2 Korean fatalities - Philippines

[DandyDon]

Bodies of 2 Korean divers found | Inquirer News

BATANGAS CITY, Philippines—A Philippine Coast Guard-led search team has found the bodies of two South Korean expert divers who were reported missing since Tuesday after going on a dive in the waters off Barangay Mapating in Maricaban Island, Batangas.
The bodies of Kim Jun Ho, 45, and Bae Jiun, 34, both tourists and known to be technical divers, were located in the waters off Tingloy Island, also in Maricaban, but their bodies have yet to be retrieved, said Supt. Rajo Opelania, Batangas Maritime police chief.
Their bodies were located about 180 feet under the sea and divers from the PCG station in Mabini were retrieving them, said a Coast Guard personnel, who requested anonymity for lack of authority to speak on the search operation mounted by the PCG.
As technical divers, the two had undergone training that would have enabled them to dive to depths of 170 feet to 350 feet.
The retrieval operation started at around 1 p.m. on Friday and ended at 3:37 p.m. because the Coast Guard ran out of oxygen, said the source.
The two Koreans arrived in the country last week and were guests of Dive 7000 Resort located in Barangay Bagalangit, Mabini town, when they went for a recreational dive off Maricaban Island, Opelania said.
He said Kim and Bae went diving along with two other Korean nationals and a master diver from the resort.

 

[rovic]

...there were two korean divers found dead Tuesday in Maricaban ,batangas. the bodies were found inside an underwater cave 190 feet or 60 meters deep. Their names were Kim Jea Chin and Bae Jieun.
i really feel sorry for those two korean divers, RIP divers.

 

[Bratface]

Sorry as always to hear of a loss of any diver. Cave diving is technical diving requiring more training and different equipment than recreation diving.

 

[Karl_H]

The two divers mentioned entered a cave without a guideline and while carrying all deco tanks, even though they could not be breathed safely at that depth. This points directly to lack of training and experience for the scenario they were placed in. The reports are indicating the two were expert divers, if this were the case they would have used a guideline and staged tanks. The chances are if they had just used a guideline alone this accident would never have happened.

Sadly this happens for to often where people push themselves too far, and more importantly, other instructors/guides let them or even encourage them. Even basic cave training should have prevented this accident. Scuba diving within your training and limits is not a dangerous sport, scuba diving outside these limits can be like sky diving without any assistance, former training or experience.

 

[Quero]

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A ScubaBoard Staff Message...

Two similar threads have been merged, and opinions regarding the general safety of scuba as a pursuit, or lack thereof, have been removed as off topic to the discussion of this specific incident. Please review the special rules for posting in this forum and abide by them.

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[TSandM]

It's a good question, what you do with stages and deco tanks when you are entering a cave with a deep entrance out of OW. The rules for OW deco dives are to keep your extra gases with you; in cave diving of the sort that I do, the deco gases are dropped at or near their MOD, and stages are dropped as they are used, and picked up on the way out. I suppose that, when entering a deep cave from OW, one could drop the OW deco bottles at the entrance, assuming there is a secure place to do so. I've never thought about it, as such caves don't exist where I dive.

Does anyone know anything about the place where these divers were found? Is it truly a cave, or just a sea cave/large cavern? Is it known that they did not use a guideline? Did they appear to be lost? It would be really nice to hear something about this accident from the folks who did the body recovery.

 

[Dive Bug Bit Me]

The article states that these two had training to dive to 350 ft. This implies Advanced Trimix (or its equivalent) training from some agency.

I can believe that a new diver with limited training might not realise the dangers of heading into an overhead environment without training and equipment, but for frecks shakes, these guys had advanced technical training and still went in without a guideline?

 

[DandyDon]

Well, details from news sources aren't dependable. This article says that only one was found, body now retrieved, but her fiance still missing? Coast Guard: 1 of 2 missing Korean divers found dead off Batangas | News | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere

 

[mdax]

very sad. I wonder if they died due to becoming lost without a guideline or using incorrect gas at depth. You'd think folks that have trimix training would appreciate additional training such that they'd get cave trained before cave diving. Very tough way to go.

 

[Centrals]

Well, details from news sources aren't dependable. This article says that only one was found, body now retrieved, but her fiance still missing? Coast Guard: 1 of 2 missing Korean divers found dead off Batangas | News | GMA News Online | The Go-To Site for Filipinos Everywhere

Contrasting report indeed.
Are they trying to protect the deceased as well as the operator?
If those two tec divers were NOT cave certified then there might be question mark on insurance.
Mapating Cave(cavern) is about 40m+ depth and inside there is a tunnel going all the way to 60m+.