Posted on 01/29/2009 3:10:13 PM PST by nickcarraway
Last May, British scuba diving instructor Richard Neely and his girlfriend Allyson Dalton were left stranded in the open ocean for 19 hours when the Pacific Star returned to land without them. The pair floated helpless in the sea overnight before they were eventually rescued.
The Pacific Star's owners AP Vessel Management Pty Ltd, which trades as OzSail Skippered Yacht Charters, were charged with breaching the Workplace Health and Safety Act by neglecting to ensure all of their customers had returned to the boat before leaving the reef.
Mr Neely and Miss Dalton were among 20 passengers on the Pacific Star which left Airlie Beach in northern Queensland for a drive trip to Bait Reef off the Whitsunday islands on May 23. But when the couple surfaced at the end of the dive, having been dragged away by a strong current, they found the boat had gone.
They drifted for 19 hours before being rescued nine miles (14 kilometres) from the dive site, after a large-scale and expensive search operation involving seven helicopters, three planes and six boats.
Their story of survival overnight in waters that are known to host several species of shark made international headlines.
At the time, OzSail accused the couple of failing to follow directions or remain in the designated dive zone. But the company has now been charged with failing to ensure the couple's health and safety. OzSail has made no comment. The case will be heard on March 23.
Mr Neely's experience of being left on the reef echoes the story of Tom and Eileen Lonergan, American tourists who disappeared on a diving trip in 1998 after being accidentally let behind by their dive boat and were never seen again. Several theories on what happened to the couple persist.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Hardly ‘shark-infested’ if they both came home with all of their limbs.........over-hyped for coming lawsuits.
Yoo hoo! Are you there? Guess not - well gotta get goin’ and put some shrimp on the barbie - stay safe!
That movie is why I will never dive into anything not indoors and chlorinated.
I totally agree. My point wasn’t they weren’t lucky. It was the choice of words. For example, ever get tired of the reporters, reportettes, Meteorologists and media weenies in general using the word “treachorous” in describing inclement weather? I rest my case.
Any such company that doesn't do a simple head count should be put out of business. There is no excuse for not doing one.
Now that’s just mean.
Try going back to a dictionary of the 1950s 1960s era and look up that word. My guess is that you’ll find the ‘unsure footing’ etc. defs weren’t there. Dictionaries change over time. Because people misuse words a lot doesn’t alter what they may have originally meant.
Yeah, that's my idea of undersea heaven -- a dive trip to Bait Reef.
That certainly does happen, but at this point in time, it’s one of the generally accepted meanings of the word.
To extend your point a bit: simply telling divers to “stay in a designated area” does not allow for the fact that it is difficult to swim against a current of as little as 2 knots. You could literally find yourself in such a situation by crossing onto the otherside of a reef head.
Then, following another dive rule (if separated for more than a few minutes, surface) you could be hidden in the surface chop a mile from the boat. Surface currents do the rest.
It’s the dive operator’s ultimate responsibility to provide adequate dive supervision & account for the divers at the end of the dive.
I saw that movie. But they were not rescued in the movie. I particularly liked the first 10 minutes of the movie...Open Water
OMG, I loved landshark! It’s what I say when I knock on my kid’s bedroom doors.
You bad.
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