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Дайвинг Форум WebDive / Дайвинг - ПРОИСШЕСТВИЯ /
Help! 4 divers disappeared without a trace! Red sea. Egypt. 06.01.07
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Андрей
AOWD PADI
Рейтинг: 1303.78
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Anyone with any information, please, contact help@webdive.ru
The missing divers are: Dutch Michel van Assendelft, PADI Advanced Open Water Diver; Russian Dmitry Kapitonov, PADI Open Water Diver; Russian Elena Sundukova, PADI Instructor; and Egyptian Mahmoud Ahmed Hamdan, dive guide.
(Photos of missing divers: http://www.webdive.ru/help.php)
Four tourists and a dive guide had entered the water at Elphinstone reef at about 9 a.m. on the 6th of January, 2007 in rough conditions. They surfaced about half an hour later to find that they had separated from their boat. The only boat in sight was distant yacht which did not spot them.
The current changed and took the divers northward away from the reef. The coast was in sight and they decided to swim towards it. They were holding hands to stay together and to keep alert. They were swimming towards shore till 6 p.m. After that four of them were flat-out and could not fight the waves. So, one of the group decided to swim separately (leaving his BCD with the rest) against the current doing his best to reach the shore and to alert a rescue-team. He did it by 9-10 p.m.
Nobody knows if there was an attempt to rescue four divers that night. There's a broad discussion (in Russian blogs and forums) about what the owner of diving center was doing in daytime when the boat had returned without divers (the boy said he waited for about an hour and a half) and the divers had been reported missing. It seems there was no rescue-boat or anything at all at that critical period of time. As the survived diver says, they saw only two passing by yachts while they were swimming to the shoreline, and that's all.
Search for the divers continued for 4 days afterwards. And 5 days more (from January, 11 till January, 15) the friends of russian divers were searching by themselves, getting help from everywhere. Divers disappeared without any trace.
We need ANY information on this accident. Any facts: people's names, boats' names, weather conditions, number of helicopters/planes you saw in the sky over the sea at that period, rescue teams you probably noticed on the beach or near dive sites. Feel free to contact us!
Email: help@webdive.ru
Other forums:
http://www.taucher.net/unfall/Vier_Taucher_im_Roten_Meer_verschollen__it
u469.html#28 - (german)
http://www.arabdiver.com/vb/showthread.php?t=359
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Андрей
AOWD PADI
Рейтинг: 1303.78
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Diving at Elphinstone Reef.
There were 8 people in our group: Pavel, Julia, myself, Dima, Lena, Michel (from Holland) and 2 Andreys (a father and a son).
Out of people diving at Elphinstone Reef Dima and I were completing an AOWD course (headed by Lena), Michel was an AOWD diver. Lena was instructor certified in several diving systems, including PADI. We had only one night dive left to complete the course. The night dive had been planned at the end of that day. Lena had asked Pavel and Julia not go with us due to their insufficient diving skills.
On Saturday, January 6, we planned to make 2 dives in the morning on Elphinstone Reef that is located 10 km from the coast, one more dive – after lunch, and a night dive. Departure from the camping to the reef had been planned at 5.45 a.m. and would be held only with satisfactory weather conditions.
When we got up at 5.30 a.m. and went drinking coffee, the wind was weak and the sea looked fairly quiet. We didn’t see anybody of the camping personnel. Having waited till 6.00 a.m. and not seen anybody from the locals, we went to look for them. At last an Arabin guy appeared having just waken up and declared, that he had been informed of the departure at 6.15 a.m. Having had a bit of grumbling, we dispersed to our houses to get warmed. With daily average January air temperature of 17C and a wind, it’s not that warm in the morning even in Egypt.
We put on our diving suits inside the houses, it was warmer to go by car with diving suits on. All of us had 5 mm wet suits. Lena had her own one, Dima had rented in Moscow, Michel and I had rented in the camping. Lena left her additional 1 mm wet suit to Julia, so only Michel had the second 1 mm wet suit on. I decided to ask the camping personnel for a helmet, but they said that they didn’t have any. Well, if not, then not. Dima also had the gloves. Anticipating the questions, I’d like to say that I don’t know, what suit the dive guide had (his name was Mahmud), but he had a helmet and gloves.
