"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.
Interviewees
- Karl Huggins - Program Manager, Catalina Hyperbaric Chamber