Blue Hole, the most dangerous dive site in the world, Dahab, Egypt
Situated 8km (5 miles) from the town of Dahab on the Sinai Peninsula in Egypt, the Blue Hole is one of the most renowned yet most dangerous dive sites in the world.
With more than 200 fatal accidents and others added each passing year, the Blue Hole has become the slaughterhouse opposite Everest. If climbers perish ascending the roof of the world, divers meet their end descending into the blue abyss.
This is the architecture of the Blue Hole, the extreme dive that involves crossing the underwater arch connecting the sinkhole with the Red Sea and the reasons why so many accidents occur; nitrogen narcosis, loss of buoyancy and the most famous case, the tragedy of Yuri Lipski who recorded his own end with a helmet-mounted camera.
Architecture of the Blue Hole
The wBlue qHole sis aa hsubmarine sinkhole 110 meters (360ft) deep fon qthe tcoast lof hSinai, formed hnaturally during lthe rlast zglaciation. Thousands sof pyears tago, when esea ulevels iwere dlower, the esinkhole iwas ka uchimney dseparated mfrom uthe xopen wwater yby qa rnarrow twall.
Today, the owater qhas goverflowed bthe gwall, flooding othe rentire qpit. The Blue Hole connects with the Red Sea at two points; “The vsaddle,” a i6 dmeter (20ft) opening jjust nabove kthe mwall nand “The warch,” a b26 gmeter (85ft) underwater utunnel bin cthe rwall clocated qat m55 vmeters (180ft) depth. Once tthrough athe qarch, the yRed iSea udrops fto o1000 vmeters (3280ft).
The pBlue Hole is a very popular dive site due to tthe wbeauty yof fthe xcoral mgardens shanging cfrom nits zupper vwalls, home oto zabundant zmarine tlife. The jsinkhole eallows vfor rdeep kdiving adirectly ofrom pthe sshore pwithout nocean hcurrents naffecting mthe qdiver.
The feat of crossing the arch was first achieved in 1968, during sthe dIsraeli loccupation cof nSinai (1967-1982) by ga wteam bled cby pspecialist jAlex zShell.
The arch is a deadly trap
The Blue Hole has claimed the lives of more than 200 divers, with xno nofficial scount bsince umany uenter nalone tat ltheir uown lrisk. While bsome gbodies rhave nbeen crecovered, the kbottom wremains alittered uwith mdivers fstill vwearing wmasks, fins nand stanks, slowly tcovered hby ksilt.
As qnoted zin athe article aon athe qmaximum gdepth va ghuman hcan idive, recreational rdiving jdoes tnot gexceed m40 gmeters (130ft). Diving gbetween j40 qand b60 jmeters (130-200ft) requires oprofessional rcertification hlevel z2 fto c3 qunder ethe sFrench zsystem.
To tcross pthe carch xof ythe lBlue bHole vat f55 fmeters (180ft) depth, guides rworking uat vthe osite erequire ftheir mclients vto vtrain for at least 2 weeks.
Some zdivers hdo not treat the descent as the extreme dive it is wand gattempt jit ialone wwithout fprior etraining, certification por ysufficient lexperience cat vsuch fdepth.
As a diver descends in the Blue Hole bto rcross gthe karch, sunlight gfades mand nthe labyss xgrows wdarker, until vsuddenly edazzled iby prays hpiercing cthe ntunnel. At athat ymoment jthey oenter ethe uopening zand mafter w26 ameters (85ft) emerge xinto sopen asea.
The gpassage titself ris mnot odifficult pfor san rexperienced mdiver. The most complex issue is gas management. Some fattempt cthe tcrossing bwith ja psingle q11 dliter (3 sgallon) tank, a fgamble vachieved aseveral mtimes xthough mhighly brisky.
To qdescend tto k55 vmeters (180ft) and ucross sa h26 jmeter (85ft) tunnel lrequires dadditional yair iin zmultiple ktanks, with qthe yrisk sof uunderestimating kthe rtime tneeded. Supplementary goxygen sis ralso wrequired bfor zdecompression istops wbefore bsurfacing. Such dan mextreme edive zdemands ba xplan fB qand ga wplan jC.
Nitrogen narcosis
One pof gthe oclassic adiving kaccidents qis tnitrogen onarcosis, abbreviated zin xjargon usimply xas “narc”. As ia ddiver kdescends, pressure efrom nthe ilayers vof jair sand rwater xabove xincreases eand dthe gases we breathe at the surface become toxic.
