6 divers went missing off Tioman island

[Dirtdevil]

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1209571/1/.html freaky.


DD

 

[clownfishsydney]

Picked up according to the link.

 

[Quero]

Yes, but they were out overnight! They dropped in at about 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and were picked up by the tugboat at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday.

Tugboat saves missing S'porean diver

SINGAPORE: The Singaporean among the six scuba divers who went missing after diving off Tioman Island on Malaysia's east coast on Saturday has been rescued.

He is said to be Mr Hu Jinjie.

Mr Hu and five other divers, one Chinese national and four Malaysians, were picked up by a passing tugboat.

The group of seven, aged between 25 and 33, disappeared after going diving off the island. The seventh member of the group resurfaced immediately and raised the alarm.

An AFP report quoted a Malaysian official as saying all are safe and are back on Tioman island.

The captain of the tugboat, Kencana Makmur 1, sent a report to a Malaysian shipping company Lunar Shipping at 10.49am on Sunday to inform it of the rescue.

Lunar Shipping's manager Peter Loo alerted MediaCorp of the rescue after reading about the missing scuba divers on Channel NewsAsia's iPad app.

Mr Loo said the six were handed over to the Malaysian marine police at 2pm.

Mr Loo said: "They were diving at 12.30pm on Saturday. They were supposed to dive for one hour. One hour later, they didn't resurface. The boatman couldn't find them. The search and rescue started thereafter, until today our boat found them."

Also: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v6/newsgeneral.php?id=675409

 

[Dirtdevil]

What in the world were they doing diving at 12.30am!? Alittle crazy no?


DD

 

[Dirtdevil]

Picked up according to the link.

Yep. That's right thank God they're ok.


DD

 

[Quero]

What in the world were they doing diving at 12.30am!? Alittle crazy no?


DD

It was 12:30 PM.

 

[Dirtdevil]

It was 12:30 PM.

Oh!!! Apologies. I just made myself look pretty dumb.


DD

 

[Bazzabug]

Yep. That's right thank God they're ok.


DD

Would be interesting to hear the full story from those involved...

1. Was diving the same location on another boat around the same time. Only noticed the official boats- Maritine and Marine Park - arrive much later on (4pm or so). If the official boats had been on location a few hours earlier, maybe those divers would have been sparred spending the night floating around the south china sea. Our boat had not received radio comms about a rescue, not sure if we were not on the same channel or what, but with all the boats in the area, dont know how those divers must have drifted away unnoticed...?

2. Had noticed the current like never seen before on a few trips to Tioman - boils and current lines off various island, with diveable "leeward" sides. Vis was also down. Like wise on sunday. Should have made everyone a little more vigilant.

3. Dived at a site much further south west on sunday and actually saw a buddy pair left to drift for over 45 mins in a current, nearly a km away. This totally unrelated boat they were from (a liveaboard) did not seem to have noticed until our captain starting sounding his horn to alert their attention before nearly having to go pick up those divers, Id say it was a near miss there...

 

[Dirtdevil]

Here's another thing. They started their dive at 12.30pm. But got picked up at 9am!? That's rather over no? I'm starting wonder why the DC didn't do more? Would like to know which DC they were with too and make sure my friends and I don't go there. Shouldn't the boat stay with them? If the boat did then he could have followed their bubbles if a current did pick them up.

Just my 2 cents worth. Still love and will continue going to Tioman




DD

 

[DandyDon]

I looked over several news stories about this one and could not tell if it was a dive operator or not, if there was a pilot left onboard while the others dived or not, but this excerpt from this article makes it sound like one diver who lost the group underwater then screwed up onboard. Good that they stayed together for the overnight ordeal. Notice the word "misunderstanding". From AFP: Six divers saved after going missing in Malaysia

The six, who were aged between 25 and 33 and included two women, were reported missing after going diving off the island Saturday. A seventh member of the group, who lost the rest underwater, raised the alarm.
Syed Mohamad Fuzi said that due to a misunderstanding, the alarm was raised when the six were still diving. When they resurfaced, the boat was gone as it went to get help, and they drifted away with the current.
Syed Mohamad Fuzi said the divers were experienced, had inflatable jackets and huddled together throughout the night so no one would become separated from the group.