In May 2002, Martin Blackley, a 26-year-old marine, was home in the UK on sick leave. His friend, James Bell, asked him to help clear out his father's 50-foot-deep fish pond. Unqualified to undertake the dive, Blackley became entangled in a sock rope within a salmon cage and drowned. According to Desmond Leslie who presided over the case, "This project was ill-fated from its inception. The safe systems of work designed to prevent an occurrence of this nature were disregarded at every level of the operation. The approach taken was casual in the extreme." Over-reaction? Hardly. Leslie's words appear to be an understatement, as the dive operation had:
- an inadequate number of dive members for the activity;
- unexperienced people overseeing the dive;
- inadequate equipment;
- failed to undertake a risk assessment;
- no two-way communication system between staff;
- no emergency oxygen;
- and, in fact, no real dive plan whatsoever.
