Why did Jones reject his own equipment? That's what the experts struggled to understand as they examined his gear.
One investigator found a powder caked on the interior surfaces that could have been soda lime, residual cleaning solution, or possibly salt. The powder may have produced a taste in Jones' mouth and led him to think he was about to get a "caustic cocktail," the common diver's term for the chemical burns in the mouth and lungs that occur when water gets into the loop and soda lime leaks out of its canister. It's a terrifying prospect, and may have led Jones to bail out before he got burned.
Photo: Underwater Admiralty Sciences
Zak Jones, who died Thanksgiving Day 2005.
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Whatever happened, it was time to go to the backup systems. In parachuting terms, Jones' primary had failed, and with the ground rapidly approaching, he needed to pull the emergency chute. Trouble was, he didn't have one.
Rebreather users usually bring along a couple of "bailout bottles" with breathable gases for different levels on their dive. If a diver gets into trouble near the surface, he has a bottle with the appropriate oxygen levels for that depth. And if he gets into trouble farther down, he has another bottle with gases for the deeper water. But Jones didn't bring a bottle appropriate for the nearly 200-foot depth he dived to. And the bottle he brought didn't have a regulator—a device, including a mouthpiece, that allows divers to suck out the bottle's contents as needed.
It's a stunningly simple mistake for a diver of Jones' experience and safety record. While he was making preparations on the boat and while he was descending, he would have had a difficult time not noticing that his lifesaving device had no regulator. Perhaps, in his typical raring desire to get into the water, Jones had inadvertently picked up the wrong bottle at some point and, when he prepared for the dive, recognized the error but wanted to dive anyway. Divers say this kind of mistake does happen sometimes, but it's practically suicide.
While it's tempting to conclude that Zak Jones was just another rebreather fanatic who was killed by his own bravado, there's a troubling fact that clouds that picture. Before his gear was transferred to the Miami-Dade medical examiner's office, it was sent to the Pro Dive International shop, according to a police report.
Experts consulted in the case are concerned that if Pro Dive had access to Jones' gear, the gross mishandling of the chain of possession in a death investigation seems plain. In a small and close-knit industry, concern over bad press for expensive equipment presents a temptation that police should never have made a possibility.
However, police spokesperson Bobby Williams later stated the report was in error and Pro Dive never had possession of the equipment.
Putting down recent rebreather deaths to human error overlooks problems with the technology itself, says Robert Mester, a Seattle-area marine consultant who dived with Jones on the team that recovered the Boeing B-17 in Canada.
"I have buried three friends who died while using rebreathers," he says. Rebreathers provide such a small margin of error that divers may lose consciousness before they are even aware there's a problem.
"The [rebreather] industry as a whole seems ill-financed and very fragmented," says Mester, "with not enough research and development to ensure that rebreathers meet all diving needs under a wide variety of situations and circumstances."
Indeed, the industry may not be waiting around for outsiders, such as government agencies, to force them to take a harder look at safety. Richard Vann of the Diver's Alert Network made a presentation to rebreather manufacturers, training agencies, and other industry experts on Nov. 7 at an annual conference not open to the public or the media. He says he focused on the increase in the number of deaths and what standards could be introduced to ensure that after an accident, equipment examinations are made by qualified, impartial investigators.
Zak's widow, Robyn Jones, who has since moved back to Seattle, isn't settling for the answers experts have given. Her Fort Lauderdale attorney, Joseph Slama, says she is preparing a lawsuit but refuses to disclose anything about it. Robyn Jones declined to comment for this article but told police she referred to Zak's rebreather as "the Black Death" and was uneasy whenever her husband used it.
Pro Dive's chief executive officer, Frank Gernert, turned down multiple requests for an interview, citing legal concerns. He has also banned diving with rebreathers from any of his vessels.
In honor of his son, David Jones is diving more than ever now, he says—and doing it for free, courtesy of Pro Dive. "They're just being nice," Jones says. "I'm part of the family."
The elder Jones says he doesn't blame Pro Dive or anyone else for Zak's death. "I'd like to think it was equipment failure. But it was the first time he spearfished in Florida. He got a large fish. He could have gotten excited. I don't think anybody else was responsible."
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A version of this story first appeared in the New Times Broward–Palm Beach. Additional reporting by Mike Seely, Brian Miller and Mark D. Fefer
