I received this message today via email. It's CDWS official statement regading the incident.
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CDWS Official statement
Dear members, friends, colleagues and members of the diving community,
on behalf of CDWS board, Technical committee, members and staff – we would like to extend our condolences to all the families that lost their loved ones during the tragic accident in MARSA ALAM.
Although the accident is still under investigation; I find it essential and important to issue this statement to clarify facts and help demolish rumors.
I am – at this stage – entitled to release some info about the accident and it is summarized in the following points:
- The dive on the 26th Dec. 2008; was carried out at Marsa SHAGARA – Marsa alam
- Three divers were involved in the dive, one Danish, Slavonic ( who is an Instructor and trimix instructor) and one Egyptian (advanced diver, trimix Diver)
- The Danish and Slavic were diving together for a week before that dive on the house reef,
- The divers planned to go to depth of 50 – 60 meters with air to see Hammerheads sharks!!!,
- They had 15 liters tanks except the Egyptian had a 12litter,
- The Slavonic diver (instructor) was the only survival,
- According to the survived diver statement;
o he was filming with the Egyptian diver at 35 meters - when they look around for Mr. Foss he was already deep down and only bubbles could be seen,
o He went deeper and deeper to try to fetch Mr. Foss, could reach him only at about 95 meters,
o Mr. Foss was already unconscious and not breathing on the seabed and the regulator was out of his mouth,
o He tried to help him but failed and also failed to remove the integrated weight system due to his sever narcosis at that depth,
o When he realized he had only 70 bars left at 95 meters, he started his ascent,
o He also said that he signaled to the Egyptian diver to go up but could not be certain that he understood,
o He surfaced alone….
- On Saturday the 27th ; Mr. Osama Abdel Samad, a close friend of the missing Egyptian diver, decided by himself to do a search dive on the site,
- Mr. Osama – who is an employee of CDWS as an inspector, was advised and asked by his superiors and CDWS branch manager not to do any dives to search for the missing divers,
- Unfortunately, he has been emotionally motivated since one of the missing divers was a close friend of his, and he insisted to dive on his own,
- He dived on Saturday the 27th to 95 meters using TRIMX, and could not retrieve any missing divers, but he reported to people on site that he saw what he thinks it might be a shinning tank of one of the deceased divers,
- On the evening of the 27th , the head of the Technical committee called him on the mobile and advised him again NOT to dive again,
- Clearly explained that it is not part of his job to search for missing dives as a CDWS inspector, and specifically said that he should not do it and must wait for a tech search team if it is required,
- Upon him being insisted, he was asked not to push any limits, not to take any risks and never jeopardize his own safety. Unfortunately, there was no way to stop him……..He insisted that he will do it on personal bases because the missing diver is a close friend,
- On the 28th of Dec at 11 AM he dived with TRIMIX to MAX Depth of 100 meters, bottom time at that depth was 15 mins,
- According to the dive profile; Osama missed 178 minutes of Dec stops, his ascent time from 95 meters to the surface was 3minutes.
- Therefore, he surfaced with sever DCS and was moved to the recompression chamber in MARSA ALAM
- By Monday the 29th he did not improve and the doctors decided to transfer him to ELGONA Hospital,
- On the 31st he passed away…..
It is a tragic loss. Osama died trying to help his deceased friend and his loved ones.
We would like to ask all of our dear members, colleagues and diving community members to refrain from responding to any rumors as an act of respect the souls of the deceased.
Again we would like to extend my personal condolences to all friends, colleagues and family members and hope that this tragic accident will be the last.
My GOD bless their souls…
Sincerely,
Zeyad M. ELBassel
BM, Head of Technical Committee
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