Two divers from Curacao... 2006NOV11

[scubatexastony]

I'll find out more after the weekend, but talking to Mark, he was found three days ago by a fisherman near the baii. His gear was gone as the body was pretty well disassembled by what was believed to be sharks. We may never know the actual dive plan and depths, but at least he was recovered, survived by his family. Another note, he was an instructor from England, I'm told, and not a Dutch marine as the other man was. May his family find peace in the days to come.

 

[mikerault]

He didn't work for The Dive Bus did he?

 

[scubatexastony]

He worked for Ocean Encounters I believe.

On a side note, some MOD has edited the title of the thread and added 2006NOV11.,

it should say NOV 28.

 

[dmmike]

scubatexastony,

Thanks for the update. My wife and I were diving with Easy Divers when the lost divers were being looked for. When we asked the DM's on the boat they did not have any information.

My prayers for the lost divers and thier family

 

[Almonde]

hi, am just new to this board and my first post should have been maybe on a nicer topic. I actually worked on this case at the coastguard. We handled the call and took it from there.

The first guy found was working at the military part of HATO Airfield. Ground technician for the F60 - Coastguard aircraft (we have 2 aircraft).
A great guy. I have worked with him on several trips when I worked as an acoustic operator on board of the Orion aircraft.

He was found by an other diver. Being on board himself, he noticed the one diver floating. Thought first it was one of his group that was diving at that moment. Not the case. His ID wasn't established yet, I was phoned home later in the evening by a colleague. At age 34, really young.

His buddy was missing of course, an english guy. He instructed at 'Ocean Encounters'. Ocean Encounters actually denied in the beginning that he was affiliated at all with them. Now Padi is investigating this lie and some heads can roll.
The navy searched for the english guy, but couldn't find him. A week later I think, he was found. Without gear.

First diver was found at the tug boat in Caracasbaai, Curacao.
It was known they both liked going deep and the english guy wanted to go one more time before departing Curacao. Something went wrong obviously. I guess the first guy tried maybe to help the second one, who might have been trapped. They were looking for lobster in caves quite deep.

I hope this helped, just a summary, sort of

 

[smokey braden]

almonde,
welcome to this board.
thank you for the info in your post.

 

[gadams]

I don't post much. Ijust wrote a long post about this incident and the divers involved. After reflection it is shortened below.

We were down in Curacao just after this happened diving with OE. The second diver had not been found yet. The first was a well-liked guy among the locals. He was Dutch. The second had been working for OE until a few weeks earlier. He was British, apparently former SAS. He had recently been let go by OE. Suffice it to say that OE appeared to act completely appropriately in his termination and was not hiding his employment just days after the incident. My prayers continue to go out for their families.

Greg