divers were left behind in the water with boat left in two dives

[wenghaidong]

Shanghaidivers club(http://www.shanghaidivers.org) organized 21 divers to go to sipadan for a dive trip from Sept.30 to Oct.5 in 2004. we chose Abdullah Sipadan Paradise (ASP) as local service provider. the dives they took were in general great . Although generally dive manager and the team had a high level of concern and were responsible for the safety of guest divers, there were unfortunately two serious occurences that divers were left behind in the water with boat left in two dives. Details as below. the reason we sent this memo is to call for dive shop's high attention on divesafety, review and improve their operation so that they may avoid any similar occurence in future.

becuase 2 divers in these incidents is PADI and DAN SEAP member. we also sent the memo to PADI AND DAN SEAP. We appreciate DAN SEAP great support in this case and theirs expert advice. . we also impressed by the diveshops'( Abdullah Sipadan Paradise (ASP) ) responsible investigation of these incident reports

This is haidong weng , the president of shanghai divers club , the largest divers organization in Shanghai,China that specializes in promoting dive safety, marine conservation, recommending and organizing dive trips. I publish the memo , reply from DAN SEAP . incident reports from ASP as below.

"1. Memo about divesafty issue

To:
Abdullah Sipadan Paradise (ASP) Sipadan, Malyasia
Adventure JourneyWorld Travel (Borneo) Sdn Bhd
Lot 4, Ground Floor, Block A,
Taman Fortuna Shoplots,
Jalan Penampang
Tel : 6088-223918 or 6088-224918
Fax : 6088-258105 or 6088-248331
Email : jworld@po.jaring.my
website : http://www.borneo.org

Copy to:

PADI Asia Pacific
3/4, Skyline Place, Frenchs Forest
New South Wales, Sydney 2086
Australia
Phone: 61-2-9451-2300
Fax:61-2-9451-9999
Email: padi-adm@padi.com.au

DAN SEAP

PO Box 384, Ashburton, Victoria, 3147,
Australia
Phone +61 -3 9886 9166
Fax +61 -3 9886 9155
Email: info@danseap.org


Dear Sir,

This is haidong weng , the president of shanghai divers club , the largest divers organization in Shanghai,China that specializes in promoting dive safety, marine conservation, recommending and organizing dive trips.

Shanghaidivers club organized 21 divers to go to sipadan for a dive trip from Sept.30 to Oct.5 in 2004. we chose Abdullah Sipadan Paradise (ASP) as local service provider. the dives they took were in general great . Although generally Tom (dive manager) and the team had a high level of concern and were responsible for the safety of guest divers, there were unfortunately two serious occurences that divers were left behind in the water with boat left in two dives. Details as below. the reason we sent this memo is to call for dive shop's high attention on divesafety, review and improve your operation so that you may avoid any similar occurence in future. imagining how terrible it was for divers when they found themselves abandoned by boat after they came to surface.


Occurrence one

Date: 1,Oct. 2004. 11:00am
Divesite. Turtle Patch , Sipadan
Brief of Dive.
Dive master: Tom
Diveshop: Abdullah Sipadan Paradise (ASP),Sipadan
Dive Boat: No.8
Diver: Su Yan

Narration by Su Yan:
"We entered the water at about 11:00am with others 9 divers and 1 divemaster. The visibility is about 15 meter and max. Depth is about 10m,we all followed the current. I couldn't find others after dive about 40 minutes. When I came back to surface after 60 minutes dive , the boat had left. I stayed on the surface for about 20-30 minutes. One boat of others sipadan diveshop passed by , picked me up and transfered me to another boat of Abdullah Sipadan Paradise. and I waited on the boat for another 20-30 minutes and back to the resort. during the time(about 1 hours) between I came to the surface and returned to resort , the divemaster and the boat(no. 8) didn't do anything like searching and rescue."

Occurrence two

Date/time: 04 October, 2004, 7 pm
Divesite: Sipadan Island, Drop Off
boat no.
Brief of the dive : enter the water at Drop Off, dive along reef wall
at about 15 meters and return

Diver 1: Steve

Diver 2: Xumi

Narration by Steve Chu:
" We entered the water at about 7 pm. It was a night dive. Xumi was my dive buddy. We swam roughly northeast, keeping the reef wall to our right for about 22 minutes. We then started to return. About half way back, we got confused with the entry point and surfaced after about 10 minutes. We were about 500 yards from the entry point. There was one boat waiting at the entry point. Xumi had a Divealert which she blew and after a few minutes a boat appeared behind us from the direction opposite to the direction of the entry point. So its original position was quite far from the entry point. The driver did not know what resort we were from nor was he expecting to find us.The boat we took out to the dive site was not there. After ten minutes we picked up another two divers who started the dive with us and we were eventually taken back to the resort."

Shanghaidivers hope the above two occurrences can ring a high alert to Abdullah Sipadan Paradise and other diveshop in sipadan. For the sake of saving divers'life, Pls DO TAKE ACTION AND IMPROVE...

