Antigua: Dive boat leaves behind two scuba divers

[Mr. Bubble]

I think this is the key

There was no head-count

Ummm, DUH??

Involuntery man slaughter... And to think, they call themselves professionals


Shame.......they would'nt want me on the jury!

 

[Mr. Bubble]

ummm...what Jeff said!

 

[VBdiver]

My 2 pesos worth.
I think JahJah dude forgot point out that besides not having a sausage , mirror & whistle , these 2 guys should have had a de-coder ring, satellite phone , & an inflatable boat ! Oh yeah ,was that Aquafina or DeerPark for a beverage ?

Somewhere in that release of liability form , way down in the fine print ,you will find the "Robinson" accountability clause, if one shows any emotion, they will be deemed at fault.

Good grief, talk about some armchair Mike Nelson-ing.


VB

 

[BladesRobinson]

THIS WAS PRINTED IN TODAY'S "ANTIGUA SUN."


FROM: http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=464631108409052007&an=302522108909052007&ac=Local

Sandals issues statement on diving incident
Thursday September 06 2007


Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa has broken its silence on the incident in which two of its guests were inadvertently left at sea during a scuba diving trip last month.

The two men, British nationals vacationing in Antigua with their wives, had been part of an excursion led by a Sandals dive team. The alarm was reportedly raised by the men’s waiting wives when the group returned to the dock without them.

The tale has spread across the Internet, after a dramatic account of the incident was carried by the Cyber Diver News Network. Members of the British press have since picked up on the story, adding to Sandal’s potential exposure to bad publicity.

In its statement on the incident, Sandals International said that it deeply regrets the events of 16 Aug., in which the two guests of Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa who were part of scheduled diving trip “did not return with the rest of the group.”

According to the hotel chain’s account of the incident, the trip was led by four dive team members and the hotel management team reacted quickly when notified that the two guests have been left behind, dispatching Sandals boats as well as air and sea rescue teams immediately to the dive site.

Sandals fired the four members of the dive team immediately following the incident, but it defends the qualifications of its dive staff, stating that “Sandals Dive instructors are trained to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) international industry standards, which is the most respected and preferred diving accreditation in the world.

“The four (4) members of the dive team who led the dive on August 16th and who breached the company’s and PADI’s standard diving procedure, which requires that all divers be accounted for prior to departing a dive site, are no longer employed at the resort,” the statement continues.

Sandals said that its Antigua management team was deeply compassionate towards the guests’ misfortune and “extended every possible courtesy to them in an effort to ensure that the rest of their vacation was as comforting and pleasurable as possible. In fact, both guests along with their spouses went snorkelling, just days after the occurrence, at the Resort.

“The two couples received a full refund on their vacations. They have also accepted invitations and made bookings to return to the resort, courtesy of Sandals, at their convenience.”

 

[Web Monkey]

Don, you've never led me astray, but questioning the integrity source is pretty serious--can you please back up your claim?

The site contains large amounts of copyrighted material, used without permission and the stories contain a great deal of "creative writing".

The owner can not be contacted and is registered using a contact proxy, which means the owner's contact information is completely hidden.

However, you should make up your own mind. Try this in google:

sitename -site:sitename​

Replace sitename with the site's name. This will get you a number of references to their undesirable and illegal behaviour

Terry

 

[DandyDon]

Thanks Terry, and thank-you Blades for the follow up. Really, this may serve as a wake-up to Sandals and others that they should release their statements faster, less tabloid rags do a hatchet job on them.

Sandals statement seems good to me. They are responsible for the negligence, but how much control on their actions do they really have? I guess they did their best.

 

[Jeff Toorish]

THIS WAS PRINTED IN TODAY'S "ANTIGUA SUN."


FROM: http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=464631108409052007&an=302522108909052007&ac=Local

Sandals issues statement on diving incident
Thursday September 06 2007


Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa has broken its silence on the incident in which two of its guests were inadvertently left at sea during a scuba diving trip last month.

The two men, British nationals vacationing in Antigua with their wives, had been part of an excursion led by a Sandals dive team. The alarm was reportedly raised by the men’s waiting wives when the group returned to the dock without them.

The tale has spread across the Internet, after a dramatic account of the incident was carried by the Cyber Diver News Network. Members of the British press have since picked up on the story, adding to Sandal’s potential exposure to bad publicity.

In its statement on the incident, Sandals International said that it deeply regrets the events of 16 Aug., in which the two guests of Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa who were part of scheduled diving trip “did not return with the rest of the group.”

According to the hotel chain’s account of the incident, the trip was led by four dive team members and the hotel management team reacted quickly when notified that the two guests have been left behind, dispatching Sandals boats as well as air and sea rescue teams immediately to the dive site.

Sandals fired the four members of the dive team immediately following the incident, but it defends the qualifications of its dive staff, stating that “Sandals Dive instructors are trained to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) international industry standards, which is the most respected and preferred diving accreditation in the world.

“The four (4) members of the dive team who led the dive on August 16th and who breached the company’s and PADI’s standard diving procedure, which requires that all divers be accounted for prior to departing a dive site, are no longer employed at the resort,” the statement continues.

Sandals said that its Antigua management team was deeply compassionate towards the guests’ misfortune and “extended every possible courtesy to them in an effort to ensure that the rest of their vacation was as comforting and pleasurable as possible. In fact, both guests along with their spouses went snorkelling, just days after the occurrence, at the Resort.

“The two couples received a full refund on their vacations. They have also accepted invitations and made bookings to return to the resort, courtesy of Sandals, at their convenience.”

Kind of threw PADI under the bus there, didn't they?

Jeff

 

[DandyDon]

Kind of threw PADI under the bus there, didn't they?

Jeff

Ya' think? Padi has lots of standards printed that they don't enforce. Padi requires every Op with their name to test their tank air quarterly, regardless of where they are, but - there is no enforcement unless a complaint is filed.

But with Padi being the most recognized agency, many divers think they can trust their standards.

 

[DeepSeaExplorer]

Scubaboard policy is to block it as unreliable. You can ask the NetDoc, a Mod, or in Support for more info.

Hmm... so what is your methodology to determine the reliability? Since in this case the story is reliable, it seems like opinionated censorship.

 

[DandyDon]

Hmm... so what is your methodology to determine the reliability? Since in this case the story is reliable, it seems like opinionated censorship.

That it may well be, but anything from that source needs to be confirmed before believe in my opinion. Glad that is was.