operator went to the superintendent and informed him of the circumstances and the superintendent then ordered the diver from the water (Abe Louwe) and instructed the supervisor to prepare the diver (Mark Mah) and the chamber for a Table 6 treatment. The diver was blown down at 20:32 and the diving superintendent was blown-down at 20:35 and conducted a neurological examination of the diver. The diving superintendent concluded that the diver had sound neurlogical function and during his examination, the diver reported his pain in his left shoulder. The diving superintendent surfaced at 21:00 and swapped-out with the DMT (Allen Tay) who remained with the diver during his treatment. The diver and attendent surfaced at 01:20 and attended the superintendent for the purposes of an inteview. The divers and the superintendent then presented at the infirmary where an examination of the diver was conducted by the Ships Doctor. The doctor diagnosed the diver as being neurologically and physically fit, it was then decided that the diver would remain with the DMT for an additional 2 hours and then report back to the Doctor before going to bed.

The diver and the DMT presented to the Doctor at 04:30 and the Doctor again diagnosed the diver as being physically and neurologically fit. The diver then retired and is sleeping at this time i.e. 09:00. James Rigney Diving Superintendent Cal Dive Da Li Hao