We expect your prompt response on the above.

Best Regards,

haidong weng
shanghai divers club
"

2. Reply from DAN SEAP
Dear Weng,

Further to your email, I have now written to the dive operator concerned and offered some suggestions. Thanks again for pointing this out to DAN SEAP.

Keep up your good work for dive safety. I look forward to working with you in the future.

Regards,

John
John Lippmann
Executive Director
DIVERS ALERT NETWORK (DAN) S.E. ASIA-PACIFIC
Box 384 Ashburton VIC 3147
Australia
Tel: +61-3-9886 9166; Fax: +61-3-9886 9155
www.danseap.org


DAN SEAP ... Your Buddy in Dive Safety

CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE

-----Original Message-----
From: JOHN LIPPMANN [mailto:johnl@danseap.org]
Sent: 14 October, 2004 3:24 PM
To: 'jworld@po.jaring.my'
Subject: Recent diving incidents at Sipadan- Abdullah Sipadan Paradise


We recently received an email from a dive club in China, some members of which dived with you earlier this month.

It is alleged that on two occasions, divers were left in the sea without apparent boat cover and were later picked up by other operators. It appears that the divers involved were very concerned about the situation. Two of the divers were DAN members.

The number of similar reports that we receive from time to time is quite alarming. Fortunately, most divers are retrieved before serious problems occur, as in this instance. However, as you know, this is not always the case. About 3 weeks ago two divers appear to have perished at sea in Fiji after their dive boat failed to find them.

It is essential for dive operators, such as yourself, to have appropriate equipment available and procedures in place to minimise the chances of such occurrences.

We recommend that the following items, as a minimum, be carried by all divers, especially in current-prone areas:

- safety sausage/SMB
- whistle
- strobe or cyalume stick for night dives
- flashlight (even for day dives in case of getting lost and not found before dark)

We suggest that dive operators:

- provide divers with any of the above (on loan) as required
- ensure that all dive guides and boat crew are competent and professional
- give clear briefings of the dive plan, the boat cover provided, action to be taken in the event of separation
- have a 100% efficient 'head-count' system(s) and a clear and effective action plan in the event of a missing diver
- provide sufficient dive guides, especially for night dives
- ensure groups of divers use drift lines with bright-coloured floats on drift dives, to enable the boat operator to easily observe the location of the divers

Such common-sense precautions may not eliminate problems but will surely minimise such occurrences.

Yours in safe diving,
John Lippmann
Executive Director
DIVERS ALERT NETWORK (DAN) S.E. ASIA-PACIFIC
Box 384 Ashburton VIC 3147
Australia
Tel: +61-3-9886 9166; Fax: +61-3-9886 9155
www.danseap.org


DAN SEAP ... Your Buddy in Dive Safety

 

[wenghaidong]

3.incident reports from ASP

Dear Mr. Weng,

Firstly, allow me to introduce myself. I am Chang Chi-Min, a director of Abdillah Sipadan Paradise. We like to thank you for your feedbacks with regard to the recent dive tour of your Shanghai Divers Club members and especially the two unfortunate incidents that you have highlighted.

First of all, let me assure you that our resort management puts a great deal of emphasis on guest safety. Since receiving your memo, we have conducted refresher briefing for our staff on our established safe dive operational procedures. We have also done a thorough investigation on the two incidents that you have highlighted.


Incident No. 1.
This incident is much regretted. It has not only caused much anxiety to Mr. Su Yan but has also tarnished our resort image. This is the first time that we have received a report of such nature. We like to earnestly apology to Mr. Su Yan for the happening.

What really amazes me is how this happening could escape our safety procedure which requires both our DM and boat man to do separate head count before and after every dive. And Tom is a very experienced DM with ten years of dive mastering experiences behind him. He has related to me that this is the first time that such regrettable incident has happened to any divers under his guidance. While not trying to release or relief ourselves of any blame, it is also very surprising that the buddy of Mr. Su Yan did not at any time report about her missing buddy.

In all, this incident is much regretted and we shall try our best to make sure that there is no repeat of such incident.


Incident No. 2.
We thank you and Mr. Steve Chu for the feedback. We know that both of you mean well. However, looking at the report from Mr. Steve Chu, we can't help noticing that there is a glaring omission of a very significant occurrence during the duration of the night dive. When Ms Michelle Xu and Mr. Steve Chu went for the night dive at about 7.00 pm on 4th October, 2004, the weather condition was good and the sea calm. Not long into their dives, however, the weather suddenly turned very bad, gusty wind started to blow from north westerly direction resulting in very rough sea and high wave at the drop off area. This sudden change in sea condition at the drop off is a very rare phenomenon considering that the drop off is situated at a protected location. Realising that the sea condition is not safe for his single hull boat, the boatman returned to the resort which is only 3 minutes boat drive away from the drop off to change to a twin hull dive boat and immediately headed back to the drop off and on the way back they met Mr. Steve Chu and Ms Michelle Xu. After picking up Mr. Steve Chu and Ms.Michelle Chu, this boat proceeded to the drop off and later pick up the other divers. The boatman of the original single hull boat was together with the boatman of the twin hull boat so it is not possible that they do not recognise Mr. Steve Chu and Ms. Michelle Xu. Beside, we are the only resort at Sipadan that uses dive boats to facilitate and assist divers doing night dives. Other resorts do beach entry for their night dives. It is also not a case of our boatman simply abandoning the divers to return to the resort to change boat. At that material time, there was another of our twin hull boat at the drop off which Mr Steve Chu has rightly pointed out in his report.

