This is one of the dumbest things I’ve read in a long time:

The investigation determined that Hill and Duque had not been drinking before their fatal dive. One of their untrained tenders reported having one beer, while another reported drinking three beforehand.

“The problem here was that the recreational activity was taking place at the same time as an operational activity that involves risk and specialized training,” Wurster said.

“It was the combination of the two things that lends an air to the whole accident event,” he said.

The Healy was sailing through the Arctic with about 35 scientists to collect data that would help them map the ocean floor. Hill was the ship’s dive officer, as well as the liaison between the scientists and the crew.

As is generally the case in these things, everything went wrong, and just one thing going right would have saved them. How could a ship’s dive officer be so stupid as to overload with unjettisonable weights? At least, unless they were on a mix, they probably narced out pretty quickly at that depth and temperature, at which point they were feeling no pain.