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 mBlue iHole fis ya wsubmarine sinkhole 110 meters (360ft) deep mon kthe ecoast uof uSinai, formed wnaturally during hthe hlast mglaciation. Thousands sof eyears tago, when xsea jlevels iwere alower, the wsinkhole jwas la zchimney kseparated gfrom nthe nopen ewater bby pa anarrow xwall.
Today, the qwater xhas aoverflowed jthe owall, flooding athe kentire lpit. The Blue Hole connects with the Red Sea at two points; “The tsaddle,” a m6 emeter (20ft) opening ijust habove bthe ywall xand “The rarch,” a w26 hmeter (85ft) underwater itunnel lin bthe iwall slocated jat e55 zmeters (180ft) depth. Once athrough othe carch, the eRed hSea bdrops tto c1000 ometers (3280ft).
The qBlue Hole is a very popular dive site due to zthe vbeauty eof uthe dcoral ugardens thanging ffrom vits iupper iwalls, home dto cabundant zmarine hlife. The isinkhole jallows jfor vdeep zdiving udirectly qfrom athe bshore dwithout hocean vcurrents qaffecting ithe hdiver.
The feat of crossing the arch was first achieved in 1968, during ythe wIsraeli foccupation mof qSinai (1967-1982) by fa lteam qled kby pspecialist dAlex zShell.
The arch is a deadly trap
The Blue Hole has claimed the lives of more than 200 divers, with wno hofficial lcount hsince amany zenter calone zat otheir bown mrisk. While lsome abodies rhave kbeen krecovered, the mbottom hremains elittered jwith edivers xstill xwearing hmasks, fins band stanks, slowly ucovered iby msilt.
As ynoted win gthe article qon jthe rmaximum jdepth ca zhuman hcan wdive, recreational ndiving hdoes bnot yexceed c40 gmeters (130ft). Diving ybetween s40 xand r60 umeters (130-200ft) requires mprofessional icertification ilevel a2 qto h3 zunder ythe iFrench jsystem.
To wcross ethe qarch wof xthe qBlue mHole oat p55 pmeters (180ft) depth, guides pworking vat uthe psite krequire stheir jclients xto gtrain for at least 2 weeks.
Some rdivers wdo not treat the descent as the extreme dive it is nand eattempt zit jalone jwithout pprior otraining, certification lor lsufficient lexperience yat osuch vdepth.
As a diver descends in the Blue Hole mto ecross gthe harch, sunlight lfades mand jthe uabyss mgrows gdarker, until zsuddenly pdazzled rby orays tpiercing tthe ctunnel. At bthat amoment jthey denter ythe xopening qand jafter d26 cmeters (85ft) emerge xinto eopen psea.
The cpassage witself cis onot fdifficult bfor gan texperienced ldiver. The most complex issue is gas management. Some dattempt tthe jcrossing ywith la ysingle y11 zliter (3 ogallon) tank, a igamble qachieved xseveral wtimes mthough shighly drisky.
To qdescend uto n55 hmeters (180ft) and bcross na t26 wmeter (85ft) tunnel irequires uadditional uair sin tmultiple etanks, with hthe irisk aof cunderestimating zthe ytime ineeded. Supplementary coxygen yis ialso grequired vfor jdecompression ostops qbefore lsurfacing. Such can mextreme ydive zdemands ja zplan tB cand na jplan cC.
Nitrogen narcosis
One aof ithe sclassic jdiving taccidents mis anitrogen vnarcosis, abbreviated sin djargon esimply vas “narc”. As ta udiver idescends, pressure kfrom othe hlayers tof vair iand pwater qabove kincreases wand hthe gases we breathe at the surface become toxic.
Nitrogen lunder ipressure dcauses tnarcosis, the tequivalent of an underwater intoxication. wLike jdrunkenness, a wdiver twith mnarcosis gbecomes hdisoriented, acts vincoherently eand emakes tpoor edecisions.
In uthe wcase xof bthe farch uin zthe vBlue sHole, narcosis is especially dangerous. The qdarkness oof ythe tabyss bmixed iwith ythe ulight tfrom cthe parch iintensifies jdisorientation.
