Missing Divers - Komodo National Park

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

They were diving North Tatawa Besar.

I was afraid that was what someone was going to say...

There are so many converging currents surrounding those dive sites. Around Current City (Batu Balong) there are some really dangerous down currents. Our guide said that people have died there due to being pulled into the down current and not being able to come back up before they run out of air. He even got another boat while we were there to chastize some other divers that were acting foolishly on that dive. I have some really good topside video of that site...their were so many currents going it was hard for the zodiac to go around the rock. CRAZY! I hope that they are sitting on a beach somewhere.

 

[runway1]

What about having a group of divers tow a surface buoy?

DARN, that's a good idea!

Also, what if a product had a small RF beacon with a float and a line? If you're lost, deploy the beacon and boats/planes can hone in quickly!

This "got to find them visually" stuff is sooooo last century.

 

[Antarctic-Adventurer]

This is really bad news. I know these people well. Ernest taught me to dive, and took me up all the way to divemaster. This is too early for speculation but all I can say is that Reefseekers are a top class outfit, a cut above the rest in terms of safety and that Ernest has an awful lot of experience. More than 10,000 dives. Kath too many thousands. While I was a DM there I personally saw him get a lot of people out of real trouble, including me once when I got into trouble in some serious current. (Faulty gauge, OOA). Someone mentioned before Batu Balong. We used to dive there a lot. A great dive site but you have to watch some of the currents there, if you go too far one way or another it can get really serious. Nevertheless, who knows what has happened here. These people have had literally thousands of dives on these sites, they know the place. Over 24 hours since they have been missing a friend who is there tells me, but let's pray they are found somewhere....

Thinking of you guys....


I don't know if we are allowed to link to outside sites here, but the link is as follows:

British scuba divers missing in Bali, Indonesia - Telegraph

 

[diverdwn71]

I just hope they are found safe.

 

[Rickg]

I hope this one turns out a success story like the recent 8 missing Taiwan divers and that all are found safe and sound.

 

[Scared Silly]

This "got to find them visually" stuff is sooooo last century.

Visual markers may last century but considering, that electronics 1) do not like water 2) do not stand up to depth 3) fail on their own 4) can be expensive, 5) need batteries, 6) are hopefully not need very often etc. I think you will find that few people carry electronic beacons. As such, it pays to have a full range of signal devices.

A on land equivalent are twits who go out with only a GPS and have no clue how to use a map and compass.

 

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

WOW...The Guardian (UK) has already started saying they are feared dead. I find that really hard to believe. Unless they were all sucked into a really strong down current, but what is that likelihood of that??

 

[Dive Tigger]

I'm wondering - as many of you seem quite experienced divers - if it had been any of you in the same situation, how would have handled it?

 

[SCUBAJENNIFER]

We don't know what the situation was yet...

When we dived Current City (Batu Bolong) it was literally one of the longest briefings we had in regards to a dive site. It's a rock (Seamount) that sits in the middle of 4 or 5 different converging currents and it was an amazing dive if you listened to the briefing and stayed on the one side. You could tell if you got too close to the edge, because you could feel the current.
Tons of pelagics and and thousands of fish swirling. You descended down one side and just kind of worked your way back up. It made my heart RACE.

 

[peterbj7]

Assuming I wasn't being sucked down and was too deep already, I'd send up an SMB as soon as I realised what was happening. But surely the DM, who knows those waters (?) would have done that anyway. And the boat skipper, also knowing the waters, would have kept an extra vigilant lookout.

Sounds to me as if there's more to this than meets the eye. But I obviously also hope they're resting on an island somewhere. Isn't that the area that dragons are supposed to come from?