From The Dive Asia office:
Dear all,
With a sad heart we read all the wrong information about the sinking of the MV Dive Asia I in the media and in the internet. Even here in Phuket we hear a lot of speculations that are untrue and would like to take this opportunity to give you the facts as of today.
On the 8th of March at about 5:30PM the MV Dive Asia departs from the Similan Islands in perfect weather conditions for a routine return to Phuket. Great visibility, very light winds with no noticeable waves.
10:26 PM a guest sends an SMS to her family telling them that she is already on the way back to Phuket where she will disembark in the morning and that the weather has been perfect with no rain during the entire trip.
10:50 PM after entering a sudden thunderstorm the boat is hit by a vortex and capsizes. There are no high waves and the wind is why the boat capsized. This happens so quickly and without warning that not even an alarm can be sounded. On board are 30 People. Those are:
8 Thai Crew
3 Dive Guides
19 Guests with various nationalities
The boat sinks within 1 minute but 23 of the 30 People on board can get off the sinking ship. The two Rescue Islands on board deploy and after a while all 23 persons are in the rescue islands. The survivors search for the missing persons but can not find anybody. After about 45 minutes the sea is calm again and the rescue islands are drifting looking for rescue. Two Sailing boats pass close to the rescue Islands and do not react to the red signal flares fired.
March 9th 8 AM
Benno Brandon arrives at the Chalong Pier to great the guests and to have a breakfast with them before they disembark. Arriving at the end of the pier the boat is not to be found. After calling all the boats numbers and trying to contact the boat by radio he contacts his partner Mr. Juergen Schenker to check if any information was known why the boats arrival was delayed. Realizing that something was wrong, the authorities where notified trough our Thai Manager Ms. Wimonrat Bangthao around 8:30 AM. We then proceeded to start our own search for the boat by speed boat and also from land from the big Buddha. It was known at the time that our last contact with the boat was around 10 PM and the boat was between the airport and Patong beach at the time. The authorities start a search but also with no result.
March 9th around 1 PM
The Dive Asia Office is contacted by Mobile phone. On the phone is the surviving Tour Leader of the trip Daniel Brunner calling from a fisherman's mobile phone to inform us of his location where the 23 survivors where picked up by a local fisherman. The authorities are notified and a boat of the Thai Marine Police is dispatched to pick them up.
The 23 arrive at 4:30 pm in the deep seaport in Ao Makham. None of the survivor's have major injuries. They are dehydrated and sunburned as well as exhausted with minor scraps and cuts but generally are OK. Missing are:
1 Thai National (our Cook)
1 Japanese (Guest)
3 Austrians (Guest)
2 Swiss (Guest)
It was wrongly reported that some of the missing guests where German.
The search for the 7 missing is continuing
March 10th
The search for the missing 7 people continues. The body of one person is found and returned to Ao Makham.
The approximate location where the boat sunk is found before Patong Beach. A dive Team from Deep Blue checks the location and finds debris confirming that the wreck is close but not the wreck it self. The depth is around 70 meters. Later at night the Thai Navy identifies two possible locations and wrongly assumes that the wreck is Brocken in half.
March 11th
The search for the still missing 6 persons continues. Joerg and Andreas from Deep Blue and Ben from the SSS chamber make a dive to confirm the location of the wreck as well as to check the wreck to determine how many guests may still remain on board. They find 4 people still in there cabins but due to the depth of the wreck and the time restraints resulting from this a recovery is not possible. The search for the still missing 2 people continues. The missing are our Thai cook and a guest from Japan.
March 12th
A dive team consisting of Joerg and Andres from Deep Blue, Ben from the SSS Chamber and Mathew from Pro Tech Diving college makes a dive and recover the 4 victims found the day before and search the boat further for the 2 still missing people. The Japanese Guests is found as well and returned to the surface. The Thai Marine Police returns the body's to Ao Makam.
The search for our missing cook continues.
March 13th
The dive Team makes a further search of the boat and the surrounding waters but is unable to locate the missing cook. Personal effects of the people on board are recovered. During the time the dive team is still in decompression we are informed that a search helicopter has spotted a body in the water 22 miles south of the wreck location. A police boat is dispatched. In the evening we are informed the body recovered is our missing cook.
All persons on board are accounted for and we are very sad and distraught over the great lose of live in this tragedy. Our harts are with the families of the deceased and we grieve with them.
Many of you expressed your support for us and we are very thankful for this. It is heartwarming to have somebody come by our office with big back of sandwiches because you don't have time to eat (Mona) or to hear that Rene from Sea Fun Divers been pumping 50 % oxygen bottles for Ben in the dive team free of charge. Also others like Franz of Blue Dolphin deserve our special thanks for organizing and conducting there own search for the missing.
Juergen, Benno and the entire Dive Asia Team
P.S. If you understand German please also read a report from an survivor under
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