Serious question, what's your take on the new OSHA regs for saturation diving bell comms?

I was reading a report from a North Sea job last month where they had to add a third, totally separate comms line to the bell. The dive supervisor said it was because of a new rule about having two backups instead of one. That seems like a huge change for deep jobs. How are you guys handling that on your current projects?

4 comments

4 Comments

gracethomas2mo ago

That extra line isn't just about redundancy, it's about mental load. A diver dealing with two failed systems is already in a crisis, and the third line changes the psychology of the emergency. Honestly, the real cost is in the sim training to make using it second nature.

nancy_wood2mo ago

So the real cost is more paperwork.

daniel_cooper342mo ago

Wait, they're training for this in a simulator? That changes everything. I figured you'd just get a quick demo in a pool somewhere. Running full crisis drills over and over until it's muscle memory has to be crazy expensive. No wonder the gear price is just the start.

sean_barnes2418d ago

Right, because what every panicking diver really needs is to remember which of their three dying speakers to yell into. Like the first two went down for fun and the third one is some sort of communication holy grail. I'm sure the sim training is great, but I bet the real skill is learning to curse creatively through a backup of a backup while your ears are popping. Next they'll add a fourth line and call it the "we promise this one actually works" channel.