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

[justinthedeeps]

The Indonesian S&R footage shows single-tank divers apparently easily diving to 80 metres on single tanks of air, which while clearly not wise, frankly isn't actually all that hard to survive on a bounce dive in calm conditions

So it's likely there was more going on here than just an ordinary dive, a chill safety stop, and a simple customer mistake.

Many Indo guides would easily reach an important dropped item before the customer does under most conditions, without a second thought given. They are that awesome. Something doesn't add up

 

[Dan]

Many Indo guides would easily beat the customer down to retrieve an important dropped item under most conditions, without a second thought given. They are that awesome. Something doesn't add up

It happened to me when I was in Komodo last December. I dropped one of my weight pouches before the skiff pilot had a full grab of it when I handed it off to him before I removed my BCD on the water & climbed up the skiff’s ladder without dive gears. So, I went back to the bottom at 20m depth to retrieve it. I didn’t realize that my DM shadowed me down. I searched for a couple minutes to no avail. Went back up to the skiff. As I removed my BCD off, the DM tapped me on my back and handed me off the darn weight pouch.

My lesson then is to climb up the ladder with my BCD with weight pouches on it. Think as a good leg exercises for the day.

 

[touny71]

I can’t believe she was a trained tech diver and still did single tank to 80 mtrs … doesn’t make sense.

Is there a public profile of hers somewhere? Attempting a bounce dive on a single tank of air to 80+m to retrieve her camera may be plausible for the “self-deluded” expert , but it’s hard to believe a trained diver would engage in such reckless behaviour to video a shark at that depth. If the DM retrieved her gear at 25mtrs how was she using it at 80mtrs?

Here’s a video of her body retrieval by the SAR team…

Don't trust what you see in social media. Is there any proof that this footage is of the accident?

 

[touny71]

Do I get the following event chronologically correct?
- The group finished the dive and at 5m safety stop when she dropped her GoPro.
- She went down with DM to retrieve it.
- DM found it at 25m depth.
- They saw Thresher shark at depth and descended to > 90m (based on the quote, below)

- DM ascended, but she stayed to photograph the shark at around 100m.
- Her computer showed she ascended to 70+m and descended again to 80m.

If it is, there’s high likely that she ran out of air when she tried to ascend. Perhaps her air consumption increased significantly due to ascending against a down current.

Even then, this seems like madness. Very hard to believe that anyone of sane mind and with at least average experience would do this

 

[JonnieB]

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.

Sounds like a cluster all around!

 

[abrmy]

Translation available?

I tried — not sure how accurate.

FIRST VIDEO:

Head of the Operations and Alert Section of the Office [Music]

The victim, named Zang Xiaohan, was found deceased. Thus, the operation ended at 15:45 Central Indonesia Time, said Andrew in his statement on Friday afternoon.

Good afternoon.

We from the Balikpapan Search and Rescue Office would like to inform you about the latest developments regarding the search for one foreign national named Zang Xiaohan, a 30-year-old woman, who on Friday, May 2, 2025, experienced an incident while diving in the waters of Kakaban Island, specifically at the Kelapa 2 dive site.

Today, May 3, 2025, the joint SAR (Search and Rescue) team continued the second day of the search with an operational plan that included:


1. Conducting a dive around the location of the incident.


2. Performing a sweep using five speedboats, including boats from Basarnas (National SAR Agency), the Police, and the Green Nirvana Resort.


3. A plan to deploy one aerial unit to conduct an air search.

At 08:00, after the briefing, a team of divers from the joint SAR team immediately began the search.

Results of the first search:

The dive team spotted the victim at a depth of 87 meters, but were unable to evacuate her at that time.

At 14:55 Central Indonesia Time, the joint SAR team successfully retrieved the victim.

She was found deceased, near the Kelapa 2 dive site.

The body was evacuated to the joint SAR post located at the Green Nirvana Resort jetty, and subsequently received further medical attention.

At 15:15, after receiving medical handling, the victim was then transported to Tanjung Batu Port, and from there taken to the Abdul Rifai Berau Regional Hospital.

With the victim found at 15:45, the joint SAR team held a debriefing, and all personnel and units involved in the search operation were returned to their respective stations.

Thankfully, the evacuation process went safely and smoothly, without any significant obstacles.

That concludes our update from the Balikpapan Search and Rescue Office.

Thank you.


SECOND VIDEO:

Here is the full English translation of the second Indonesian transcript you provided:

We now move on to other information, viewers.

A tourist from Shanghai, China, named Zang Xiaohan, who was reported missing while diving around the waters of Kakaban Island, Berau Regency, East Kalimantan, has been found deceased. Her body was successfully evacuated by officers after being underwater for 31 hours.

After the recovery, the body was immediately transported from Maratua Island to Tanjung Redeb City using a speedboat, which took about 4 hours.

The process of recovering the victim from underwater involved around 8 divers.

Novian Hidayat, Head of the Emergency and Logistics Division of BPBD Berau, said the body was found lying on the seabed at a depth of 77 meters. The location where she was found was not far from the spot where she had been diving before being declared missing.

When found, her clothing and diving gear were still fully intact.

Upon arrival at the Sanggam Pier in Tanjung Redeb, the body was immediately taken to Dr. Abdul Rifai Regional Hospital.

According to information received, the body will be collected by her family, who are expected to arrive in Berau on May 6, which falls on a Saturday.

She was found on May 3rd at 15:02, after being underwater for 31 hours in the marine waters of Kakaban Island, Payung-payung Village, Maratua District, Berau Regency. The search was conducted using a visual tandem diving method with a visibility of 30 meters.

Weather conditions at the time were safe, calm, and clear. The distance between the incident point and where the victim was found was approximately 50 meters.

Her clothes and diving equipment were still attached when found.

Based on the statement from the diving instructor who accompanied the victim, Zang Xiaohan was a licensed diver. However, during the dive, she was said to have insisted on retrieving her camera, which had fallen to a prohibited depth limit.

Explore new ways of getting information. Download Metro TV Extend now.

It would be a shame if we were being misled to scoff about the circumstances, if there is chance the victim actually had no control over getting hauled down to 80 metres at a time and place where no divers should be in the water at all ?

Which has happened before (pg. 20)

It happens almost every year at busy sites near the deep Ceningan Strait, which scares even the most wild tech diver I have met (who is still alive) enough that they have sworn to never to dive there again.
[And yet, thousands of divers still go there to roll the dice]

Do you mind sharing more about Ceningan Straits? I’m planning to go to
Lembongan, anything like this I should look out for? Thank you

 

[Dan]

She often claimed that she could dive on a single air tank to a depth of 70 meters.

She might have done it before from a single full tank. However. in this case, she just finished a dive & at safety stop when she went back down to such depth, which mean:
1. The tank is almost empty
2. Zero surface interval with high N2 loading

Definitely suicidal.

 

[Dan]

The dropped GoPro was actually retrieved by the guide at around 25 meters depth.

This makes sense as we typically dive V profile, not U profile, to maximize our NDL dive time. So we typically slowly ascend along a slope to do safety stop in the shallow (~5-20m bottom). So if an accident happens during safety stop, we would be in a manageable depth.

 

[Centrals]

A well trained and experienced dm is always the last to board the boat.
The victim in this case is the ONLY one to blame.

 

[tarponchik]

Every time you open the case, you risk flooding it on the next dive. Ask me how I know.

Don't know about GoPro, but my Sony A6000 battery is good enough for 2 dives. And since the surface interval before the 3d dive is always longer, I have enough time to rinse the case properly to change the battery.