Something from the Aus paper Courier Mail today. If you want a completely different take on this, the British tabloids will probably give the "poor victims and their heroic struggle against the elements and every variety of man-eating shark in existence"....
Rescued divers Richard Neely and Allyson Dalton slam dive company
They say instructors did not clearly spell out the dangers that resulted in a terrifying night in chilly, shark-infested waters where they feared they might not be found.
Poll: Should the couple pay for their rescue?
Experienced British diver Richard Neely, 38, and his US partner Allyson Dalton, 40, last night told how they tied a nylon cord to each other and battled the early stages of hypothermia but survived at sea without suffering major medical problems.
But people on board the Pacific Star dive charter have contradicted the couple's story and vented their disappointment that neither Mr Neely nor Ms Watson rang to thank them for spending a sleepless night searching for them.
They also have alleged the couple ignored safety briefings and raised questions about their intentions on the dive.
Media organisations have lined up to tie the couple to deals that they already have sold to A Current Affair in Australia and Britain's Sunday Mirror.
In an interview aired last night as the couple was on their way to New York with celebrity agent Max Markson, they said they could clearly see the dive boat when they surfaced, but drifted away in the current. The pair was adamant they surfaced where they were supposed to and at the allotted time.
Ms Dalton recalled watching the dinghy return to the boat with two nearby divers.
"We were signalling with our surface marker buoy and then Richard used his whistle," she said.
But as the "moments ticked by", Ms Dalton said they could feel themselves drifting further away from the vessel. Mr Neely said he soon realised they were in "pretty serious trouble".
"We tied ourselves together with a piece of string, that was the first thing that we did. I took some very strong nylon cord from my delayed surface marker buoy," he said.
"We hugged and shared body heat. We held our stomachs together, we kept our heads in the water because it was a very cold wind chill factor and we told each other lots of nice things to reassure each other."
Mr Neely said "specks of light" from rescue choppers came and went during the evening. The couple experienced their "lowest point" between 3am and 5am.
By that time they had been in the water 12 hours, they were "absolutely frozen" and starting to hallucinate.
It was during these dark hours that Ms Dalton doubted her ability to go on.
"I remember that I said: 'Yes you can, we have to, this is not our time'," Mr Neely said.
Although sharks were a constant threat during the ordeal, they were not discussed.
Fellow diver Rebecca Sharkey, 24, a British backpacker, said Mr Neely and Ms Dalton were at the back of the boat during the final briefing but were discussing a plan to find a manta ray and other exotic marine life.
"The strict instruction was to stay inside the lagoon, don't go outside the lagoon," said Ms Sharkey, who had also been stuck in the current but was plucked to safety in a dinghy.
"The lagoon floor is 12m deep, so obviously you have diving equipment to tell you how deep you've gone. So if you've gone below 12m, you've gone outside the lagoon," Ms Sharkey said.
"If you feel the current you've gone outside the lagoon. Come straight back, and if you can't come back for whatever reason, surface straight away and there's people on deck ready in a little small boat to come and get you.
"That was the strict instructions. He said it was a really really safe dive spot in this lagoon, just don't go outside it."
Mr Neely said the arrival of the rescue chopper at about 8.30am the next day was the happiest moment of his life.
He described watching the lights of the helicopters circling during the night and their relief in the morning when a chopper did three circles around them, indicating they had been spotted.
"Just imagine the happiest moment of your life just laughing and joking," he said.
But he remained certain that the drama could have been avoided.
"They may have been looking for us in the lagoon, (but) I don't think they (the dive boat) were looking for us in the right direction," he said.
The cost of the rescue could be as much as $400,000, which the couple said would be covered by their diving insurance.
However John Lippmann, Asia-Pacific president of insurer Diver's Alert Network, said an emergency medical evacuation benefit (worth $US100,000) only kicked in when the couple were found.
"The search through the night would not be coverable," Mr Lippmann said. Fraser Yule, manager of diver operator OzSail, which operates the Pacific Star, said the crew did everything possible to locate them and questioned why four lookouts with high-powered binoculars on the deck could not spot them.
"We are simply deeply relieved they were found alive, safe and well," he said.
"We believe we did everything right by the book.
"The detail of what happened will come out in time."
It has emerged the rescued divers took a water bottle and shark repellent device with them on the underwater dive and wore full-length thick wetsuits with hoods in the tropical 23C waters of the Great Barrier Reef.
Mr Neely is understood to have told police they deliberately left the lagoon and did not inflate the bright orange safety sausage until after dark.
Workplace Health and Safety Queensland have launched an investigation into the case in conjunction with police. The investigation will include interviews with staff onboard the dive boat and examine any potential breaches of workplace laws.