In my opinion, only by 7 o'clock all of us started coming up to the house with our equipment and loading it in the car. BCDs and diving tanks had been prepared since the evening. At 7.15 a.m., when departing, Emad, manager and owner of this camping ("Beach Safari") had come up to us and was swearing at the personnel that we were late.
The boat was on Egla beach, 2-3 km to the south from the camping. It was 20-40m from the coast and while Mahmud was swimming to it to bring it to the coast, we jumped on a beach to get warm. The boat was for 6-8 persons max, was a single-piece (not like those Zodiac boats with inflatable boards). Having brought all the equipment and spare additional tanks to the boat, we started sailing slowly. It was a fun to jump on the waves for the first 5-10 minutes, but then it transferred into an almost extreme “Russian rollercoaster”, because standing in the front part of the boat to the left of the boat driver (his name was Ibrahim) and constantly wiping water from my face I could only see that we were going to jump from the next wave. In order not to fall out of the boat, we had to amortize with legs. Everything was wet in the boat, even our breakfast that was hidden in the bow of the boat. Sometimes Arabian guys were exchanging words, and Lena had told me that they could turn back. I can say that Ibrahim was driving the boat quite well, timely slowing down and speeding up in order not to hit the boat against the waves.
We were moving northeast. A relatively big boat (yacht) was seen ahead, not far from the reef (reef looks like a line of foam white waves). Having reached the reef I’d noticed 2-3 Zodiacs sailing around and, as far as I understood, expecting their divers to come back. Ibrahim and Mahmud exchanged a few words with drivers of these Zodiacs.
Lena talked a little with Mahmud in English; I was not listening to the talk. Then she told us in Russian, that we were planning to have the first dive along the eastern reef wall, starting from its central part, planned depth - 25 meters. In the northern part, probably, we would see sharks. The boat would be drifting with the current and would pick us up as soon as we were on surface. We hardly put on the equipment (masks, fins, BCDs with tanks) and with greater force settled along the boat boards, trying not to fall out of the boat too early, it was shaking quite seriously. Ibrahim had brought the boat closer to the reef, counted “one-two-three”, and we dropped off the boat all together. After a while we had gone underwater. It was 9 o'clock in the morning.
Looking at the reef, it became clear right away that the current was strong and going to the north, in the direction opposite the waves. I relaxed and tried to estimate the speed: it was about 0.5 meters per second. I have looked at the dive guide. Mahmud tried to hook at the reef and to take the BCD off in order to fix something there. I swore to myself, because a day before during the morning dive at the House Reef I had seen that he had been doing the same standing with his feet on the corals and crushing them. Continuing the dive I was observing the fish and noticed that Dima was taking pictures of something. Somebody, in my opinion, Michel had shown in the direction opposite to the reef. Having looked there, I saw shapes of some big fish in the blue, apparently, sharks. Mahmud dived aside from the reef, going deeper down. Following him, I looked upward. 3-5 m above there was Lena who was signing all of us to go up and not to go deeper. As she said later, she was 40m deep and that why pointed to everybody not to go deeper. Having looked around, I found everyone with my eyes. Having looked downward, I saw a branch of the reef on greater depth, and could not see the drop off of the reef itself. Some time we kept diving along this branch, as far as I understood, trying to reach the reef. The depth was approx. 25m. I looked for the whole group again. I saw Michel 5 m above the rest of us. He was waving with the hand and pointing at his manometer. Firstly, it seemed to me that he was asking about the air in tanks left, that’s why I attracted Lena’s and Dima’s attention at Michel and looked at my manometer. When I looked at Michel again, he was already breathing from Dima’s octopus. I reached them and looked at Dima’s manometer, he had only 50 bar. I showed Dima that I’d got 150 bar and stretched my octopus to Michel. However, he didn’t see it, and they (Michel and Dima) were going up quite fast. Having reached together with them the depth of 3-4m, I stopped and, having become sure that they were on surface, went down back to Lena and Mahmud. When I reached them, Lena twisted her a finger at a temple. I showed that two had surfaced. Mahmud started reeling the SMB off and emerging. I was holding on to Lena, and we started emerging following her dive computer figures, having made 2 safety stops, and trying to keep close to our dive-guide. Mahmud had surfaced much faster than us. When we surfaced, it was about 9.30 a.m.
