Missing tourists rescued after spending night in ocean

Missing tourists rescued after spending night in ocean
Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
by LUTHER MONROE - CDNN Safety News Editor
WHITSUNDAYS, Australia (23 May 2008) — Two tourists who disappeared while scuba diving in the Whitsundays have been rescued.

Police told CDNN the two divers, a 38-year-old British male and a 40-year-old American female, are in good condition after spending the night drifting in the ocean.

Search authorities said a plane spotted the pair at about 9am in the ocean about 7.8 miles northwest of Bait Reef.

One of seven helicopters searching for the missing tourists winched them aboard and took them to Hamilton Island.

Yesterday at about 2:30pm, the crew of the Pacific Star launched a search when the divers failed to resurface as planned.

Unable to find the divers, the captain of the Pacific Star notified authorities of a missing diver emergency.

Officials responded immediately with a massive air and sea search that ultimately involved seven helicopters, three fixed-wing aircraft and several boats including the Pacific Star.

Scuba diving accidents in which divers become separated from commercial dive boats, often in strong currents, have become common in recent years.

Such accidents are often fatal due to the difficulty of finding scuba divers drifting in the open sea.

© CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK

Australia sems to have a propensity for loosing divers at sea.
This incident had a good ending, others haven't

I heard on the news that they didn't follow specific safety directions given by the crew and they may be charged $100,000 for the search and rescue.

Yeah, and if this is the incident I am thinking of, I also heard that when they got back to shore, before talking to authorities, this guy had already sold the story to a newspaper for 10 grand and had some sort of agreement in place for potential movie rights. That's all we need another "Open Water".

My understanding is they were supposed to be diving in a lagoon with a max depth of 40 feet and no current. They were told if they got anything deeper than that then they were heading out of the lagoon. Everyone else on the dive was in appropriate tropical gear, shorties etc., but these guys were, apparently, in 7 mm suits with hoods. Hardly necessary for a 40 foot dive in the tropics.:confused:

I realise these stories get all bent out of shape in the retelling, so we'll need to wait for the full "official" story. But if they did what is being suggested, they deserve to pay the search and rescue costs.

Kinda smell a rat here - Shark repellent, 7mm suits....wonder who's telling the truth - the media or the couple?



In over their heads?
Powered by CDNN - CYBER DIVER News Network
by MARK HUGHES
WHITSUNDAYS, Australia (27 May 2008) — Richard Neely and Allyson Dalton's battle to stay alive for 19 hours in the tropical waters of Australia's Great Barrier Reef ensured them a place in the record books. Their tale of survival against the odds had all the elements of a spell-binding narrative: an idyllic holiday that turned into a nightmare, panicked hours spent desperate and stranded in the deep, shark-infested waters, and cries for help that went unheard. It ended, of course, in dramatic rescue, relief and a story that captured headlines all over the world.

From start to finish, the media cried, it was a tale of stupendous courage, almost superhuman stamina and intense drama. But, as the dust settles on the reports of their awe-inspiring struggle, those who originally praised the couple are starting to ask questions. And, unlike four days ago, when it was the operators of the boat and the pair's fellow divers who were under fire for alleged negligence, now Mr Neely and Ms Dalton are in the spotlight.

Scuba experts have wondered why the couple went diving in tropical 23C waters wearing 9mm hooded wetsuits when everyone else on their boat wore a 2mm stinger suit. It has also been queried as to why they took an expensive shark-repellent device when all they were planning was a casual afternoon's diving.

Those onboard have also claimed the couple ignored safety instructions about leaving the lagoon they were diving in and that the distance they surfaced from the boat was much greater than was first suggested. While Neely and Dalton say it was 200m, it has been said that it could have been nearer 2km.

And, perhaps most curiously, it is being asked why the couple did not inflate their orange surface marker buoy immediately upon surfacing as they had done on five previous dives during the same trip. Instead they waited until nightfall.

These questions, among others, have caused holes to emerge in the divers' apparently watertight story. Yesterday, as they flew to America with a public relations guru to sell their story, which has already earned them anywhere between £5,000 and £500,000 in Britain, their version of events was coming under increasing critical scrutiny.

Mr Neely, who is 38 and originally from Norfolk, had boarded the Pacific Star on Wednesday evening with his American girlfriend, Allyson, and 18 other passengers and four crew members. That evening the couple, both experienced divers, sat and chatted with other passengers.

