American recovered - Lombok, Indonesia

[DandyDon]

Missing US Tourist Found Dead in Gili Trawangan

The joint search and rescue team found dead a missing tourist at a depth of 21 meters in the waters of Gili Trawangan, North Lombok, on Monday.

en.tempo.co

Missing US Tourist Found Dead in Gili Trawangan
TEMPO.CO, Mataram - Joint search and rescue team found dead a tourist at a depth of 21 meters in the waters of Gili Trawangan, North Lombok, on Monday, February 20, 2023, after the tourists was reported missing since Sunday.
Mataram SAR Agency head Lalu Wahyu Efendi said that the diver was a 49-year-old United States citizen who went missing on Sunday, February 19, 2023. "He was] found on the second day of the search at 08:08 WITA [central Indonesian time] at 0.93 Nautical Mile north of the location [the diving area]," Wahyu said.
The victim who was first discovered by divers from the Dream Dive community was evacuated to the Bangsal Pemenang Harbor and handed over to the medical team. The victim was found with complete diving equipment still attached to his body.
"The medical team brought the victim to the Bhayangkara Hospital," said Wahyu.
According to the guide from Dream Dive Center who dived along with the victim, they went diving on Sunday, around 14.30 WITA, at Shark Point in the north of Gili Trawangan. The foreigner was separated from the group at a depth of approximately 15 meters when the guide accompanied other divers to see the coral reefs.
The victim was known to move toward the surface of the water. The guide then immediately sent a sign that a diver climbed to the surface and carried out a search by looking up and down and circling the area 360 degrees according to the safety dive protocol.
At that time, the guide encountered limited visibility. The victim was not found until the guide and all divers decided to stop diving and conducted a search from above the surface of the water around the dive area. However, the effort came to no avail.
The case was then reported to related parties and a joint search was launched involving the rescue team from the Bangsal Alert Unit Post, Indonesian Navy, Nusa Tenggara Barat (NTB) Water Police, North Lombok Regional Police, local communities, and other elements.

 

[DandyDon]

He was from Arizona...

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article272584305.html

 

[Seaweed Doc]

I'd be curious about his recent diving experience. I'll speculate wildly (and probably incorrectly) that he was a novice or very rusty. He started to ascend (accidentally?) and the team lost sight of him. Unbeknownst to the team, he overcompensated and dumped to much air and went down. Throw in a breath hold or medical event, and he ends up dead at 70'.

Or not. Could be a simple medical event. Or maybe he ran out of air.

 

[Litefoot]

They were in a group, but he still would have had a buddy, right? When he was last seen heading to the surface, shouldn’t someone have gone with him?

 

[DandyDon]

They were in a group, but he still would have had a buddy, right? When he was last seen heading to the surface, shouldn’t someone have gone with him?

That's how we were trained, sure. It's a rule rarely enforced by ops, tho. CYA.

 

[clownfishsydney]

They were in a group, but he still would have had a buddy, right? When he was last seen heading to the surface, shouldn’t someone have gone with him?

I can assure you that if a buddy all of a sudden headed to the surface at an unsafe ascent rate, I would not be chasing after them. No point in having two people hurt or dead.

 

[Boarderguy]

I can assure you that if a buddy all of a sudden headed to the surface at an unsafe ascent rate, I would not be chasing after them. No point in having two people hurt or dead.

I'm not saying this is the best practice but it's what I was trained at in 2001... you can safely ascend at 60 fpm. Yes, I know we have a better understanding of diver physiology now and 30 is the better rate but there were millions of dives done at higher rates and not everyone got bent. Watch your buddy rocket and follow at the safest rate you can but slower than your bubbles. That way you can help either at the surface or when they're crashing back to the bottom.

 

[Litefoot]

I can assure you that if a buddy all of a sudden headed to the surface at an unsafe ascent rate, I would not be chasing after them. No point in having two people hurt or dead.

Did I miss something? Where did it say it was an uncontrolled ascent? The article says the dive leader noticed he was only ascending away from the group. Why was there no comm between him and his buddy and why did his buddy allow him to drift away without noticing? Sounds like the “buddy”’abdicated his responsibility to the dive leader.

 

[DandyDon]

Why was there no comm between him and his buddy and why did his buddy allow him to drift away without noticing? Sounds like the “buddy”’abdicated his responsibility to the dive leader.

He may well not have had a designated buddy.

That's how we were trained, sure. It's a rule rarely enforced by ops, tho. CYA.

 

[wgw04024]

Group dive = no buddy.
The only person I'd chase is 'my kid'.
It's amazing how many of these stories start with 'we lost sight of him' or 'separated from buddy'.