Four European divers missing - Mersing, Malaysia
- Thread starter DandyDon
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Dan
Contributor
I carry both on my ocean dives. They are all in my BCD pockets and tethered to D-ring (except for DSMB), hoping to never use them (except for DSMB).
From Melissa Goh.
Breaking : 46 year old British, Adrian Chesters & 18 year old French, Alexia Molina rescued by fishermen south of Pengerang near border with Indonesia around 1 am Saturday after having drifted for 3 days. Duo being treated at Pasir Gudang hospital. 14 yr old Nathan still missing.
Breaking : 46 year old British, Adrian Chesters & 18 year old French, Alexia Molina rescued by fishermen south of Pengerang near border with Indonesia around 1 am Saturday after having drifted for 3 days. Duo being treated at Pasir Gudang hospital. 14 yr old Nathan still missing.
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Yeah nobody uses these items over here. Never hv issues with missing boats etc.
In all cases when diving here, the boat skipper needs to be s trusted member of the team who knows what he is doing & is not only professional but understands the currents & dive site well.
If the boat skipper is not focused, things can go wrong real fast.x
OP
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If the instructor, the oil executive, anyone had, and they stayed together, it would have been over quickly. I don't know about registering a PLB in your country, I suppose it can be done it varies with countries, but even if a foreign registered PLB had been activated, then communications could have happened. The locals were already looking for them so the state department that got the original alert could have sent messages to tell them where to find them.
If no one had reported them missing, things would have worked much slower as 90% of PLB alerts are butt-dials, but things still could have developed. I still think that the first thing to do in such a case is to tie all divers together into a group. As someone mentioned, reg hoses tied to D rings would work. A group is easier to spot than a single diver, and then you find them all.
Yeah, having a meth-head for a driver was very unfortunate, but at least he did report them missing instead of running away.
Dan
Contributor
SaltyFrog
Contributor
There are PLBs available here in Malaysia and you can register approved models with a national database. Very few divers I've seen here even carry SMBs though, let alone PLBs. There are certainly strong currents in a lot of the waters around these parts but divers getting swept away and lost is not at all common. I've had members of my dive group separated but the dive guides are generally good at following them and boat crew usually keep an eye out. Most dive operators I've dived with have more than one crew member on the boat. This sort of excursion with a single boat captain and a small group is likely the exception rather than the rule.
All said and done I'm strongly considering getting a ACR ResQlink now or a Nautilus Lifeline.
All said and done I'm strongly considering getting a ACR ResQlink now or a Nautilus Lifeline.
Dan
Contributor
You mean, not even a DSMB?
I dive a lot in strong currents (Raja Ampat, Komodo, Palau, Maldives Deep South). When we face a strong current, first thing DM would do is to launch the DSMB underwater. The deeper you do it, the easier and faster to fill air into the DSMB and the sooner that sausage pops up on the surface to alert the boat and follow it.
Dan
Contributor
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