Rebecca Sharkey, 24, from Liverpool, was one of the others on board. "Everyone was drinking and getting along and treating it like a normal holiday but you could tell straight away that Rick and Ally were more interested in the diving than the holiday aspect of the trip," she said. "They wouldn't stay up as late as the rest of us and were quite sure about exactly where and when they wanted to dive and what they wanted to see."

On Thursday afternoon the group took their first dips and retired to bed early ahead of Friday's schedule. Michael Paton, 18, from Anglesey in north Wales, had lunch with the couple aboard the boat before the Friday afternoon dive – the dive that would see them lost at sea for 19 hours.

"They were a really friendly couple and were telling us about their diving experience," he said. "My friends and I had a lot of respect for them because they are seriously well-qualified divers. He is a master scuba diver and she is a dive master; they were probably better qualified than the instructors on the boat.

"Over lunch we spoke about diving and they told us about the shark-repellent device they had brought. It is a seriously expensive piece of kit; I reckon it would cost about £1,000. I do remember thinking it was a bit strange to have such extensive equipment for a dive around a small lagoon, but then again if I had one I'd probably have taken it out with me too."

After that lunch the passengers split up into groups of six to go diving in Gary's Lagoon. Ms Sharkey was part of the group that entered the water with Mr Neely and Ms Dalton. She said: "I did notice that their suits were different to everyone else's. We were wearing 2mm stinger suits simply to protect us from the jellyfish, but they were wearing 7mm wetsuits on top of the 2mm stinger suits, giving them 9mm of protection. You normally only need something for that if you're diving in very cold water or spending a lot of time in the water.

"But I didn't find it too strange because they had brought their own kit and I had rented mine. If I had my own suit and it was as good as the suits they had, I'd have worn my own too."

Ms Sharkey says the group were given instructions not to leave the lagoon and told to resurface immediately if they did so. But she says she believes the couple ignored these rules. "After we had been given the briefing they were talking about going to find manta rays and eagle rays. You can't see things like that inside the lagoon so it seemed quite clear they were going to leave the lagoon, but it wasn't really a big deal. They are both so experienced that I assumed that even if they did leave, they would know what they were doing and be back in time. As soon as we got under water I looked around and they were gone. I assumed they'd gone out of the lagoon, which was a direct violation of what we had been instructed to do. They were definitely reckless."


Out of the pond and in the money: "Lost divers" Dick Neely and Alison Dalton on an American TV show cashing in on their fantastic tale of survival that some say sounds fishy.

The final question is why the couple did not use their orange safety buoy to signal their position in the water. The balloon is visible for one nautical mile and would easily have been spotted if Mr Neely and Ms Dalton were in the vicinity of the boat. In the original Sunday Mirror interview, Mr Neely said he was waving the buoy from the start, but Australian newspapers have reported that the couple told police they did not inflate this until it got dark.

Ms Sharkey added: "Every other dive they had done, even if they had surfaced just 20m from the boat, they were inflating their balloon; it was just good practice. I can't understand why they would have waited so long this time."

Her sentiments were echoed by the boat operators, Ozsail, who released a statement simply saying: "Allyson and Richard did not remain on the dive site. Allyson and Richard did not follow the clear instructions of the dive instructor. Allyson and Richard did not surface immediately upon leaving Gary's Lagoon." Mr Neely and Ms Dalton were found on Saturday morning, 14km from where they first entered the water. The search for them involved seven helicopters, three aircraft and many boats, and is estimated to have cost up to £200,000. Since then the couple have, in the numerous interviews they have been paid for, denied any wrongdoing and even said that they were disappointed in the reaction from the boat's crew and passengers.

Mr Neely has been quoted as saying: "We don't consider that we drifted away from the dive site. We were on the dive site for the entire time of our allocated dive time. I would consider that our (dive) plan went as expected." However, in another interview he said: "He (the boat's skipper) definitely did not say we should surface if we left the lagoon."

On the subject of the crew and passengers' efforts to find them, Ms Dalton said: "Each moment ticked by and we were drifting further and further away and we realised that they were not coming." Mr Neely added: "They may have been looking for us in the lagoon, but I don't think they were looking for us in the right direction."

