Canadian diver and buddy rescued near Apo Island, Philippines

[Dizzi Lizzi]

At one time, when I was in GBR , I tried to use a soft case and noticed that the crushing pressure at 102’ depth was enough to turn on the PLB1 under water. See the red light lit up in the picture below. So you either don’t dive it to that depth with soft case or use a hard case as @Dizzi Lizzi was talking about in her post.

View attachment 444737

Yes exactly. Soft case for shallow, hard case for deep.

 

[Dizzi Lizzi]

This might be the most complicated thing I've read on SB and I don't mean that as an insult.

True

 

[billt4sf]

The thing that stuck out to me was that the boat crew thought they had some sort of diving accident and looked for them underwater, as opposed to on the surface.

That, to me, says that people can get "blinders on" and they they are doing the right thing, they were probably frantic and highly anxious, when in fact they need to think outside the box a little bit.

Just an observation.

- Bill

 

[Bogtrotter]

It's possible they did take a surface drift into account. But if it was an underwater incident and the boat had left to seek them down current they would undoubtedly be criticized for abandoning them in a more urgent situation. It sounds like they really needed more than one boat. I wonder how the coastguard approached the situation and where they started their search.

 

[Dogbowl]

It's possible they did take a surface drift into account. But if it was an underwater incident and the boat had left to seek them down current they would undoubtedly be criticized for abandoning them in a more urgent situation. It sounds like they really needed more than one boat. I wonder how the coastguard approached the situation and where they started their search.

There was no mention of a coast guard search.

It appears this isn’t like what they do in Cozumel, where the divers all drift in one direction and the dive boat picks everyone up towards the end. It appears here that the boat was moored, had as much as 30 divers onboard. Perhaps the other divers were doing different dives?

 

[Centrals]

There was no mention of a coast guard search.

It appears this isn’t like what they do in Cozumel, where the divers all drift in one direction and the dive boat picks everyone up towards the end. It appears here that the boat was moored, had as much as 30 divers onboard. Perhaps the other divers were doing different dives?

The nearest Coast Guard boat was probably still moored at Cebu City.
Apo Island is an island and if the current is flowing you have to go to the other side of the island to avoid it. There is NO way that one dive boat can cover two spots at the same time.

 

[Dogbowl]

The nearest Coast Guard boat was probably still moored at Cebu City.
Apo Island is an island and if the current is flowing you have to go to the other side of the island to avoid it. There is NO way that one dive boat can cover two spots at the same time.

So are you saying there was no active search for them after the dive boat left for shore? That’s not comforting to know.

 

[Centrals]

So are you saying there was no active search for them after the dive boat left for shore? That’s not comforting to know.

Where did I say that there was NO active search?
Please don't put words into my mouth.
However, I do believe if there was any co-ordinated search, the missing divers would have been rescued long time ago!! The divers went down around 13:00 and surfaced 45mins later, ample of daylight left unless the weather was poor!
Apo Island has two dive operators so probably 3-4 reasonable sized banca boats. And they could have been out diving. And the local fishing boats are tiny. There were probably several bigger diving boats from outside area diving around Apo Island also at that time. But I would be very surprised that they were much communication between each dive boats when the accidents was reported to Coast Guard. Fuel is another problem! Who is going to pay the fuel and who is going to supply the fuel?

 

[Dogbowl]

Where did I say that there was NO active search?
Please don't put words into my mouth.
However, I do believe if there was any co-ordinated search, the missing divers would have been rescued long time ago!! The divers went down around 13:00 and surfaced 45mins later, ample of daylight left unless the weather was poor!

Cool it dude!

You are now putting words in my mouth. Please calmly re-read my post and digest what I actually wrote.

I asked if that was what you meant. All you needed to do was clarify. You did say this, didn’t you?

The nearest Coast Guard boat was probably still moored at Cebu City.

AND, you said again in the above post that “...if there was a co-ordinated search, the divers would have been rescued long time ago!!”

That seems to suggest to me you don’t think there was a search!

 

[billt4sf]

I wonder how the coastguard approached the situation and where they started their search.

Coast Guard in the Philippines? I would be interested to hear if there is any such.