scuba death case reopened

[lermontov]

very interesting wonder what weight she had on

Divers accused of covering up truth behind diver's death

 

[flyboy08]

Whatever the outcome, I mourn her death.

 

[KeithG]

very interesting wonder what weight she had on

Divers accused of covering up truth behind diver's death

Weight? Why do you wonder about this? I can not actually understand anything from the article. It seems to be a random collection of sentences...

 

[lermontov]

well I was speculating - she was found on the bottom with air in the tank so obviously lack of air wasn't the issue just getting it to the bcd if she was overweighted and hadn't inflated her bcd then of course she would sink. There is additional information in another report. One option is that someone inadvertently turned her air off while trying to help her in the water but if that was the case id expect that to be noted when they recovered her body

ive dived that area many times the vis is usually about 3-5m and strong currents

'Cover-up' concerns over Christchurch resident's death

 

[KeithG]

well I was speculating - she was found on the bottom with air in the tank so obviously lack of air wasn't the issue just getting it to the bcd if she was overweighted and hadn't inflated her bcd then of course she would sink. There is additional information in another report. One option is that someone inadvertently turned her air off while trying to help her in the water but if that was the case id expect that to be noted when they recovered her body

ive dived that area many times the vis is usually about 3-5m and strong currents

'Cover-up' concerns over Christchurch resident's death

Thanks - this second article was more coherent & intelligible.

Weights vs inflated bcd?

 

[Steelyeyes]

 

[infieldg]

Much better article alright - chilling too, wtf actually happened... we're better than this I thought, just wtf

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/106097883/skipper-grilled-over-his-reaction-to-missing-diver

A dive–trip skipper has been grilled over calling emergency services an hour after a female diver went missing and making only one quick dive to find her.

On Wednesday the skipper repeated evidence that Thongsi sank in a way that gave him a "sixth sense" something was wrong, however it wasn't until the bubbles stopped he realised she wasn't breathing.

Thongsi had problems with her regulator but after he gave it a few pushes it seemed to fix itself, his earlier evidence said. He had then gone back to the wheel while another diver held onto her as she floated to the back of the boat.

His evidence contradicted evidence from the diver on the boat holding on to Thongsi who said Thongsi began sinking with a blank look on her face with no sign of life and did not appear to be breathing. He said he immediately realised something was wrong and alerted the skipper.

"I don't remember that," the skipper told the inquest on Wednesday. "I'm not saying he's wrong, I just didn't hear him."

The diver later told the court he had "no idea" how Thongsi died, and that there was nothing he or the skipper did that could have caused her death. It was possible Thongsi was already dead by the time he tried taking her to the rear of the boat, he said.

The earlier inquest heard the Police National Dive Squad found nothing wrong with Thongsi's equipment, while a professor said there was nothing in her medical history that could explain what happened.

David Boldt, counsel assisting the Coroner at Wednesday's hearing, put it to the skipper that he told a fisheries officer he had lost someone from his party and she "sank like a stone" while looking at him.

The skipper told Boldt he might have exaggerated and could not remember telling her that. The skipper disputed telling the officer he knew Thongsi was dead as soon as she went underwater.

Other evidence showed the skipper told police in a statement about two hours after the incident that he reached the sea bottom and could not see anything so came back up. However his evidence at the inquests was he reached three metres from the bottom and went back up because he had no air.

"As soon as the bubbles stopped I got the spare tank on and entered the water where I thought Goy went, I went straight down to the bottom, I couldn't see anything and went straight back up to the top."

Once he was out of the water, he got back on the boat and did not dive again. He told the inquest on Wednesday he did not think there was any point looking for her after she had been underwater for more than four minutes.

"It didn't occur to you even if Goy was dead, it would've been best for everyone, her and her family to find her body and brought it back up," Boldt asked.

The skipper said he should have gone down a second time. He said the rest of the men on board were like a "stunned mullet". He did not make a call to emergency services until an hour after Thongsi was last seen.

At the time, the skipper told police he had "stopped thinking". "There's a lot of emotions going on my head, I didn't tell the crew, I was peed off for a lot of reasons I'm not going to tell why, I was just trying to think things over," he told police.

In a question, Boldt said the police dive squad, members of the rescue boat and others said the way the crew reacted was "the absolute opposite" of what they normally see and the crew were desperate to get back on land rather than help with the search.

When asked by Coroner Windley if he would have done anything differently, the skipper said he would have made the phone call straight away.

"There's a lot of things I could've done differently."

The Coroner said the earlier evidence failed to disclose plausible explanations for Thongsi's loss of buoyancy and death.

 

[lermontov]

Much better article alright - chilling too, wtf actually happened... we're better than this I thought, just wtf

https://www.stuff.co.nz/national/106097883/skipper-grilled-over-his-reaction-to-missing-diver

yeah i dont get it geoff if she was on the surface getting assistance then one would assume she had air in her bcd - so how did she sink ?
-unless her air was turned off and when the reg was purged it would appear to be fixed from leaking - one she started descending then no air in bcd either -

 

[DandyDon]

The coroner is still not satisfied. She may have been pregnant, and the married captain admits to having had an affair with her: Scuba diver Bua-Ngoen Thongsi's death remains a mystery, despite coroner's in-depth probe - NZ Herald

 

[nolatom]

Don,

This sounds worse and more contradictory each time they all tried to explain it to the Coroner. Captain "had a relationship" with decedent? And yet behaved so seemingly casually and emotionlessly about having just lost a diver, and a lover?

Maybe she was beyond saving. But they should have behaved and reacted as though she might still be alive. And, air permitting, kept on looking for her body, they owe that to her family.

I know, easy for me to say from shore. But still...