Japanese diver killed by prop - Phuket, Thailand

[Sam Miller III]

Possibly diving from a "longtail" boat. When I dove Thailand those boats worried me due to the long extension of the driveshaft and prop
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Me also-- very very dangerous !
The propellers on those boats seem to be always churning
Very dangerous

SDM

 

[kaerius]

Possibly diving from a "longtail" boat. When I dove Thailand those boats worried me due to the long extension of the driveshaft and prop.

Nope, no longtails go to the similan islands. If the sea was that rough, no speedboats would make the trip to Koh Tachai either, so this was likely one of the classically thai converted fishing boats, a catamaran or possibly a liveaboard.

I know that much because I just came back from diving the similans in december, from speedboat and liveaboard. Only one company dives from speed boat (big blue). One company has a catamaran that's almost as fast, the rest is converted fishing boats or liveaboard yachts.

Koh Tachai is about an hour and a half from the northern, closest pier(Nam Khem) by speedboat.

 

[Bob DBF]

Possibly diving from a "longtail" boat. When I dove Thailand those boats worried me due to the long extension of the driveshaft and prop.

Looked it up. Holy crap, my brother and I built better machinery when we were kids.

The propellers on those boats seem to be always churning

Probably direct drive, if the engine is on the prop turns.


Bob

 

[drbill]

Probably direct drive, if the engine is on the prop turns.

Bob

The ones I dove off of did have the ability to stop the prop while the engine was running but still scary.

Kaerius is most likely right since it was the Similans. The longtails I used were for local dives.

 

[dmaziuk]

So they didn't weld the shaft directly to flywheel, they kept the clutch. Wow. (I've only seen these things in the movies and was as impressed as @Bob DBF.)

 

[kjsaw]

Found an update about this. Phuket News: Three charged for death of Japanese tourist slashed by dive boat propeller

“All three men – the boat captain, the dive instructor and the tour guide – have been charged for recklessness causing grievous bodily harm and death,” Capt Ekkachai Siri of the Phuket Tourist Police told The Phuket News today (Jan 8).

“She went into the water with three other beginners and the dive instructor. She became separated from the group and was struck by the propeller,” he added.

The boat was drifting and the captain wanted to keep the boat in the same position, Capt Ekkachai explained.

“So they started the engine to move the boat, and Ms Saori was struck by the propeller,” he added.

 

[wgw04024]

Oh man.

 

[infieldg]

"The tourist, 37-year-old Yoshida Saori, died from blood loss after she suffered multiple deep lacerations to her right thigh, Capt Ekkachai explained".

“At that time she was still conscious and talking to members of the rescue team

After following a link to an AMPHIBIOUS TOURNIQUET from the shark thread(?) I decided to buy one "one day", think that day needs to be "before my next boat dive". This is horrible, she might have made a full recovery if they could have stemmed the bleeding

 

[scorpiofish]

OK, I have to tell you this story. We were on the Ocean Rover, now an Aggressor boat in Indonesia. There are dozens upon dozens of bunkaboard boats out Phuket going to the Similans. Some of these are very basic and some are barely sea worthy. One day we were eating lunch and I look out the window and see this: 40 divers geared up at the bank of a large boat, the boat almost the size of an Aggressor boat, maybe 80'. I hear a whistle. Then see divers jumping off the back like lemmings. The boat is moving so divers don't drop on each other!! OMG I'm thinking to myself, although the acronym OMG didn't exist back then. So, the divers were jumping in the water from a moving boat, as in props rotating very fast.

 

[Neilwood]

I personally hope that some sort of prop guard should be fitted to dive boats to minimise the chances of any mishaps such as this.

Of course that doesn't take away from the fact that if divers are in the water, the props should not be spinning. Another thing that might have helped would have been an SMB/DSMB as the captain would have clearly seen a diver in the vicinity.