Having appeared on the surface we, first of all, we got together and joined hands. Only Mahmud was floating separately with the inflated SMB in 5-10 meter distance. No boats were visible at all. In the distance, 300-400 meters, a boat was visible, most likely, the one we had seen before. Having waved to it a little and shouted, we understood that we were moving away from it. We oriented ourselves a little and decided in order not to get frozen to swim slowly in the direction of the shore (it was visible) waiting to be found. Anticipating the story, I’d like to say that we didn’t see any rescue boats that day at all.
Mahmud told us to throw weight belts off, and we did it. We discussed decompression illness and its symptoms a little. I thought that Dima and Michel were feeling worse than others, because they surfaced very fast. The question what had happened underwater, Michel answered that his air had been going to an end and, he didn’t know why, his BCD couldn’t have been inflated. He had feared to drop down and felt into panic. Dima said, already in Russian, that Michel had been breathing very fast, and Dima had clearly heard that air had been going out of the tank. Lena swore at us that we had gone too deep. We postponed all discussions till some time later, because the priority task was to get out of this. Mahmud, floating not far from me, as it seemed to me, had thrown the SMB away. Lena and I picked it up, Lena took it and reeled it.
There was a proposal to drop the tanks off. Having discussed it a while, we decided to have a try. Lena could not turn off a regulator from my tank, that’s why I, firstly, turned her regulator off, then Michel’s. Tanks had positive buoyancy. Having tried to swim on back without a tank, guys decided that it wasn’t that convenient, that’s why put tanks back, but with regulators dismantled.
The sun was heating from the south, time flew very imperceptibly. We here holding each other by hands and swimming with back forward, sometimes looking back in attempt to see the nearest point of coast and at the same time to have a rest. Waves were 1-2 meters high. It was difficult to hold the body constantly in a sitting position – the prelum got tired very much. Michel was swimming on a back, and that’s why it was difficult to understand his condition, but he was using his legs, while swimming, all the time. We talked, joked, that if we died, then in a good company. We decided that everybody needs a dive computer if somebody was going to train in diving more or less consciously, and that Dima and I would buy dive computers, first of all, as soon as we got out of this.
Approximately in the middle of day we saw a dive boat. It was sailing from the north to the south, approx. 500 m to the east from us. The boat didn’t respond our shouting, waving with fins and SMB. I asked Lena, what if to try to reach the shore without the diving equipment. She said “Take the equipment off”. Having swum 50m, I lost the boat out of my sight. When on the next wave I saw it, but it was already far away – it switched the engine on and went away. I had to return to the rest of us. We continued to swim to the coast. Mahmud was still swimming separately. In some time he swam to us and asked to join our chain. At the beginning he was swimming at the end of the chain, to left of Michel, but then, when he started to fall asleep, he was put between Michel and Dima.
Continuing to swim in the direction of the coast, I tried to mark a goal on the coast and to swim directly to it. I noticed a fairly high aerial mast on the coast to which we began swimming using it as a goal. I tried to show Mahmud (he was constantly losing the direction and falling asleep) where to swim, but he didn’t understand either because of insufficient English language knowledge or because of tiredness. The coast was coming closer, and it inspired certain optimism. I said to all in English, that, most likely, we would be on the coast in 4 hours. Michel silently replied to this, “Then without me…” and that disturbed me strongly.
The sun was already reaching the horizon behind our backs. All of us already were rowing much weaker, and it began to seem that the coast was not coming closer, and that we were simply staying at one and the same place. It was hard psychologically to realize that last forces were leaving us to nowhere. It also made us angry that we didn’t see any rescue operations. It was becoming much harder to think. The sun had set, but while it was light, we started looking at lights on the coast. One more turret was visible next to the aerial mast; it appeared to be a beacon with a blinking red lantern.