It is these comments which have irked fellow passengers. "When they didn't return as scheduled we started worrying and everyone was on top of the boat using binoculars to try to look for them," said Ms Sharkey. "We stayed on the boat all night and I know for a fact that I didn't get a wink of sleep that night. I'm pretty sure most others on board didn't either. To have them say we didn't do enough was quite hurtful. They are now selling their story on television and to the newspapers and it hurts that they are being nasty about us when we put in so much effort for absolutely no gain of our own. We just tried to help."

Following the dive, Mr Neely and Ms Dalton claimed that they were only 200m from the boat when they resurfaced and, despite their shouts and whistles, were not spotted by the crew. But Ms Sharkey finds that hard to believe. "At one point my dive buddy and I wandered out of the lagoon by accident and as soon as we realised we surfaced and waved for help. We were about 150m away from the boat and simply by waving we were spotted immediately and the smaller boat came out to get us.

"If Rick and Ally were 200m away they'd have been just a short distance behind us and easily visible to both myself and the crew. But I didn't see them and the crew obviously didn't so I don't see how they could have been just 200m away."

That story sure doesn't look good for them. 23 deg C which is mid 70 deg F and in a 7mm on top of a 2mm? Are they crazy???? That's all I wear in 48 deg F water. The shark thing doesn't really compel me to think they are lying, all though I do think they are lying, but if I had one I'd probably wear it too. Also the safety sausage seems a little fishy. They keep talking about how experienced they were. Well really they weren't. It's a different environment then they are use to. The DM should probably be pretty good off but anyone who becomes a "master diver" has just wasted their money. All though I am a master diver, it's under different circumstances then 99.99999% of all other master divers. I'm a scientific diver which doesn't really have a special cert besides the master diver card which says scientific on it. But anyway back to their story, I don't see why you'd do it but it sure seems staged and they should dole out some dough for their rescues since they're making money from it.

Saw an interview with these two on US TV a couple of days ago and I wasn't too impressed. Unfortunately, I doubt we'll ever know the full story, but I certainly think there is more to it than they are saying. I would be very surprised if anyone is going to risk drifting overnight in the open ocean even if the potential payout is a Hollywood blockbuster. There was a very good chance that they would not have been spotted by the rescue planes and choppers and I'm not sure anyone would take that chance deliberately.

Having said that, I suspect they screwed up and didn't want to admit to it and so have embellished their story to cover their own stupidity. They are experienced divers, he is an instructor with more than 2500 dives and she is a Divemaster. My theory is that they felt they didn't need to listen to the dive briefing because of their level of experience. They probably didn't hear the statement that if they left the lagoon they were to surface immediately because they weren't listening. At the end of their dive they probably surfaced much further from the boat that their claimed 200m and that's where it all went downhill. The crew couldn't see them, they continued to drift further away while the crew continued to look in and around the lagoon. The crew called the authorities who had multiple aircraft looking but it was getting dark by then.

They were found by 9:00am the next morning and credit needs to go to those search and rescue guys. To spot two little heads in black rubber hoods in that big ocean is no mean feat.

End result, nobody died and that's the good news. I believe they are now considering a law suit against the operator as she is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress or something similar. I'm sure they have been getting paid for their story, but I doubt that was the intent at the start.

I say just be thankful you're alive, the crew and the authorities did everything they could. Leave it at that and learn from the experience.

I think a smoking gun would be a copy of the report where they alleged they didn't inflate their surface marker buoy till nigthfall, rather than just a reference.

I have a Halcyon downed pilot style inflatable orange divers life raft raft I bought one day long after I got swept away from a portion of The Boilers at San Nicholas and was being swept towards 20 foot swells crashing out in the open ocean across a pinnacle area of rocks north of San Miguel Island. I would have been dashed to pieces had the captain not picked me up after spotting my bobbing head a good 500 meters from the boat.

Now I read all these stories and it makes me want to get off my lazy butt and store the thing below by wing.

http://www.halcyon.net/images/diverliferaft.jpg

That Halcyon raft looks pretty neat. Small enough to tuck away somewhere and much easier to spot from boat or air. I'll have to look into that.

Also, on one of these threads somebody described an emergency kit with flares etc. Unfortinately, I don't remember who but would like to look into that aswell.

Would it be this post?