That was an excellent article indeed...
There was a 'near-miss' incident on a night dive I was on at Truk Lagoon in 2012 that is a good example of this... had Coroner's Report written all over it.
A female diver (who I will call Red) in her mid-50's supposedly quite experienced with lots of brand new expensive goodies takes similarly aged but VERY inexperienced OW partner to Truk Lagoon. What could possibly go wrong?
During the day dives he was obviously struggling with basic techniques, bouyancy and air consumption... very unsure UW.
To assist high air consumption the local DM just strapped a large pony bottle to him mounted crosswise which led to a repeated series of 'clangs' ringing out inside the wrecks as he was unsure of his new width when negotiating narrow spaces. He was also quite overweight and unfit, frequently red faced. The inexperienced diver was needlessly stressed and well out of his comfort zone at Truk IMO.
Red was the opposite... she "knew the owner" of the dive shop organising the tour, was training to be a DM and obviously thought herself quite a dive legend despite not knowing how half her brand new gear worked!
A night dive on one of the larger wrecks was planned, we were told again and again NOT to penetrate the wreck
6 divers and one local DM... all with primary torches and backup torches. As no penetration was planned and the dives were to be quite shallow so no additional air was deemed necessary.
All divers in the water OK, assembled and descended without incident.
Followed DM along the wreck, I was toward the rear... however Red decided she liked the look of the bridge and entered it. Alone.
She then turned off her torch to 'feel the solitude' we found out later.
DM turns for routine headcount check, only sees 5 lights and circles back immediately to locate missing diver.
My buddy and I wave our torches and point to where Red entered the wreck.
DM enters wreck and is understandably rather agitated with Red who by this time has turned her torch back on, but can't seem to fathom why everyone is pissed off.
Confusion reigns, rest of divers then follow DM into wreck, filling the fairly small wheelhouse, viz plummets due to careless finning in confined space.
NOW... for some reason DM decides to continue into wreck single file down narrow companionways where my shoulders are bumping the walls and the reg's yoke occasionally hits some overhead objects. I'm last in line and viz is down to about 3m in cave-silt conditions.
My stress levels are rising, but at least we are making progress through the wreck... but we come to a T junction.
DM pauses obviously thinking "now was it LEFT or RIGHT?"
Stress levels through the roof now, air use increasing only 80 BAR left and we are still inside the wreck!
Suddenly we burst through the lower deck below the bridge and out into open water past the twisted gantries... heart pounding HARD
I have never been so relieved to be underwater on a wreck in the moonlight... a close call.
When tackled after the dive Red couldn't understand all the anger and commotion... maintaining it was her call to enter the wreck and she would have caught up with the others very soon
The local DM could not speak very good English and so the explanation as to why he chose to go deeper into the wreck instead of leading the whole group out of the wheelhouse and back to the planned EXTERNAL night dive was unclear. Perhaps because the new divers arriving blocked the original two divers from exiting easily.
Unfortunately I heard of several similar incidents at Truk Lagoon... tech divers diving beyond their capabilities or people ticking off a lifetime Dive Truk Bucket List long after they should have hung up their fins.
I still get cold sweats just thinking about it...