Japanese tourist killed by boat prop off of Phuket

[DandyDon]

Phuket Police Probe Japan Dive Tourist's Death - Phuket Wan

A YOUNG Japanese tourist was killed off the popular Phuket dive destination of Racha today when she was struck in the head by a boat propeller, police said.

The young woman was aged 22. Her companion on today's dive, a colleague, was helping with an ongoing investigation at Chalong Police Station this evening.

The dead diver's companion, a young man, does not speak English so officers were awaiting the arrival of a translator.

It is believed the fatal incident took place about noon on a western dive site off Racha, which is also known as Raya. About 10 divers were on the rented Kon-Tiki Phuket boat, making a regular Wednesday afternoon dive at the spot.

Details of the incident will become plainer with the completion of the police investigation but one person close to the dive company said it appears the divers surfaced just as the boat was reversing away from a coral reef.

The body of the young woman was taken to Vachira Hospital Phuket. Phuketwan has been given her name but is withholding publication until we can be certain her family has been informed.

 

[Scuba gnome]

I've seen two near misses in Thailand(on the same trip) in my fairly short diving career. All the divers I was with used safety sausages but a lot of Thai boat crew we encountered would ignore it. The crew on our liveaboard were very safety conscious but I saw Thai crew from other boats plowing their dinghies within 5' of diver buoys.

I saw one prop get within 10' of our dive group member's head during one ascent.
The DM was livid at what she saw but there's no talking with Thai boat crew about this.

On a separate trip (in Koh Tao) one Thai guy was fishing off a diving boat in the same spot where divers were in the water.

 

[Quero]

We are all shocked and saddened here on Phuket at this news. We're still waiting for additional information, though. It's not clear whether the divers were surfacing under a marker. I wouldn't be so quick to tar and feather the Thai boat captain without knowing this detail. I personally find the Thai captains of our big dive boats to be exceptionally gifted at maneuvering the boats for dropoffs, pickups and docking, and while it's possible that this one was negligent, we should give him the benefit of the doubt until more information is available.

 

[vladimir]

This is my worst fear. It's something that we have only limited control over, as divers. In addition to making a careful ascent and using an smb, I try to avoid crowded sites altogether. I am assuming that this happened off the island familiar to me as "Racha Yai," is that correct?

 

[Quero]

No, Vlad, it appears that it was off Racha Noi, which, if you are familiar with it, you know is not very busy at all.

 

[DandyDon]

I do listen closely before surfacing, and don't if I hear a motor at all. I watched on the north west side of Cozumel as a friend send his SMB, holding the reel lightly as a boat approached and nearly hit it.

That was outside of the park, but then so is a lot of worldwide diving. Cozumel's reputation is still haunted by this story from 2000 that happened in a no boat or no wake zone: Singer Kirsty MacColl Dies in Accident - ABC News and includes "rich man off free" accusations in this article: Kirsty MacColl - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[vladimir]

No, Vlad, it appears that it was off Racha Noi, which, if you are familiar with it, you know is not very busy at all.

Thanks, Quero, yes, that is why I asked.

 

[Quero]

There have been new developments in the story of this tragedy. The young woman was a student diver on her first open water training dive. (Just this fact makes me doubt that it took place at Racha Noi since we don't typically go there for training dives.) She and her friend, who was also learning to dive, surfaced under the boat. The boat in question was a speedboat and was the boat they were diving from, not just a random boat passing by. The skipper has been charged with manslaughter.

There are still more questions than answers surrounding the accident. I will update as I learn of additional details.

 

[Quero]

Further update. Today's developments:

The correct bits so far:
1) the victim was a student diver from Japan
2) the accident happened at Koh Racha Noi

Information that has been corrected:
3) the boat driver has not been charged at this time
4) the dive boat was not a speedboat but one of our large cruisers, but the body was transported back to Phuket by speedboat

New information:
5) the dive operator was one of our Japanese-run shops catering to Japanese tourists
6) the Japanese instructor has said that the student inflated her BCD and shot to the surface, colliding with the boat

 

[k ellis]

This is a sad outcome. Sounds to me like it was just one of those moments that you cant really do much to prevent since she was a student and over inflated the bcd even a DM or instructor would have to catch her on the ascent and it would take a moment to release enough air to stop the ascent.

Dandy sounds like you have the same idea that I do. I always stop around 15 feet and listen for boats and wont surface until its quiet.

I did one time though surface in Cozumel with the remainder of our dive group and could have swore I surfaced in a marina somewhere. I could almost hold my inflated SMB out and touch a boat in any direction. Talk about bizare! Luckily none of the boats had their motors active but still it was an eye opener.