Unknown Chinese diver's body recovered - Kakaban Island, Indonesia

[DandyDon]

It sounds like he dropped his camera, chased it down, and something went awry...

Missing Chinese diver found dead in Indonesia's Kakaban Island

A Chinese national identified as Zhang Xiaohan was found dead on Saturday after reportedly missing while diving off the coast of Kakaban Island in Berau ...

en.antaranews.com

Samarinda, E Kalimantan (ANTARA) - A Chinese national identified as Zhang Xiaohan was found dead on Saturday after reportedly missing while diving off the coast of Kakaban Island in Berau District, East Kalimantan.

“The victim, Zhang Xiaohan, a 30-year old diver from China, was found dead by a joint SAR team at 2:55 p.m., about 78 metres below the sea level in the Kelapa Dua diving trail,” East Kalimantan's Balikpapan City SAR officer Endrow Sasmita stated on Saturday evening.

Zhang was found near the location where he was last seen, Sasmita said, adding that the evacuation marked the conclusion of the search operation at 3:45 p.m.

The victim’s body was evacuated to the joint SAR team checkpoint at the Green Nirvana Jetty for handling by the medical team before being sent to Abdul Rivai General Hospital in Tanjung Redeb in Berau District, he informed.

“The search location was challenging. Fortunately, unified support from all parties helped us find the victim,” Sasmita remarked.

According to him, Zhang had gone diving in a tour group off the coast of Kakaban Island on Friday (May 2) morning. The group finished their activities at 9 a.m., as instructed by their diving guide, identified as Willy.

However, as Zhang ascended until around five metres below the surface, he lost grip of his camera, prompting him to dive back to retrieve the missing camera. As he failed to appear on the surface minutes after diving, the team reported Zhang missing.

The joint SAR team then initiated a search operation with support of the Balikpapan SAR office, the Berau SAR team, the police and military, and local divers.

 

[Steelyeyes]

The only times I have not had my camera clipped to my d ring was when I was close up with Tiger sharks. If one got curious I didn't want to be dragged away. One did mouth one of my strobes but didn't try to take the camera.

 

[DandyDon]

The only times I have not had my camera clipped to my d ring was when I was close up with Tiger sharks.

I've always kept my Sealife and Strobe attached to my wrist with a lanyard until I took it loose on the surface to pass it to the boat crew. Never dropped one, but different folks have different challenges.

 

[Dan]

No camera worths your life.

I lost a camera once. A liveaboard captain accidentally kicked it off the boat dive deck while trying to help gearing up a diver. I happened to lay my camera next to me while gearing up by myself. He was so focused in trying to help one helpless diver, walking next to my camera and kicked it off the dive deck. The bottom was only 20m deep, but the current was pretty strong. My buddy and I tried to find it to no avail.

 

[Nick_Radov]

Diver dies after chasing GoPro down

The body of a female scuba diver who tried to retrieve a dropped camera was recovered from a reported depth of 87m near Kakaban, one of the Derewan Islands

divernet.com

 

[Nemrod]

The only times I have not had my camera clipped to my d ring was when I was close up with Tiger sharks. If one got curious I didn't want to be dragged away. One did mouth one of my strobes but didn't try to take the camera.

It is always sad to hear of a diver death or any for that matter but so tragic when pursuing what should be a fun pass time.

There are cameras and then there are cameras. If it was a $10,000 piece of equipment and that is not out of the ordinary for underwater photo gear, then I can understand why he would have chased it to the bottom.

1. Tether your camera all the time. My camera is always tethered to my scooter ring and if I need to use both of my hands then it is double or triple tethered. I only unclip the long tether once the deck crew has the camera in hand. I generally go in with the camera.

2. The camera system should be weighted such that it is neutral +/- a few ounces, that way not only does it make using the camera system much easier but it will not plummet to the depths or shoot to the surface which can be worse.

3. Inexperienced divers, do not know if this was in play here, should not take camera gear into the water. It is a distraction from safety practices and mental focus and requires discipline and buoyancy and trim skills far in excess of what any newbie diver would be expected to have.

 

[Edward3c]

I'm just suprised the SAR team would operate at those depths.

 

[Centrals]

I'm just suprised the SAR team would operate at those depths.

That is quite a remote part in Indonesia. And I will be very surprised if helium etc is available.
However, many peoples had successfully dived to 100m with a single tank of AIR. So anything is possible.
I do not think the recovery process will be made public.

A female diver in our dive boat also dropped her Go pro after a dive at Hin Muang last year. She was absolutely devastated because the camera has all the pictures she took on her holiday!!! How difficult it is to down load the pictures to a separate device everyday and also a lanyard to secure the camera to the bc or wrist?

 

[esanisa]

Here are some clarifications regarding the incident:

1. The diver, Xiaohan Zhao, was a technical diver (DM).
2. She often claimed that she could dive on a single air tank to a depth of 70 meters.
3. The dropped GoPro was actually retrieved by the guide at around 25 meters depth. The guide had already descended to below 10 bar and ascended on his own. Xiaohan stayed deeper near Kakaban Island to photograph a longtail shark, so her presence at depth was not due to retrieving the equipment.
4. The dive computer log shows her last dive reached a maximum depth of approximately 100 meters, then ascended to around 70+ meters before descending again to about 80 meters, which is where the body was eventually recovered.
5. The rescue team was led by the owner of Noah Resort, who and his team conducted the recovery dive using single air tanks down to about 83 meters.

Let me know if you need further details or assistance.

 

[Underwater Tourist]

whenever i read anything like that, a popular OWD lesson always comes to mind

"there are two type of divers at the greatest risk: absolute beginners because they don't know the rules, and experts because they think the laws of physics don't apply to them"