6 divers missing off Sangalaki

[barbaroonie]

Thank you very much for sharing that Komodo experience. Out of curiosity, were you at one of the 'Current City' area sites (Batu Bolong, etc) when that incident happened? Hopefully not South Rinca!

It happened off Taka Makassar, which is a manta aggregation site that you have to hit when the tides are changing to catch the cleaning and feeding action. So while that site is not known for rippers like Batu Bolong, it definitely has fast moving water as the tides shift. (And for those who don't know, some sites in this area have the highest amount of sea change of anywhere in the world, due to the steep sided volcanic islands that rise out of the seabed and channel the water.) The idea is you drop right in (not very deep - maybe 10 meters), bury your muck stick in the rubble, and wait for the action that will come to you. And that day was a doozy-- there were hundreds of mantas flying formations overhead, in feeding chains, etc. Maybe due to the weather change, the surface current was running especially fast that day, and we'd stayed down 75 mins rather than the 60 agreed upon when we entered. But the boat tender should not have left the site, and could have easily seen our bubbles in one spot.

I mentioned to someone else privately that I think this was a one-off issue and not systemic-- I've dived maybe 8x on their LOB fleet with no issues or concerns. It was turnover day, the crew was busy cleaning and stocking, and normally there would not even be dives that day. Having said that, Komodo is not an area that should be dived by newer divers or those not accustomed to current. Downcurrents, thermoclines and washing machines are not uncommon, though a good dive operator will drop a DM to check conditions underwater before deciding to stay on a site, as the underwater topography means conditions change quickly and radically. You need to be confident of your skills, carry all appropriate devices to be self-sufficient, and use your training and good judgement to call off a dive if it's beyond your means.

 

[Centrals]

I have just read an interview on sky news of the sister of one of the missing divers.. Here in Italy media coverage is finished but she is trying to keep people interested and donating so as they can keep up the search with private helicopters in the hope that they are alive on some remote island as were three British divers in 2008 ( they were found after only a few days ).
she is not convinced of the divemaster Osland's version of the incident, puts his credentials to be in charge of a dive operation in doubt and questions the fact that he affirms to have lost his dive computer so it's impossible to check out at what depth the were. She also says that upon asking other dive operations if it was correct to leave the group to go looking for help, all unanimously reply that for psychological reasons the leader must never leave a group alone in the ocean.
she does not rule out fowl play in the form of some kind of kidnapping though no ransoms have been asked for because she says absolutely nothing, no equipment, tanks etc has been found anywhere....

---------- Post added September 12th, 2015 at 09:00 AM ----------

I have never been to Indonesia but I am beginning to think that maybe they never surfaced, a few years ago here we had a tragedy where four divers died together because they entered a blind ended tunnel instead of the planned and much larger swim through, someone panicked, caused a silt out and that was it! The divers following managed to back out and get to the boat on the surface for help, but it was a larger group, if there were only the four of them in the water and the dive master managed to save himself ( in our case he unfortunately didn't) what would have happened? Would he have admitted to taking OWD with no cave certification into an overhead environment or blame the elements and say he lost them on the surface? I am not an expert diver and many dive masters tend to overweight newer divers and not respect depth limits, could something have happened (a down current?), they became negative, panicked and drifted to the bottom of the ocean? Maybe Osland tried to save them and went to a great depth but did not succeed and so threw away the dive computer so that there is no record of the dive...

It is quite difficult to lose a dive computer but possible.
If the missing divers are still in the water then they would have not much chance by now. But if they had landed then it is something else.
Three divers went missing and eventually picked up 2 days later about 39km away in Philippines not too long ago(2 survivors and 1 dead). But they were in a relatively narrow stretch of water.

The story given by the guide is too far fetch for me.

Good luck

 

[Kaltim Diver]

Thanks Charlier, you're absolutely correct.

 

[rickpreve]

Latest I heard on this is that the Indonesian government suspended the search on August 25th... no trace of the divers was ever found.

 

[valeria.b]

Hi,
I'm Valeria a Daniele's girlfriend, one of the missing scuba in Sangalaki and I'm a friend of Michela and Alberto the other two guys.
I was here in 15 of August on the boat, but I did only snorkling because I haven't a scuba licence.
I read some of our post but not yet all.
For now nothing found. After the ufficial research I and the family of the guys started private searches.
All people including civil protection tell us it is very strange not having found nothing.
In the day of the accident there were not wave of 2.5 mt but yes there were a strong current, the boat "driver" not fell asleep, but he did not follow the divers with the boat. The point of dive is Manta run near Sangalaki island (east Kalimantan). The dive center wad "Ocean Dive" and Osland the dive master had no licence for the dive activity.

I and the family of the guys we are looking for some turist or divers who were here in 15th August.

If someone was here or knows someone who was here or knows somethings please contact us.

This is our facebook page https://www.facebook.com/helpustofindalberto please contact me here.

Thank you so much
Valeria