Yuri Lipski: The Blue Hole Incident Explained
Before I start, let me preface this article by saying that it does in no way aim to attack the victim or anyone related to this incident. The main purpose of this article is to understand what happened and what different choices/precautions should have been taken. Condolences to the whole family, relatives, and friends of the victim.
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The death of Yuri Lipski is a notable incident in the diving industry because the whole incident has been filmed. To this day, you can still find the footage on YouTube.
Before getting into all the details, let me give an overview of the incident: On April 28th, 2000, Yuri Lipski, a Russian diving instructor wanted to beat his own depth record during a bounce dive in the Blue Hole, in Dahab, Egypt on the coast of the Sinai peninsula. He took a camera with him to film his accomplishment. However, he was unprepared and untrained for this kind of depth; taking only one tank of gas suspected to be air and overweighting himself. Past a certain depth, there was no hope for him to ever get back to the surface: He sunk to his demise and was never able to reach the surface. In the video, we can hear him trying to inflate his BCD, but to no avail. This takes place in a span of 7 minutes.
Another diver, Tarek Omar, more familiar with the Blue Hole and technical diving as a whole, seemingly tried to dissuade Yuri from doing this bounce dive, but to no avail. He would then be the one to go on and recover his body at a depth of 115m (377 feet), along with the camera, surprisingly intact although only being rated for a depth of 75m (246 feet).
Bounce dives
A bounce dive is a type of dive that minimizes bottom time to reduce ensuing decompression time. In practice, the diver is going to descend to the intended depth and ascend right back up to the surface. It is called that because it looks like the diver "bounces" from the bottom back to the surface.
While not inherently dangerous if done properly (respecting descent/ascent time, taking stages for redundancy, etc...) the nature of bounce dives invites inexperienced/unqualified divers to go deeper than they should to beat their own max depth record: this can lead to uncontrolled situations.
The Blue Hole
The Blue Hole can be found on the east coast of the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt as marked in the map below. It is in the Gulf of Aqaba, a part of the Red Sea.
The dive spot itself is a big sinkhole accessible from shore starting at a knee-deep water level, until the drop to the actual hole, where it reaches depths upwards of 100m (328 feet). Starting at a depth of 55m (180 feet), an underwater tunnel can be found, which connects the Blue Hole to the open ocean. This tunnel is known as "The arch"
Although it is usually the attempt to pass through The Arch that makes this spot a treacherous dive, the Incident concerning Yuri Lipski has nothing to do with this Arch.
The Video
The video starts like a normal diving video, Yuri is already submerged (still shallow) adjusting his camera, adding a red filter, and making sure everything is set up for the dive. The video shows the date and the time of recording: It is 5 PM on the 28th of April 2000. The light is still shining at this time of day as we can see the blue sky and the sun shining through the surface.
As Yuri starts his descent, around 2 minutes into the video, everything seems to be normal and nothing special really happens.
Around 4 and a half minutes into the video, most of the light is gone, we can assume the depth to be between 50 and 60 meters (164-196 feet) at this point. 5 minutes into the video, it is completely dark.
At 5min 37s, Yuri flashes his dive computer to the camera, revealing a depth of 81m (265 feet).
We start seeing a rocky/sandy bottom but it looks like Yuri is still descending, indicating that it may be more of a slope/wall than a horizontal base.
A few seconds later, Yuri flashes his computer for the second and last time, indicating a depth of 91.6m of depth.
We can then hear him try to inflate his BCD, sadly without success. Shortly after that, we can hear Yuri shuffling and fidgeting with the camera, finally dropping it to the ground, supposedly to help him gain some positive buoyancy. We then have a first cut to about a minute later, when the camera lying still in the sand, where we can still hear Yuri's breath and his computer beeping.
The next cut skips over to 5 days later, on the 3rd of May 2000, where we see a very quick shot of what we can suppose to be the recovery team inspecting the camera.
Interpretations and learning from the incident
Incidents such as those, although tragic, make us realize that diving is not a risk-free hobby and safety should be taken seriously. I like to learn from mistakes to make sure they aren't repeated; therefore, this is a list of points that this particular event teaches us:
Mastering your buoyancy is key
From a more basic perspective, mastering your buoyancy is important because it will prevent you from popping back up to the surface or from scraping the reef/coral under you.
From an advanced perspective, you should know how each piece of equipment that you take with you on your dive will affect your buoyancy. Yuri's camera, for instance, might have further decreased his buoyancy and contributed to his fatal uncontrolled descent.
In any case, a good buoyancy is the backbone of a good dive and should not be overlooked.
Using more tanks and different breathing gases
At a depth of 100m, a diver would use 11 times more air than he does on the surface, which is an insane increase. Generally, dives below 40m are considered technical and require at least (if not more) one additional stage. To sink to 100m with a single backmount as your only air supply is synonymous with death. Not only does the amount of air matter but if there is a regulator/first-stage malfunction, you would need an additional tank + regulator set altogether.
It is also suspected that Yuri was using air for his bounce dive. This is would have resulted in him suffering from severe nitrogen narcosis at that kind of depth. This would have strongly inhibited his rational thinking and decision-making.
Redundancy is king
As I have covered before, it would have been essential to have at least one additional air source for such depth, but an additional buoyancy device such as a lift bag might have also saved Yuri's life.
This is a grim reminder that redundancy can save your life: even for a regular dive, it is always a good idea to have some essential equipment twice if you are able to take it with you (secondary mask, knife, etc...).
Follow guidelines
When divers acquire a new certificate to go further and/or deeper, the topics that are usually taught are the protocols and action plans to follow if something goes wrong. This is what differentiates a diver who is certified to go to 100m from a diver who is not.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, it is crucial to remember that guidelines exist for a reason. Yuri, being an instructor, might have been overconfident and exceeded his capabilities. Nature should be respected and a force to be reckoned with.
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