Already in twilight I had noticed the average sized boat to the right of myself, i.e. in the south. Shouting, waving with yellow fins and the SMB didn’t help. We were shouting at “one-two-three”. I had broken my voice. We had understood too late, that it could be already possible to use a camera flash. Photos of the boat’s stern didn’t help. The ship passed in 100 meters from us and sailed to the north. Lena cried. I had never seen Lena crying. I felt uneasy.
We had got together again and started swimming aiming at the beacon - the distance wasn’t reducing. It became already that we wouldn’t be able to overcome these 3-5 km all together and reach the coast. Some time before I had already read about uselessness to struggle against outflow. Approximately in half an hour I talked to Lena on the following topic: I would swim to the shore by myself and would send boats to them. She asked if I was sure. I said that I would get drowned, because the suit was holding on surface, and it didn’t matter where to get frozen. Guys didn’t participate in that discussion, because Mahmud was falling asleep, Dima and Michel were lying on surface and rowing with fins very slowly. It seemed to me that it was the only right solution to swim to the coast, because I felt enough strong to reach the coast, but didn’t see that strength in others. I took the BCD with the tank off, put my mask on and started swimming. It was approx. 6.00 p.m.
I was intensively doing a breast stroke in the direction to the beacon for quite a long time. A jellyfish stung me in the right hand, it began stabbering. The black deep didn’t cause any emotions. Waves were not already blocking a blinking light, and car headlights going along the highway were visible. But again the light of the beacon stopped coming closer. And no matter how hard I tried, the distance was not reducing. Apparently, there was some current. Having already almost fallen into pieces and reconciled myself, I had changed the route to the next beacon in the north, have laid down on a back, embraced myself with hands and started swimming slowly, looking at stars and talking to them. Sometimes turning, I tried to estimate the distance to the coast. In approx. 2 hours of swimming alone I had noticed some light above the sea, approximately above that place where we had separated. Firstly, it seemed to me, that it was a projector directed upwards. I already thought that some boat had found them, but in some minutes understood that it was the moon rising up.
While swimming, I fell asleep a couple of times. Inventing reasons why it was worth not to sleep and to live, I was rowing with tired legs. Once again, having looked at the coast, I understood, that it was close enough, and that I would reach. I changed to doing a breast stroke and after a while saw the sea bottom. I stepped at a coastal reef with great relief. Having taken the fins off and having left the water, I went to some constructions. It was about 9.00 p.m.
It appeared to be Badawia, a fairly big hotel. I found a couple of people in the restaurant and started telling them everything. In 10 minutes there were already approx. 15 locals, they gave me Bedouin clothes. I changed my clothes to Bedouin ones. A man, as far as I understood a policeman, asked if I could go to that place by boat, I said “yes”. We sat in the car, and then dumped out for some time, I don’t know why. They gave me a phone; I described the reference points of the place, where we had separated, to rescuers on the boat. Emad arrived, and instead of the boat they brought me to the hospital and examined me for ah hour. When at last I insisted to go by boat, they brought me to the harbour and said that boat had left 10 minutes ago. I was already not able to think and turned out at hospital when they brought me back there. They assured me that as soon as guys had been found, they would be brought to that place.
In the morning at hospital I saw nobody. I woke the doctor up and asked to bring me to Beach Safari. Upon my arrival Pavel and Julia went to the nearby hotel to send passport numbers to the consulate (originals of passports had been taken by police) and insurance polices to the insurance companies.
I will write about rescue operations later, when everything is over.
Vladislav Lukyanchenko
http://monfornot.livejournal.com/ |
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Hello,
you accident is very much disscused at Taucher.net. Can we copy your statement into the running thread?http://www.taucher.net/unfall/unfalliShow.html?unfallNummer=469
If so, plase do send me a mail gunther(+) taucher.net
Gunther |
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22.01.2007 12:17
Hello,
you accident is very much disscused at Taucher.net. Can we copy your statement into the running thread?http://www.taucher.net/unfall/unfalliShow.html?unfallNummer=469
If so, plase do send me a mail gunther(+) taucher.net
Gunther
Перевод:
Здравствуйте,
Ваше происшествие активно обсуждается на Taucher.net. Можно ли нам скопировать ваше сообщение в текущую ветку (обсуждение)? http://www.taucher.net/unfall/unfalliShow.html?unfallNummer=469
Если да, пожалуйста пришлите мне почту на gunther(+) taucher.net
Гюнтер |
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Hi Katya,
My name is Laura, I am a member of Salford BSAC based in Manchester, England. Myself and five members of my club were on the other dive boat at Elfinstone when the divers went missing on the morning of 6th January.
