Maldives diving deaths

[The Rotrex Kid]

I’m not a diver myself but my dad is a PADI qualified instructor. Stuff like this makes my skin shiver as he dives every holiday with my sister.

5 Italians die in Scuba diving incident - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62e0p7rd2ro

Then today, one of the recovery team has also died -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1w2gv1gdnjo

A terribly awful situation.

[ScotHill]

Cavers and divers both think that cave divers are insane, it hugely increases the risk factor, especially if this wasn't a specialised group of experienced cave divers. Apparently went way below the depth limits.

edit - sounds like they did have experience, and the guy who I thought was a driving instructor was actually a diving instructor.

Edited by ScotHill on Saturday 16th May 20:43

[interstellar]

Yes it’s shocking and no idea what happened but even sadder to see a rescuer has now also died.

They were very experienced too.

[Hugo Stiglitz]

And took a rescuer with them sadly

[peterperkins]

What will they do now?

Leave them there or did they recover all the bodies?

[Sport_Turismo_GTS]

The Rotrex Kid said:

I m not a diver myself but my dad is a PADI qualified instructor. Stuff like this makes my skin shiver as he dives every holiday with my sister.

5 Italians die in Scuba diving incident - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62e0p7rd2ro

Then today, one of the recovery team has also died -
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1w2gv1gdnjo

A terribly awful situation.

Even advance PADI (which isn’t that advanced) doesn’t allow you diving below 40m (I think) and certainly not in caves, where specialist training is required. It’s a tragic accident, but it shouldn’t concern ‘normal’ recreational scuba divers.

[Phud]

Just looking at the depth and working out a simple bounce dive, with a single cylinder it is clear that you're not carrying enough gas.

Looks like a major case of ignoring the rules as diving in the maldives has strict limits.

I have dived caves, its daft, I dive trimix, so not clueless

[Purosangue]

Some instructors on these resorts really are having a holiday

We had our Honeymoon in Filliteyo in the Maldives in 2007 , we both did a Honeymoon dive with an instructor in shallow water , the wife didnt like it but i wanted to see the coral , so the next day you could do a 15m dive , down a rope ....it was nearly the shortest marriage.
Id only ever put on am aqualung in a swimming pool as a kid for 10mins

I Was a bit hung over the next day , another tourist came along who was very nervous , we had a single instructor . No real safety breathing we put on our diving kit which had an inflatable buoyancy aid connected to the bottle , and off we walked into the water as we got out of our depth my mask began to fill with water . I was very uncomfortable and had no idea how to clear it . Eventually the instructor showed me how to clear it and we got to the edge of the coral there was a rope that descended into the depths the water went from turquiose to very dark blue.

the other chap started to flap so the instructor stayed with him and beckoned me to go down the rope .... I kept close to the coral reef and started to descend , My ears were in pain but managed to equalise , Then i got completly engrossed at looking at the fish , Id let go of the rope and realised i was descending at quite a rate , the bouncy aid seemed to be letting out air i looked up and the instructor was well above me,
panic set in and i was trying to grab the rope . Then i remembered the instructor had showed us a cord if you pull it the buoyancy aid would inflate and you would shoot up to the surface .

so i took a deep breathe and then the instructor grabbed me , and fortunately punched me in the stomach , he got me to the surface , I was at the 18m mark so guessing holding my breath wouldnt have been a good thing

after that i only went scuba diving ...........but if things couldnt have gotten any worse i was chased by one of these buggers .

Edited by Purosangue on Saturday 16th May 21:24

[Astacus]

They were diving in caves at 50m. I believe one body was found at 60m. Doing that on standard compressed air is insanity. Quite apart from nitrogen narcosis, at that depth you have 7minutes on a standard dive profile ( sans computer).
I’ve been to 50m in the med and I could look up and see the surface, but there is no way I would stick my head in a cave at that depth.

[996Type]

Love diving and it’s great until things go south.

One of the best things my club taught me was that if you aren’t feeling it, bail. It’s not a macho competition and your life can depend on you speaking up if you aren’t feeling it.

Mate of mine bailed on a dive in Cyprus as we were hung over, he missed a great wreck but maybe avoided becoming one himself.

It’s startling how quickly things can go South in a basic open water dive, let alone these technical dives into the bowels of the earth.

There’s a really good documentary (can’t recall the name) about a group of divers that didn’t make it out of a cave system and their friends went to recover them.

Kudos to them, I find it fascinating but cave diving isn’t for me…

RIP to those that were lost, and especially to the local rescuer. Such a sad loss regards all of them but especially the latter.

[J6542]

I have watched various YouTube channels about cave diving and the deaths that have occurred. Some people are just wired differently.

https://youtu.be/RM_SH1Heo_E?si=Ac316PlAWh5XQTvD

Lots of similar tales

Edited by J6542 on Saturday 16th May 21:54

[interstellar]

Interesting from Reddit and seems plausible


1d ago
I’ve been hearing in other groups that there has been a huge down current happening in the area. Divers on a local liveaboard were speculating they got caught and the cave story is to place blame on the divers and not scare off tourists. Way too soon to speculate, but experienced divers making this series of decisions doesn’t pass the smell test