Yuri Lipski
A notable death was that of Yuri Lipski, a 22-year-old Russian diving instructor on 28 April 2000 at a depth of 115 metres after an uncontrolled descent. Yuri carried a video camera, which filmed his death. This has made it the best kno…
Yuri Lipski
A notable death was that of Yuri Lipski, a 22-year-old Russian diving instructor on 28 April 2000 at a depth of 115 metres after an uncontrolled descent. Yuri carried a video camera, which filmed his death. This has made it the best known death at the site and one of the best known diving deaths in the world.
The video shows Yuri in an involuntary and uncontrolled descent, eventually landing on the sea floor at 115 metres where he panics, removes his regulator and tries to fill his buoyancy compensator but is unable to rise.
At 115 m he would have been subject to severe nitrogen narcosis, which may have impaired his judgement, induced hallucinations and caused panic and confusion. Lipski had a single tank assumed to be air.
Lipski's body was recovered the following day by Tarek Omar, one of the world's foremost deep-water divers, at the request of Lipski's mother. Omar had earlier twice warned Lipski against attempting the dive. On the bottom, Omar found Lipski's helmet camera, still intact.
The video it contained is available on YouTube, entitled "Fatal Diving Accident Caught On Tape". Omar says:
Two days after we recovered his remains and gave [his mother] his belongings and equipment, she came to me asking that I help her disassemble them so she can pack them. The camera should have been damaged or even broken altogether because I had found it at a depth of 115 metres, and it is only designed to sustain 75 metres; but, to my surprise, the camera was still working. We played it and his mother was there.
I regret that his mother will have this forever... If I had known the footage existed I’d have flooded it. I think the thing that really upset and saddened me about it was that his mom has it now – she has the footage of her own son drowning.
— Tarek Omar