We were all deeply upset by the events of that day and if we can help you in any way or answer any of your questions from the limited details we ourselves recieved, please feel free to contact me at:
laura(+)bridalmo.freeserve.co.uk
/на письмо ответили |
Андрей
AOWD PADI
Рейтинг: 1303.78
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Ребята, когда находите вопросы типа вопроса Гюнтера - сразу всю нужную информацию им отсылайте, а то они со своими копирайтами...
И я не понял, кто-нибудь им все нужное послал? Если что-то важное нужно от меня - пишите на почту. А то я форум кусками читаю... |
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Thereґs any news about the missing Divers ? Hope theyґre all good. |
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>Thereґs any news about the missing Divers ? Hope theyґre all good.
- Welcome, guest! No news till now, we hope and pray for them too... We really appreciate your support, thank you! |
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Dear friends, we have got the following letter from Laura Mayers who saw sad events of 6th January 2007 by her own eyes while diving with her friends at Ephinstone Reef. We extremely appreciate her help and hope to find out more information about the accident. You are welcome with any news, thanks a lot in advance! Here is the original text:
date: Jan 24, 2007 1:34 AM
subj: Re: divers lost
Hi Yury, Andrei and Katya,
The following is a statement which covers events of 6th January 2007 as we saw them and have recalled to the best of our ability and in as much detail as we can.
Although the statement is quite factual rather than emotional, please know that as members of the worldwide diving community and on a personal level we are all here deeply shocked and sadened by what happened to your divers that day and they were and still are never far from our minds.
I'm not sure what help our information will be to you but if you have any more questions for any of us or if there is anything else we can do to help, please don't hesitate to ask.
Also, as this incident is very close to our hearts, if possible we would be interested to keep in touch with you and for any news!
With kind regards and good luck for some positive outcome,
Laura, Gary, Bill, Lesley, Jan, Kat and all at BSAC Salford.
Incident - Saturday 6th January, 2007 - Elphinstone Reef, Red Sea
Friday 5th January - Marsa Alam, Coral Beach Divers Hotel. Emperor Divers.
On the afternoon of Friday 5th, myself and 5 other divers from Salford BSAC who had been diving since Thursday with Emperor Divers from Coral Beach Divers Hotel, Marsa Alam were arranging to go the next day to Elphinstone Reef, some two and half hours boat travel away.
We were informed by our Dive Guide, Mattio, that we would have to wait until the following morning to see if the conditions were going to make it viable as the weather had previously been windy and other groups had had to cancel trips or only managed one dive due to the adverse conditions. However the forecast was for the weather to improve so we would meet at 6.30am Saturday 6th and take a decision then.
When we arrived on Saturday morning, it was decided to go ahead and try to get to Elphinstone with the option to change destination if, once out in the open, the conditions were too rough.
We set off at Sunrise on a dive boat called Empress Amy. On board were the boat crew; our Dive Guide from Emperor Divers called Mattio, 6 divers from Salford BSAC and one non-diver who was with our group.
The journey was indeed quite rough due to wind and the sea had quite a heavy swell however the sky was clear and the conditions were manageable for a boat of our size and we sailed until we reached Ephinstone at approx 9.00a.m.
When we arrived, I personally was concentrating on the dive brief and kitting up so do not remember if any other boats were on the site and do not remember seeing any. Our non-diver thought he remembers possibly seeing the small white boat but cannot be sure.
We were given a very detailed brief from our Guide Mattio including information about the currents, which he was to assess before the rest of the group entered the water to decide if we would do our first dive from North to South and the other side of the Reef in the afternoon or the alternate way round.
