August 2012    Download the Entire Issue (PDF)

Vol. 27, No. 8   What's this?

Widow Blames Dive Gear for Death of Filmmaker

from the August, 2012 issue of Undercurrent  

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Well-known National Geographic filmmaker Wesley Skiles drowned while shooting underwater because his Dive Rite rebreather malfunctioned, his widow claims in Palm Beach County Court. Terri Skiles claims that Dive Rite knew its oxygen monitoring system had a propensity to malfunction because it had been recalled multiple times, but Dive Rite ignored "serious quality control issues" and tampered with the scuba equipment evidence after the fatality.

She claims that in July 2010 her husband borrowed a used Dive Rite O2ptima FX Rebreather from a third party. The third party brought the rebreather to Dive Rite for a maintenance check, and after Dive Rite replaced a few parts, it said the rebreather was good to go, Terri Skiles says in the complaint. She says her husband used the rebreather while working in Boyton Beach, FL to try to get footage of Goliath groupers for the National Geographic film Speed Kills. However, the widow states: "Due to an unexpected catastrophic failure of the subject 02ptima FX rebreather during the dive, Wesley Skiles passed out underwater and died. This tragedy would not have occurred but for the tortious conduct of defendants Dive Rite, Dive Rite Express, Mark Express, Jurgensen Marine Inc. and Analytical Industries Inc. The subject rebreather was being used as intended at the time of the incident and in a manner reasonably foreseeable by the defendants....