"Dive Bombed", Way to Die #713, is the second death to be featured in "Hard Lives, Easy Deaths", which aired on May 21, 2008.
Plot[]
Richard Paxon and his two pals had been exploring the reefs by Cabo San Lucas for the last three days. They decided to squeeze in one last dive before heading home. After an hour at 45 feet, the divers made their way back to the surface, making sure to come up slowly enough to safely release nitrogen gas stored up in their bloodstreams. After spending hours in the decompression chambers in Catalina Island, Richard was eager to get home. So they got in an aircraft. Unfortunately, he forgot one of the cardinal rules of diving: Never dive and fly the same day. As soon as the unpressurized plane climbed out and reached its cruising altitude of 12,000 feet, Richard and his friends began to feel the first symptoms of decompression sickness (commonly known as "the bends"). With Richard at the controls of the plane, but losing control of his mind and body, it was the all-time worst case scenario. The three men, incapacitated by the bends, could only watch in horror as their plane augured straight into a mountainside, and crashed, killing Richard and his pals thus reuniting in heaven.
Transcript[]
(The intro card begins with "Way to die #713", [] is playing)
Narrator: The passengers in this twin-engine Cessna are about to die. Cause of death:
(The plane crashes into a mountainside, but rewinds from the airfield, the drum plays)
Narrator: not what you think. If we back up to the beginning of the story, it certainly not how these 3 friends thought their day or lives would end.
(3 friends on the boat, having fun diving, [] is playing)
Narrator: Richard Paxon and his two pals had been exploring the reefs by Cabo San Lucas for the last three days. They decided to squeeze in one last dive before heading home. After an hour at 45 feet, the divers made their way back to the surface, making sure to come up slowly enough to safely release nitrogen gas doored up in their bloodstreams.
([] is playing)
Narrator: Decompression sickness commonly referred to as the bends. Poses a serious threat to anyone who scuba dives.
(Die Science 12v1 is playing, the hyperbaric chamber gauges and the river are shown)
Narrator: Catalina Island houses the largest hyperbaric chamber in Southern California. Hyperbaric comes from the word "Hyper", meaning above normal. And baric meaning of pressure. If a diver is suffering from the bends, he's brought here for treatment.
Karl Huggins: What decompression sickness is, it's normally called the bends, as you go down under water, breathing air of the scuba cylinder, the air in the tank has about 80% nitrogen, and so the deeper we go, and the longer we stay under water, the more of this nitrogen gets dissolved in the body. As we come up, if...the gas isn't released... slow enough,
(CGI blood vessel includes bubbles, red dots appear in the human body)
Karl Huggins: that gas can then come out the solution in the form of bubbles. What will happen is, you'll have bubbles that can form around the joints, and cause pain on the joint, you can have bubbles in pinging upon nerves, leading up sometime to full keratosis.
(3 friends go home, [] is playing)
Narrator: Richard was eager to get back into his new toy. A present he gave himself for getting his sonification the flying a twin-engine aircraft. And his excitement, he forgot one of the cardinal rules of diving: Never dive and fly the same day.
(They fly off)
Narrator: As soon as the unpressurized plane climbed out and reached its cruising altitude of 12,000 feet, Richard and his friends began to feel the first symptoms of DCS (Decompression sickness).
Karl Huggins: The higher the altitude, the higher the probability to developing decompression sickness, probably the worst scenario would be something called the vestibular hit. Where bubbles form a balance mechanism to ear, and you end up which is severe er... nausea severe, um... vertigo, or dizziness. It's really a bad idea to fly, falling to die, yeah.
(3 friends lose consciousness, [] is playing)
Narrator: With Richard at the controls of the plane, but losing control of his mind and body,
(The plane falls)
Narrator: it was the all-time worst case scenario. The three men, incapacitated by the bends, could only watch in horror as their plane augured straight into a mountainside.
(The plane crashes and explodes; After the deathcard, the trivia, [] is playing)
Narrator: 1870, New York City. During construction of the Brooklyn Bridge, workers came down with a mysterious melody known as caissons disease (Other name for decompression sickness). The workers would come back to the surface and double over in severe pain. Leaving many crippled and some dead. They were suffering from a newly diagnosed illness: the bends (Another name for decompression name).
Cast & Interviewees[]
- Cass Asher - Richard Paxton (Lead; Intended victim)
- Karl Huggins - Himself (Program Manager, Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber)
Trivia[]
- This is based off of many deaths by plane crashes, like Roberto Clemente.
- In the German Version the death number is shown at the beginning with an alternative title.
- This is the very first death in the series to end with every single person dying in it.
- This also marks the first time where more than one person has died in one segment.
- This is the first segment airing with 700's (#700-#799).
- Just like Fur Burger, the death number is shown both at the beginning and at the end of this death.
Segment Nicknames[]
- High Die
Foreign Names[]
- Tauchertod Im Flieger (Diving Death On A Plane) - German dub
- Böse Luftnummer (Evil Air Number) - Alternative German Title
- Lot nurkowy (Diving Flight) - Polish voice-over
- Estrellados por Bucear (Crashed for Diving) - Latin American Spanish dub
- Buceo a Profundidad (Deep Diving) - Mexican Spanish dub
- Bomba de Buceo (Diving Bomb) - European Spanish dub
Gallery[]
