ko tao woman hit by boat propeller

[Ian Yarwood]

Dear Cowfish

Do you still want the moderators to delete this thread?

Your expression of sympathy for the family of the deceased is looking frightfully shallow sir.

 

[Cowfish Aesthetic]

Do you still want the moderators to delete this thread?

I do. Regardless of your motivation, there is little to nothing in this thread that is appropriate for the A&I forum. Perhaps it would be more appropriate in the Scuba-related litigation forum. If so, a forum move would be adequate rather than removal.

 

[Wookie]

***MOD POST***

Do not turn this into a bickering contest. Cowfish, I have no issue with the content that Mr. Yarwood has posted, and it's obvious by his LinkedIn page that he has great interest about what happens in Ko Tao. Mr. Yarwood, this is not the place to ask what PADI teaches. There are places for that in the forum.

Don't make me pull over...

 

[yogavnture]

i know this might be off topic. but i do snorkel deep. and i worry about getting hit. when i come up. i refuse to be tethered to a rope and buoy .............is thier any thing else i can do to protect myself from getting hit by a passing boat?
what i do now is. . 1. i have a yellow or similar swim cap...........2. when i come up i raise my hand to go above surface first...........3. i do always look around before i go down, and i tryto take into consideration wind direction for sound to travel and etc. other than that i guess i will just take my chances. lets say i did come up and a boat was right above me..........what could i do? try not to panic. i would be out of breath but in a pinch i could stay down longer.........what about that article mr yarwood wrote that spoke about being sucked into the propeller.........i just am trying to think of any tips i might use to prevent getting hit. if i snorkel deep and i dont use a surface marker

 

[Dan]

i know this might be off topic. but i do snorkel deep. and i worry about getting hit. when i come up. i refuse to be tethered to a rope and buoy .............is thier any thing else i can do to protect myself from getting hit by a passing boat?
what i do now is. . 1. i have a yellow or similar swim cap...........2. when i come up i raise my hand to go above surface first...........3. i do always look around before i go down, and i tryto take into consideration wind direction for sound to travel and etc. other than that i guess i will just take my chances. lets say i did come up and a boat was right above me..........what could i do? try not to panic. i would be out of breath but in a pinch i could stay down longer.........what about that article mr yarwood wrote that spoke about being sucked into the propeller.........i just am trying to think of any tips i might use to prevent getting hit. if i snorkel deep and i dont use a surface marker

Don’t dive / snorkel in boat traffic area.

 

[yogavnture]

I don't see it on their FB page. So probably a 5 year old photo on the timeline.


I spent 7 years there. Over 1.5 million dives are conducted around Koh Tao per year. Without issues. Of course there is no news value in reporting about each of these dives, all the good experiences and the fun. That might still not make up for several unfortunate accidents, but in this case a local captain was inflicting the fatal injuries. Not the diveshop that the instructor was working for. But a captain working for another diveshop you mention in 6. I can already tell you that the manager from that diveshop did not tell the captain to run over surfacing divers (and that's common sense, one doesn't need to be a lawyer to come up with this).


My apologies for not being native English. Fortunately the message is still clear. Since I'm not a lawyer but a participant on a forum about scuba diving, I care less about jurisdictions than reading between your lines. See point 1. C'est le ton qui fait la musique (since you're not multilingual or bilingual but English-speaking: google it).


Surface Marker Buoy


He is listed as such on the PADI Pro website. Which is accessible for PADI Pro's.

Ian, if you're gonna post anything else in this section, I advise you to thoroughly read the special rules for this forum section. Several posts are crossing the line (including this reply), but that's up to a moderator to decide.

i would have to say i feel a bit offended by your post which says the boat man inflicted the injuries not the dive shop .......i know im paraphasing what u said. but every shop needs to protect their divers from other shops. thats what the problem was. one shop inflicted damage upon another shops divers.

 

[yogavnture]

Don’t dive / snorkel in boat traffic area.

but that is where the snorkeling is/............in areas where boats are at. everybody wants paradise.

 

[ScubaWithTurk]

The OP mentions the use of a flag. Nobody uses a dive flag in/on the water, just a SMB when surfacing. Flags are used on the boats. If a SMB was meant, don't use the word flag. Incorrect use of terminology leads to confusion.

.

Please clarify something for me, are you stating no one ever uses a dive flag unless it is flying from a boat? That one is NEVER used in the water, anywhere in the world? Or just in Thailand?

 

[gcarter]

I have used a dive flag myself - as have many others. In some jurisdictions it is required.

 

[Jay]

For those reading this post, and are not familiar with Thailand's party islands or how things operate in Thailand in general, here's a one liner summary (so as not to OT the OP): It's very unique (especially when things go wrong) and very much buyer beware.

View attachment 448981 View attachment 448980 I do have some general questions for all the experienced divers out there. I shall start with questions about suction and the Bernoulli effect.

1. Does PADI teach divers to move to the side to get out of the way of an approaching boat?

2. Does PADI point out to divers that they can get sucked into a propeller?

3. Does PADI teach divers about the Bernoulli effect?

Since the OP mentions the incident and PADI in the same breath: (and please do NOT rely on my comments, but please do purchase the relevant manuals to verify these things for yourself).

1/ No. Presumably because you're assuming the boat holds course (relative to current - if any affecting the surfaced diver), and at the last moment you might find yourself in a head-on position should the boat change course - assuming boat impact is not imminent.

2/ I could not find this explicitly in the e-learning (OW) manual nor in my AOW book. Although there are several references how dangerous (inc life threatening) propellors may be and how you can maximise your surface visibility to to a boat. Also there are discussions about the dynamics of water.

3/ I searched for this term in e-learning (OW) and received no hit. That is not to say similar concepts weren't discussed.

@Ian Yarwood, if I could ask one more question (and my apologies in advance for being cautious of first-poster's intentions - and thank you for clearly answering the earlier questions clearly). Could you please tell me what is/are you're motivation(s), if any, additional to what you had stated earlier (quoted below) e.g. if it's likely you might be involved in this case? I for one wouldn't mind at all if you said possibly yes to that.

I have however written many articles about murders and suspicious deaths on Koh Tao as well as accidents in the waters involving boats