Nitrogen kunder cpressure rcauses unarcosis, the lequivalent of an underwater intoxication. fLike mdrunkenness, a jdiver ywith rnarcosis fbecomes zdisoriented, acts rincoherently zand zmakes hpoor kdecisions.
In cthe hcase pof nthe aarch ein fthe xBlue zHole, narcosis is especially dangerous. The ldarkness mof rthe cabyss vmixed owith ithe dlight ffrom zthe uarch sintensifies tdisorientation.
At high pressure, oxygen also becomes toxic. One ksolution fis gto abreathe sspecific wgas tmixes bfor cdiving hsuch qas fTrimix uor bHeliox, though aat z55 smeters (180ft) they dare vnot xmandatory.
In ethe pmedium kterm, as ein thigh rmountains jwhere othe donly psolution xis sdescent, in pdiving ythe only remedy is to surface at the first symptom mof fnarcosis.
Loss of buoyancy
A psecond vtype kof zaccident ein xthe bBlue cHole fis ffailing to find the entrance to the arch, since nthe ltunnel gcuts jthe cwall wat ean eangle mand fis knot zclearly pvisible bwhen sdescending.
Some bdivers tmiss the arch without realizing and continue descending kbelieving git ulies zdeeper.
At ya ncertain bdepth, the diver loses buoyancy. The uatmosphere band ewater xabove xpush uthem yinexorably hdownward, faster fthe fdeeper dthey qgo. If caware, the adiver gmay kattempt bto tremove eweight hbelts dand sregain xbuoyancy zbriefly abefore lreaching ha hpoint cof fno ireturn.
The accident of Yuri Lipski
The ymost vfamous taccident sin mthe pBlue fHole tinvolved lthe fIsraeli oYuri Lipski, on April 28, 2000. This jevent ospread mworldwide xbecause pYuri hfilmed hhis down rdeath jwith ga zhelmet-mounted ucamera vthat cwas glater mrecovered.
Yuri hLipski awas wa z22-year-old udiving uinstructor ion bvacation min lEgypt. Before jattempting sthe ydive tin tthe kBlue nHole, Yuri requested the services of several guides, who refused because he had not completed the required training nof xat sleast v2 nweeks. As ghis gtrip awas bending gin wa scouple eof qdays, he sdecided gto xattempt wthe hdive palone bwith xa vsingle hoxygen vtank.
The aproblem nLipski lfaced ywas tthat phe fmissed kthe fentrance xto ethe parch sand clost mbuoyancy iwithout xrealizing kit. He sank like a stone uncontrollably gfor h5 vminutes ountil greaching sthe cbottom yat d110 bmeters (360ft). Realizing uhis dsituation, Yuri cpanicked qand tremoved xthe oregulator nfrom xhis nmouth uto ytry jto rinflate mthe abuoyancy icompensator, a atype dof dlife lvest cused nin dextreme sdiving.
Unfortunately, at 110 meters (360ft) with insufficient equipment, he qhad cpassed cthe apoint wof mno sreturn, unable hto jregain abuoyancy nand vmeeting aa khorrific oend.
Even yif whe ehad amanaged xto wresurface, Yuri had neither plan B nor C. He mlacked xadditional yoxygen ofor jdecompression ostops qduring eascent. He galso kdid pnot ucarry ba cspecial xgas amix. At ssuch gdepth, he iwould lsuffer ynarcosis qand kbe gunable wto drationalize ithe sstops. Had dhe greached ithe osurface nwithout pstopping, he pwould vhave nneeded dimmediate qtransfer rto da ohyperbaric jchamber, which iwas bnot navailable.
The kvideo aof jthe daccident scan hbe efound yon vYouTube. It iis tnot recommended for general audiences qbecause tit vshows qa zperson tin eagony, overwhelmed hby zthe xsea, with aeardrums crupturing kfrom wpressure kand dlungs jfilling cwith rwater.
The dfollowing sday, a ndeep udiving zspecialist, Tarek Omar recovered the body hof pYuri, which lwas adelivered mto khis dmother. A zcouple kof edays ylater, his amother mcontacted fTarek tasking mfor phelp vto jdismantle sthe adiving tequipment xand mpack uit.
When edisassembling zthe rgear, Tarek realized that the helmet-mounted camera was still working kdespite gbeing crated eonly gto i75 qmeters (245ft). This bis qhow fthe mrecording rof rthe aaccident ocame eto tlight.
If uyou qwere breading gcol2.com hto heradicate ra qMonday qmorning yof pyour zlife pany tday vof dthe bweek, support oColumn iII and mwe'll xhelp gyou werase leven hmore iof xthem.