On hearing of the rough sea condition at the drop off, our resort manager and the dive section supervisor actually rushed to the jetty which is situated next to the drop off to make sure all our divers return to the resort safely.

Consider the sudden change in weather and sea condition and the actions that we have taken, we denied any wrong doing in this case. In any case, we thank you and Mr. Steve Chu for your feedback.

Regards,

Chi-Min

4. commends from shanghai divers

Dear Mr. Chang

I am impressed by your responsible investigation of these incident reports. For you to properly conclude your investigation, you should be aware of the following:

1. it is certainly true that conditions were rougher when we surfaced than when we entered the water and so, while there was no intentional omission of the boat change in our report (as we did not know about it) I can understand why this made sense at the time. It is also true that we surfaced after about 32 minutes in the water and so the boat driver may well have thought he had time to go back to change boats.

2. It is not true however that the original driver was in the boat that picked us up. There was only one driver and he definitely did not know where we were from. He asked us repeatedly what resort we were from and as his English was not good we had difficulty communicating. He was also clearly expecting to pick up another group which had gone on another boat than the one we went out on.



Regards,

Steve Chu

5. second incident reports from ASP

Dear Mr. Chu,



Thank you for your further feedback. We have now received a more detailed report from the island management.



As mentioned in my previous mail, owing to the very rough sea condition, the boatman went back to the resort to ask for a change of boat. While the boatman, Mansur, of the twin hull boat SP 10 was ready and waiting for the original boatman who has gone back to the main building to collect something, the boatman Mansur heard a dive alert sound. He immediately left for the point from where the dive alert sound come without waiting for the original boatman. And so he met you and Miss Xu at a point which is quite a distance from the normal entry point ie. the drop off. We normally expect our night divers to surface near the entry point. It is therefore not surprising that he was unsure whether you were our guests. Actually, our boat SP 10 and Mansur were originally not involved in the night diving activities that day and because of the very rough sea condition which warranted a change of dive boat, he was despatched to help to pick up all our night diving guests including you and Miss Xu. After sending you, Miss Xu and a few divers to the resort, Mansur again returned to the drop off, this time together with the original boatman to help and ensure all divers returned safely to the resort. In a way, it was lucky that you were not doing beach entry for the night dive as practice by guests of other resorts on the island.



Anyway, the facts of the matter are :-



1. There was a drastic sudden change in weather and sea conditions. If the latter sea conditions has happened before the night dive, we would not have allowed night diving for that night.

2. There was a need to change dive boats because of the change in sea conditions.

3. Our resort maager was at the jetty which was situated next to the drop off, to ensure all our night diving guests returned safely to base.

4. We only allow divers of AOW certification or higher to do night dives.

.

The salient points here are i) Did we act negligently to left divers behind? and ii) Did we act in due diligence given the circumstances? I am of the opinion that we have not act negligently and we have exercised due diligence.



I believe that this is very much a case of misunderstanding which could have been resolved there and then had you brought up the case while you were at the resort.



I hope you are now satisfied with our explanation. We are sorry if you have at any time experienced anxiety during the dive. It is much regretted.

Regards,

Chang Chi-Min

6. commends from shanghaidivers club

Dear Mr. Chang

In today`s litigious world, it is inevitable that people in positions of responsibility and accountability look at problem situations in terms of blame and negligence. At least for my part, and I expect Haidong and Michelle would share the same view, it is not our purpose to assign blame or to accuse anyone of negligence. It is simply a fact that we found ourselves in a precarious situation. I have done nearly a hundred dives and about 10 night dives and this was the first time that I have felt unease. Of course we were never in real danger as we could have gone back down and swum to shore. Nonetheless, it was a potentially risky situation. Our purpose was to bring this to the attention of the right people to promote the safety of future divers at your resort.



If I can make a constructive suggestion, I felt that the communication between your boats was inadequate. Providing them with relatively inexpensive radios would improve this situation. The distances are not large and over water signals would carry a long way. As a result, inexpensive radios such as Motorola Talk-abouts would be adequate. I found that there was at least one occasion when I returned on a boat that I did not go out with (which implies a gap in the headcount system). Also, if there was radio communication, then the relief boat could have come out to the drop off point before the original, single hull boat returned to the beach.


Steve Chu