He told us that the best chance to see oceanic white tip sharks was on the north end of the reef but if the current felt too strong we would not stay to look for them. We had all the usually safety briefings and, although usually quite a laid back dive guide (as we were all very experienced divers), he made it quite clear that this was a safe dive as long as it was handled with respect and safety rules (depth, air consumption, buddy pairs etc) were adhered to at all times.
Due to the current, which was running North, we were to enter from the hard boat at the southern end of the reef to drift along with our right shoulders to the reef until we reached the northern tip at which point Mattio would deploy his delayed surface marker bouy, we would meet and collect under the water and surface as a group where the Zodiac from our boat would collect us.
At the time of entering the water at 9.19am I had not seen any other divers and had no knowledge that any were already diving the site.
Once in the water, we all had a very pleasurable dive, the drift was around one knot and it passed without incident until we surfaced as arranged, after 45 minutes, at the other end of the reef where, after a couple of minutes, our Zodiac came to meet us. However, in the couple of minutes we were waiting, we had already drifted a considerable distance from where we hit the surface!
During the process of us all getting on the boat, a very small hard white boat (about the size of our zodiac but flat bottomed and not inflatable) came alongside and the driver (the only person in the boat) was looking distressed and talking to Mattio in (I am assuming) Egyptian. We were told that his divers had been diving the other side of the reef and had been down for one and a half hours and had not surfaced (or not been seen to surface) and he was asking advice from Mattio as to which direction the current was flowing. The current was at that time flowing North and the wind blowing toward the South.
There was a lot of gesticulating and discussion in Egyptian whilst as a group we were of the opinion that after an hour and a half unless something has happened to all beneath the surface, there was not much point in their collection boat still being at the place where he put them in as they would have drifted a long way by then either from the current or the wind on the surface which was also quite strong.
Whilst underwater we saw nothing untoward. Definitely no other divers, no pieces of equipment, nothing to be caught on camera.
Once at the surface I also noticed that there was now another dive boat or yacht in the vicinity with a dark bluish or brown RIB (larger than our Zodiac) that also came alongside and joined in the conversation between our guide and the Beach Safari driver.
Obviously, we were unaware and remain unaware of any discussions that may have taken place on the surface between the boat from Beech Safari and any other boats during the hour we were beneath the water.
I do not know who was on the other hard boat, even if they were divers, or if they played any part in the day's activities.
Once back on the boat, it was clear that Mattio and our crew were putting out calls on their radio and mobile phones. We were told that the small white boat had no communications at all, no radio, no mobile, nothing and so it was only now, because he had had to ask advice from Mattio and our boat became involved, that any communication was being made to land.
In fact, it was our understanding that Mattio had contacted his base at Marsa Alam to put out calls from there to find out who the white boat belonged to and who had divers out at Elphinstone because, for some reason, at that point we did not know who the divers belonged to!
Whilst we secured out kit and got dressed etc, our boat's radios and crews/guides phones were ringing constantly presumably with updates or questions. We couldn't understand most of what was being said so for our part we just kept watching the sea. We saw the bigger rib belonging to the other boat driving round the area and the little white boat just kept driving up and down the reef as if by some miracle they would suddenly appear just where they were supposed to!
There was some discussion as to whether we thought the conditions had been too much hard work and should we abandon the second dive and head for home as we were assured other boats etc would be out soon to mount the rescue. However we decided to hang around to search for the divers. We headed North in a slight zig zag pattern then just due North although it was widely agreed that we would stand very little chance of locating the missing divers given the time that had passed (approximately 2.5 hours at that time) and that the current would have drifted them too far away for us to reach and that the swell made it extremely difficult to spot anyone even at close range.
The RIB from the other boat also seemed to be searching the area and the little white boat stayed around the site.
Whilst we were out looking, I personally heard Mattio take the call that told him they had discovered who the boat/divers belonged to - that is was Beach Safari. I also heard him then make a call to which I presumed (but cannot be sure) was Beach Safari informing them of the situation and repeating at least twice if not three times that this incident was now an emergency and to have a helicopter deployed immediately. He could not have made this clearer!
