Guam: Man drowns while scuba diving

[DandyDon]

From Saipan Tribune

The son of the B&R Auto Shop's owner drowned Saturday afternoon while scuba diving with friends at Lau Lau Beach.

Saipan Tribune learned that Seung Bum Yu, 35, was pronounced dead at the Commonwealth Health Center that day.

Yu was scuba diving with five other persons, including a dive instructor, when the incident happened outside the reef of Lau Lau Beach around 4pm.

One of the victim's companions said they have already been diving for 30 to 45 minutes and were on their way to the surface when the tragic incident happened.

Jin Wook Cho, 35, a tour guide who was at B&R Auto Shop yesterday, told Saipan Tribune that he and Yu were together and had separated from the others.

While underwater, Cho said, he saw Yu take out his regulator and he appeared to be panicking.

When he tried to help his friend get to the surface, Cho said, the panicking Yu hit him on the mouth.

Cho said he drank some water and could not breath so he proceeded to the surface.

“He panicked.maybe he had nothing air [sic],” Cho said.

He said Yu repeatedly tried to go up, but the victim went down about five to six meters deep.

“I screamed for help,” Cho said.

He said some people who were at the shore came running and recovered Yu's body 10 to 15 minutes later.

When they reached the shore, an ambulance was already there. Medics tried to resuscitate the victim and later brought him to CHC.

Song Hwan Kim, 35, a resident of New Jersey, said he and Yu grew up together on Saipan. Kim said he arrived on island on Thursday and invited Yu to join him and their friends to go scuba diving.

Kim said the water was calm, but the visibility was bad so he did not see Yu and Cho while they were underwater.

“I knew something was wrong when I heard [Cho] screaming for help,” said Kim, who first thought there was a shark.

Kim said all of them who were already on the surface tried to help, but the instructor told them to wait.

Kim was also at B&R Shop yesterday with some friends, family members, and other members of the Korean community to express condolences to Yu's family.

The victim, the first drowning victim in the CNMI this year, was one of three children of B&R Auto Shop owner Sung Keun Yu.

 

[CARHILL]

FYI this happen on the Island of Saipan not Guam.

 

[BuoyantC]

This was probably a totally avoidable accident. The dive site is a very easy shore dive. We have heard more details of this, but it is all second hand information.

 

[fjpatrum]

I'm a little confused whether this was a class or just some divers out for an afternoon.

 

[Iruka]

I'm a little confused whether this was a class or just some divers out for an afternoon.

I agree, it's not really clear. It says there was an instructor with them, but I got the impression it wasn't a class..."invited him to go out diving with some friends." Also unclear is how many, if any (other than the instructor, of course) were certified divers. In this part of the world (Guam is pretty close to Saipan, for people not familiar with this area) a lot of people go diving uncertified, or certified people will take out uncertified friends. I should qualify that as "some people" rather than "a lot"....and this is all "private" diving....none of the dive shops support that practice.

Just reading between the lines, the fact that no-one attempted to get the victim from the bottom, reported to be only 5~6 meters (17~20 feet) would also make me think there may have been uncertified or very inexperienced divers. Unless they were all out of air, or visibility was really terrible, that wouldn't be very difficult for most compentent divers. But, as with most diving accidents, in the absence of facts, it's speculation.

 

[Tortuga68]

Here we go again...