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Permalink Reply by Aaron Jacques on May 6, 2009 at 8:57pm

I have to agree with regards to the wh*** lift bag thing. It seems that in the past year several divers have been dragged to surface by these things and there is no need for it.
Lift bags have a lot of stored potential energy and therefore must be respected and used correctly.
Trip lines on the tops of the bags are a start, at any depth, should be standard procedure as far as I'm concerned, and are in most places.
There are a couple of other things to look at as well...
The bag rigging itself should be inspected by a competent person on deck before it is sent subsea. If there is ANY damage don't use it. Also, and a lot of people overlook this one, the slings used to connect the bag to the job should be rated for the amount of lift the bag provides completely full. I've seen slings choked around pipe but don't forget...choking a sling, as opposed to basketing it, reduces it's safe working load by up to 50%.
Out here, and we use big lift bags on a daily basis, we have a checklist that the diver goes through with the supervisor before even inflating the bag. It's all recorded on tape too, just in case.
Diver says out loud all the checks, puts his hand on each item as he does it so the camera can see it, and then starts to inflate the bag. 50% full to start and make sure nothing has changed then carry on with approval from the Supervisor.
If used correctly and respected for thier potential for doing harm there should never be another diver fatality due to lift bags.
Dive safe.

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Permalink Reply by A.. Parnell on May 10, 2009 at 10:44am

Plane and simple. Time under pressure equals= risk.
Especially when using lift bags you really have to make sure your clear of everything before you start putting air to them. That is make real sure your self your air hoses arent going to drag you to the surface once they begin to inflate and take off to the surface. Airbags and rigging straps do break and when (not if) the load comes back down you want to know where that will be so you can be out of the way. Know your gear before you start take a good look at the workings of the bags on the surface first.

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Permalink Reply by igor on May 13, 2009 at 8:03pm

well i agree with all that , you got to know what you are doing , and you should never trust the load calculations cose the moust of time engenieers are wrong and than you do have mud suction and if diver dosent know what he is doing we do have problem ,and the diver that will fill the bag , the same diver should do rigging and not the diver 2 hours ago thats how mistakes are made thanks and good luck

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