Why
In aviation, every incident is investigated and published — that is a large part of why flying is safe. In freediving, accidents too often remain stories told on the beach: impossible to search, compare or learn from at scale. This database turns them into structured records — standardized conditions, causes and outcomes — so the community stops repeating the same mistakes: hyperventilation before a dive, diving alone, a weight belt never ditched, “one more attempt” on an exhausted body.
Principles
- Open cases with names. Every case names the diver involved, the way aviation reports name their flights. Unnamed cases are not accepted.
- Sources. Every case states where it comes from: a link to a news story, report or publication — or the first-hand account of a witness or the diver.
- Submitter anonymity. You may submit a case without giving your own name; it is then attributed to an “anonymous user”.
- Moderation. Every submission is reviewed before publication for completeness, plausibility and sourcing.
- Open data. The whole database is available as JSON under CC BY 4.0 — use it in research, courses and articles with attribution.
What counts as an incident
Any adverse event while diving on breath-hold — freediving, spearfishing, snorkeling or breath-hold games: blackout at depth or at the surface, loss of motor control, lung squeeze, ear and sinus barotrauma, decompression sickness, drowning, entanglement, hypothermia, boat strikes, cardiac events in the water. Near-misses are just as valuable as tragedies — they carry the same lessons at a lower price.
Where the data comes from
Two streams. The editorial seed: well-documented public cases (news coverage, federation and DAN reports, interviews) added with source links. And community submissions through the report form — from witnesses, teammates or the divers themselves, under their name or anonymously.
Limitations
The database reflects what is documented and submitted — it is not complete world statistics, and growth in yearly entries means growing coverage, not necessarily growing accident rates. Contributing factors are reported by people, not determined by an investigation board. The database is no substitute for freediving education or medical advice.