Gulf news reporting a missing spearo near Dubai.
Dubai: Family and friends of a 35-year-old Algerian diver who went missing off the Dubai coast on New Years Day are praying for his return, even as a massive search by the authorities entered the eighth day on Wednesday.
Adel Ait-Ghezala, 35, a PhD student in international relations from the American University in Washington DC, was spearfishing with three of his friends 22 km off Dubai Marina last Wednesday when he suddenly disappeared.
Dubai-based Nadim Majzoub, one of the three divers who was with Adel and Rana, said they had set out on their trip at around 11.15am on January 1 and all was well until they encountered a current 22 miles off the coast. The visibility also turned poor.
The water conditions were murky. We had a visibility of two metres or less on the surface and around five metres at the bottom of the sea. So we decided to split, with one of us keeping watch from the boat along with Rana, while the others would descend and come up together. Adel and I went down together and our fins were just back to back.
However when Majzoub surfaced, Adel was not with him.
I held my head out waiting for him to pop up. But a minute passed and nothing happened. We got really worried when we didnt see him even five minutes later. The other two divers went down looking for him, while Rana and I did a surface search. We also contacted the coast guard.
He said Adel disappeared at around 3.40pm. He is a very experienced diver and just that morning he was saying how much he loved to dive, he added.
Dubai: Family and friends of a 35-year-old Algerian diver who went missing off the Dubai coast on New Years Day are praying for his return, even as a massive search by the authorities entered the eighth day on Wednesday.
Adel Ait-Ghezala, 35, a PhD student in international relations from the American University in Washington DC, was spearfishing with three of his friends 22 km off Dubai Marina last Wednesday when he suddenly disappeared.
Dubai-based Nadim Majzoub, one of the three divers who was with Adel and Rana, said they had set out on their trip at around 11.15am on January 1 and all was well until they encountered a current 22 miles off the coast. The visibility also turned poor.
The water conditions were murky. We had a visibility of two metres or less on the surface and around five metres at the bottom of the sea. So we decided to split, with one of us keeping watch from the boat along with Rana, while the others would descend and come up together. Adel and I went down together and our fins were just back to back.
However when Majzoub surfaced, Adel was not with him.
I held my head out waiting for him to pop up. But a minute passed and nothing happened. We got really worried when we didnt see him even five minutes later. The other two divers went down looking for him, while Rana and I did a surface search. We also contacted the coast guard.
He said Adel disappeared at around 3.40pm. He is a very experienced diver and just that morning he was saying how much he loved to dive, he added.