Four European divers missing - Mersing, Malaysia
- Thread starter DandyDon
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PLB-s are not get out of jail free cards, they tend to malfunction, send wrong coordinates or just not work properly when operated so low close to the water surface, and a full epirb unit is impractical to carry on a dive.
divinh
Contributor
Two scenarios...
1. French Polynesia, washing machine current. Dive plan was to drop in 3rd hole and watch critters zip by above us. DM led and I followed closely. Other pair was behind us. We dropped into first hole and expected to see other pair drop in too, but they were too high off the reef and zipped by above us. DM signaled she was going after them, so she left. I pop out after only to find I was too high off the reef. The DM managed to drop down to them in the 3rd hole while I zipped by above. They leave the hole and all four of us end up in the lagoon, on the righthand side. We could see the pickup boat, but they didn't see us, because we weren't where we were expected to be. Waving SMB didn't get their attention. Waving and shouting didn't work either, likely too far. DM used an airhorn and that worked. Lagoon was calm, so we didn't have to worry about drifting apart.
2. Komodo, drift dive. Dive plan was to be dropped off, drift, round corner into bay, and be picked up. Drift was fine. Rounding corner didn't work due to strong current. We ended up surfacing 15 minutes early. We could see the boat, but they weren't looking for us yet. DM tried waving SMB, then we all waved and shouted. I tried Storm whistle, no luck. I used a Dive Alert reg whistle, which was loud, but still didn't get the boat crew's attention. I did have a Nautilus Lifeline, which the DM tried to use to hail the boat. Unfortunately I didn't have it fully charged, so radio was disabled. Eventually it was around the time they expected us, so they saw us. There was current on the surface and we lined up right after surfacing, with person behind grabbing onto the person in front's tank neck. (After incident, I fully charged the Nautilus Lifeline and tested radio coms with the boat, two things I should have done immediately upon boarding the liveaboard. The dive was toward the end of the week and the Lifeline hadn't been charged for a few months. I didn't think the idle discharge was going to be that much. Also, the Lifeline has a power threshold to reserve for emergency signaling, at which point radio feature is disabled.)
1. French Polynesia, washing machine current. Dive plan was to drop in 3rd hole and watch critters zip by above us. DM led and I followed closely. Other pair was behind us. We dropped into first hole and expected to see other pair drop in too, but they were too high off the reef and zipped by above us. DM signaled she was going after them, so she left. I pop out after only to find I was too high off the reef. The DM managed to drop down to them in the 3rd hole while I zipped by above. They leave the hole and all four of us end up in the lagoon, on the righthand side. We could see the pickup boat, but they didn't see us, because we weren't where we were expected to be. Waving SMB didn't get their attention. Waving and shouting didn't work either, likely too far. DM used an airhorn and that worked. Lagoon was calm, so we didn't have to worry about drifting apart.
2. Komodo, drift dive. Dive plan was to be dropped off, drift, round corner into bay, and be picked up. Drift was fine. Rounding corner didn't work due to strong current. We ended up surfacing 15 minutes early. We could see the boat, but they weren't looking for us yet. DM tried waving SMB, then we all waved and shouted. I tried Storm whistle, no luck. I used a Dive Alert reg whistle, which was loud, but still didn't get the boat crew's attention. I did have a Nautilus Lifeline, which the DM tried to use to hail the boat. Unfortunately I didn't have it fully charged, so radio was disabled. Eventually it was around the time they expected us, so they saw us. There was current on the surface and we lined up right after surfacing, with person behind grabbing onto the person in front's tank neck. (After incident, I fully charged the Nautilus Lifeline and tested radio coms with the boat, two things I should have done immediately upon boarding the liveaboard. The dive was toward the end of the week and the Lifeline hadn't been charged for a few months. I didn't think the idle discharge was going to be that much. Also, the Lifeline has a power threshold to reserve for emergency signaling, at which point radio feature is disabled.)
They're the ones giving the press conferences so it might seem like they are taking credit. Regardless, they're part of the effort and have been actively searching.
That so many missing divers here have been eventually found by random vessels rather than coast guard, underscores just how hard it is to find a diver in the open sea. Probably as hard as finding a marble in a golf course, if the diver has no signaling aids...
1. Was the skipper high on Meth? Meth stays in the system for a long time and he did call for help.
2. I would not be at all surprised that the instructor did not have an smb with her.
3. Make smb and whistle as standard equipment for any operator/diver regardless the nature of the dive.
4. Her solo swim was nothing but stupid.
5. Dump the weight and use the weight belt.
How can the father know that his son has perished? What did I miss?
And let the body flowed away! Very odd indeed.
No weight belt to tie the body with the father?
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