Meanwhile we were on the top deck of the boat with eyes looking in all directions for appox an hour searching but unfortunately, we saw nothing. Our party all agreed that rather than do a second dive we would rather spend our time continuing to search but eventually we returned to the site believing we could have no way of finding them but confident that an emergency rescue operation was in progress.
The time when we arrived back at the site was around 11.30a.m.
The small white boat from Beach Safari was still searching the site itself and at times sat with his head in his hands, obviously very distressed.
It appeared to us that not only was the small boat totally inadequate for it's purpose (even in less rough conditions is was by no means suitable), not only did it clearly have no communications, but the driver seemed inexperienced and totally at a loss as to what to do about any of it!
We eventually did our second dive on the other side of the reef (where the other divers had been), which began at 11.48am and we were down for around 1 hour. Again, we had a pleasant dive, without incident, the drift was quite strong but by no means overwhelming, we saw nothing untoward at all and finished our dive in the same manner as before.
When we surfaced, the other large boat had gone, the small white boat was still there and another larger white RIB had arrived with what appeared to be two Egyptian men on board. We were told that this boat would be part of the rescue operation, that the Coastguard had now closed the dive site and that all along the coast boats would have been sent out to search. We did not hear or see a helicopter.
We left Elphinstone at approx 1pm. We then sailed toward the shoreline for around 30 minutes to calmer water and had lunch. Again, the other white hard boat was in the vicinity presumably also taking shelter in the calmer water. We left around 30 minutes later and sailed home. It was to take 2.5 hours to get back and the boat had to be back before sunset.
On our two and a half hour journey home, the conditions were very rough (too rough even to walk around the boat) but we saw no more evidence of search boats and heard no helicopter.
------------------------------------------------
T
hat is the end of the facts as we witnessed them. I will tell you the rest of what we were told but please note that this is only hearsay and I have no way of knowing as to the reliability of the source of this information.
As a close diving group, we spent the evening subdued, hoping they had been found, & talking about what had happened, trying to imagine the scenario and making guesses as to what might have happened.
The overwhelming thought was that the whole set up was just not good enough and even though the conditions were fairly bad, it was still very dive able for experienced divers and that an inexperienced guide/driver artnership would probably have a large part to play in the incident. However, coming from England where our emergency services are excellent, even though we thought it strange not to have heard the helicopter, we still felt certain that they stood a good chance of being found.
Sunday 7th January 2007.
On Sunday morning, of course the first thing we asked Mattio was what news? At this point we did not even know the nationality of any of the missing people.
We were told that one person had been found alive having been washed ashore who was thought to be maybe Dutch or Russian. That the guide had been Egyptian and that the missing people were Russian and/or Dutch.
As divers, we all know and accept the possible consequences of a relatively dangerous sport which can often result in genuine accidents, equipment failure etc which very sadly occasionally can lead to a fatality but at least if you reach the surface safe, you should be able to feel quite confident that you would stand more than a good chance of being found.
I am sorry to tell you the next bit because this was the part that shocked us most - we were told that nobody else had been found because they never sent a helicopter or mounted a proper search. That their dive guide was not even a properly qualified diver, let alone a guide and that the owner of the dive school had been operating illegally and could not fund a helicopter so nothing was done! Whether this was his responsibility and why the coastguard/officials didn't intervene we do not know.
Later, we were given the information that the owner of the operation and the boat driver has been arrested and were in jail.
After that, although we kept asking, very little more information was given to us. Although we didn't hear or see it, people at our hotel told us they had seen a helicopter the next day and I do believe perhaps after media attention or foreign interest a search was launched.
Although we firmly believe that our Dive Guide and his company and our boat crew did everything they possibly could at the time, it is our understanding and belief that the appropriate action was not taken at the crucial time.
I am sorry we cannot tell you more about the divers directly but we did not meet them or even see them before they entered the water.
(Вроде ничего не сбилось, но на всякий случай проверьте текст еще раз! :) |
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Простите, второпях умудрилась пропустить " l " в самом начале - вышло "Ephinstone Reef"
И если проверили, скобки в конце тож того.. :)
nadja |
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