Diving Thoughts

Marcus Lim, a doctor in Singapore and a well-known underwater photographer died on a rebreather dive on the Seven Skies wreck at Pulau Aur in Malaysia.

Some more information here and here.

In June Dave Watson was convicted of manslaughter in Queensland. This followed the death of his wife in October 2003 on a diving holiday which was their honeymoon. The Queensland coroner felt that it was likely that Mr. Watson had turned his wife’s air off and held her under water until she died and felt there was a strong case to charge him with murder. Instead Mr. Watson pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was jailed for 4.5 years.

The Alabama Attorney General has said that he plans to bring a murder charge against Mr. Watson when he returns to the US after serving his sentence in Australia. There is a bit of a legal grey area, as the US has a “double jeopardy” rule which prevents an individual for being tried twice for the same crime. There is an exception if the crime is committed overseas and the country in question does not press charges. In this case the Attorney General is arguing that even though it is the same incident, the Queensland prosecutors didn’t bring a murder charge.

There’s more information on Divernet’s website.

When we think of entanglement hazards in Hong Kong, we’re normally thinking about fishing nets, but a diver in Wellington got trapped in weeds at Owhiro Bay earlier today. He’s now in a serious condition in Wellington hospital.

There is more in the New Zealand Herald.

Last week a Tongan ferry, the Princess Ashika,  sank  with the loss of 73 passengers. 56 people were rescued. The ferry has been located and is at a depth of 110 metres. This week a New Zealand navy dive has managed to use an ROV to find and formally identify the vessel. The New Zealand Herald has some photographs and video from the navy on their website, which shows the ferry sitting upright on the seabed.

A salvage expert has said that it may cost several million dollars to salvage the ferry, and it is unlikely to happen.  The navy dive team can only carry out recovery missions to 60 metres, so unless specialist divers are brought in, it is unlikely that the human remains will be recovered either.

You can see some video here, or some photographs here.

On 3rd August two divers died after getting into difficulties on a dive 8 miles off Filey in North Yorkshire. They were airlifted to Hull Royal Infirmary by an RAF Search and Recovery helicopter, but were pronounced dead on arrival.

Divernet has some more information.

Yesterday SCMP had a story about the diver who died while diving off Ping Chau on Thursday night. He was part of a group of over 10 people who were staying in a rented house there and had been diving by day and night. His name was Cheng Cheuk-yin and he was 50 years old and apparently was a veteran diver.

At around 9:45pm on Thursday he and a buddy were diving at Tai Tong Wan, which is on the east side of Ping Chau, Mirs Bay. They were in about 3 metres of water and less than 50 metres from shore. Mr. Cheng sufaced around 11:30pm and complained of feeling unwell. He had difficulty breathing as they swam back to shore. When they got back, his friend called marine police who arrived within about 5 minutes, by which time Mr. Cheng was semi-conscious. He was taken to Prince of Wales where he was declared dead shortly before 1am. One of the Chinese papers apparently mentioned that there was speculation he had suffered from a heart problem, which would fit in with the SCMP report.

The SCMP points out that diving deaths are on the rise, although in this case it could just be a medical problem that happened while someone was diving. There are also more people diving now than there used to be.

If you are a subscriber, you can read the SCMP article here.

I’ve heard a report from one of the Chinese news websites that a diver died after diving at Tung Ping Chau last night. He was reported to have had trouble breathing and Marine Police were called. The incident happened at around 11:35pm and he was taken to Prince of Wales hospital where he was pronounced dead. There only seem to have been 2 people on the boat. It sounds a bit like the night diver who died at Tseung Kwan O in April.

A British diver in his 60’s has been reported missing while diving the Empire Javelin, a D-Day landing vessel. The wreck is in 60 metres of water 22 miles north of Cherbourg. He was part of a group of divers who were diving on 23 June from a charter boat.

There is a brief report on Divernet.

David Watson’s wife Tina died on the first dive of a 10 day trip to the Great Barrier Reef off Townsville in October 2003. Afterwards Mr. Watson went back to the US, but in mid-2008 the coroner found that it was likely that that he had killed her by turning her air off and holding her under water. Late last year prosecutors charged him with murder. It was seen as either a crime of passion or motivated by a small life insurance claim.

Mr. Watson recently went to Brisbane, where he has pleaded guilty to manslaughter. Crown prosecutors have accepted the plea and he will not face trial for murder. Instead he has been sentenced to 4.5 years in jail.

The prosecutor told the court the manslaughter plea was accepted because Mr. Watson had failed in his duty as Tina’s dive buddy by not giving her emergency oxygen, that he also allowed her to sink to the ocean floor without making any serious attempt to retrieve her, and that he did not inflate her buoyancy vest or remove weights from her belt. All of which makes you wonder why they didn’t pursue the murder charge.

More details in the Daily Telegraph and News.com.au.

I’ve just come across a report into the fatal accident off Port Island (Chek Chau / 赤洲) on 27 July 2008, where a diver was killed by a turning propellor. It was compiled by the Marine Accident Investigation Section of the Marine Department. This report is not intended to apportion blame or liability, but to try and identify the factors involved with a view to avoiding similar incidents in future.

Their conclusions are basically as follows

• The weather was squally with strong winds, heavy rain and rough seas.
• The diver was drawn into and struck by the propellor of the Crescent Island pleasure vessel
• The Crescent Island had grounded on a rocky beach after dragging its anchor, and the Master engaged the engine to try and free the boat, not realising that the diver was near the stern waiting to board.

Inevitably there were complications. The Master was concerned the vessel might capsize, and this was the second time the Master had engaged the engine. In the meantime an unrelated speedboat had towed several divers (including the victim) close to the Crescent Island so they could board. One of the dive instructors was supposedly acting as a lookout at the stern of the vessel, but didn’t see the speedboat or the divers.

The full report is here.

The body of the diver who went missing off Bluff Island has been found. This from the SCMP:

“The body of Ho Hing-tung, 45, a paediatric doctor at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, who went missing while diving in Sai Kung on Sunday, has been found. The body was found on the seabed by divers from the Fire Services Department at Ung Kong Wan, north of Bluff Island. ”

Our sympathies go out to his family.

Carl Spencer, a highly regarded British diver, has died after suffering severe decompression sickness after a dive on the Britannic. He had been leading a National Geographic Society expedition to film the wreck. Apparently witnesses saw him suffering convulsions while filming the Britannic’s bow, before rapidly ascending to the surface missing decompression stops. He was flown by helicopter to Athens Naval Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

The Britannic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she sank in 57 minutes after hitting a mine in 1916 while acting as a hospital ship. The wreck lies in approximately 120 metres of water off Greece.

There is more information in the Times Online from where the above photo comes. There is also a thread on Rebreather World.