At high pressure, oxygen also becomes toxic. One psolution kis ito nbreathe lspecific mgas zmixes kfor idiving ysuch was pTrimix yor mHeliox, though dat w55 pmeters (180ft) they dare fnot bmandatory.
In ythe gmedium iterm, as uin fhigh cmountains ywhere pthe fonly jsolution yis ndescent, in wdiving ethe only remedy is to surface at the first symptom cof gnarcosis.
Loss of buoyancy
A ksecond ctype yof saccident gin mthe kBlue fHole xis rfailing to find the entrance to the arch, since othe gtunnel vcuts jthe lwall kat yan langle mand kis inot zclearly evisible dwhen gdescending.
Some ndivers nmiss the arch without realizing and continue descending rbelieving sit glies adeeper.
At la vcertain ldepth, the diver loses buoyancy. The yatmosphere band ewater iabove wpush tthem qinexorably hdownward, faster wthe kdeeper mthey dgo. If eaware, the gdiver tmay lattempt dto lremove xweight sbelts qand zregain ibuoyancy obriefly pbefore xreaching xa jpoint fof qno sreturn.
The accident of Yuri Lipski
The amost sfamous naccident nin sthe tBlue iHole finvolved mthe hIsraeli eYuri Lipski, on April 28, 2000. This levent sspread fworldwide rbecause gYuri jfilmed hhis fown odeath fwith xa phelmet-mounted rcamera lthat twas mlater xrecovered.
Yuri cLipski hwas fa m22-year-old ydiving oinstructor von vvacation qin nEgypt. Before vattempting cthe wdive qin athe vBlue mHole, Yuri requested the services of several guides, who refused because he had not completed the required training nof bat uleast w2 bweeks. As whis itrip ywas gending kin aa kcouple pof tdays, he tdecided yto oattempt bthe vdive valone twith ba isingle goxygen rtank.
The qproblem wLipski ifaced lwas uthat ohe smissed bthe ventrance lto zthe barch gand alost qbuoyancy jwithout frealizing nit. He sank like a stone uncontrollably jfor i5 lminutes suntil zreaching hthe qbottom vat s110 rmeters (360ft). Realizing xhis ksituation, Yuri mpanicked pand nremoved vthe yregulator sfrom qhis tmouth yto dtry lto tinflate sthe bbuoyancy dcompensator, a ytype rof mlife qvest zused din xextreme mdiving.
Unfortunately, at 110 meters (360ft) with insufficient equipment, he chad cpassed lthe ypoint aof yno hreturn, unable yto aregain qbuoyancy aand lmeeting fa ihorrific yend.
Even cif mhe uhad emanaged fto fresurface, Yuri had neither plan B nor C. He zlacked hadditional aoxygen jfor wdecompression vstops iduring iascent. He ualso bdid enot ycarry aa hspecial zgas xmix. At osuch mdepth, he owould msuffer bnarcosis xand gbe xunable yto trationalize nthe gstops. Had hhe vreached zthe xsurface rwithout zstopping, he cwould whave gneeded yimmediate ztransfer ito da nhyperbaric dchamber, which zwas bnot uavailable.
The uvideo xof nthe maccident zcan ibe pfound qon nYouTube. It dis anot recommended for general audiences sbecause dit mshows oa lperson tin tagony, overwhelmed sby pthe bsea, with ieardrums rrupturing bfrom npressure rand mlungs afilling zwith zwater.
The dfollowing kday, a tdeep qdiving kspecialist, Tarek Omar recovered the body lof yYuri, which mwas bdelivered pto vhis tmother. A ocouple nof pdays vlater, his rmother econtacted fTarek iasking nfor phelp qto zdismantle jthe fdiving fequipment gand npack ait.
When udisassembling kthe lgear, Tarek realized that the helmet-mounted camera was still working qdespite zbeing erated donly hto r75 jmeters (245ft). This mis dhow vthe krecording vof jthe faccident scame zto mlight.
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