Bill McFaden had logged close to 40 dives in Little Dismal Sink with 15 of them to deeper depths. Overall, he had logged over 150 cave dive dives since becoming certified during August 1987. He had performed many cave dives at Cheryl Sink and Sullivan Sink proving to everyone who had dived with he was a skilled cave diver. However, some people would say too much too soon. There was a small minority who harshly criticized this dive but then weakness of the emotional mind would dictate this flaw. Couch potato quarterbacking has always existed when accidents occur.
Today, cave diving has changed so much since 1988. No one would conceive or allow this dive to take place unless using mix gas or perhaps using rebreathers. During the 1970’s and 1980’s, it was a mad rush of exploration all around North Florida. For the majority, there were those who simply wanted to dive and enjoy. For a minority, exploration was the only driving force. When a cave went deep it was understood the risk when breathing on air. Some cave divers could handle depth better than others. Yes, there were cave diving fatalities involving depth and all were human error. There were cave divers whose exploration goals included very deep dives and the growing education and use of mix gasses was becoming more and more prevalent.
This accident was the first certified cave diver fatality in seven years plus. It was roughly calculated that nearly 150,000 safe cave dives amongst 2000+ cave divers were performed during that period of time. Statistically, it was an impressive safety record whether you considered it good training or just plain luck. At that same time, less than 20 trained cave divers had died in accidents. During the 1990’s to this present time, the number has quadrupled but so has the range expanding beyond the State of Florida including the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Mexico and South America of the Western Hemisphere. The number of cave divers trained and certified has multiplied by 30 fold as there are numerous more training agencies offering cave diving training and certification. In addition, there are hundreds of people who travel from Australia, Asia, Europe and other destinations to experience these cave diving areas. One death is one too many. From a statistical viewpoint, for the number of people participating in cave diving, the safety record still remains a remarkable achievement.
The question remained would this accident jeopardize the access to this dive site and several other sinkholes in the area? This was no sneak