Spanish Tourist Missing Off Koh Tao

[sbk]

Spanish tourist missing in Thailand

By m.p. - Sep 20, 2007 - 10:18 PM

She is from Valencia and went missing while diving off an island in the southeast of the country

Rescue teams in Thailand are looking for a Spanish tourist who disappeared on Thursday morning while diving off the island of Koh Tao (in English, Turtle Island), in the southeast of the country.

It lies some 600 kms to the South of Bangkok and is a popular destination with tourists.

The missing woman is named as 31 year old Lozano Agramunt, from Valencia.

She was diving with friends when she went missing.

The local police chief said the strong currents changed direction throughout the day and made the rescue operation more difficult.

He was hopeful that the search could be resumed on Friday.

Source: typicallyspanish.com

Any updates on this, has she been found?

[Quero]

Apparently still not found after four days. According to Spanish-language news sources, the search was suspended Sunday due to bad weather and would be resumed today. Searchers are using police boats, six Navy divers, a helicopter and private boats. It's not looking good, unfortunately.

[Quero]

Here's what a colleague who witnessed the accident has told me:

7.45 a.m. we were the first boat to arrive on Chumphon Pinnacle. The sea was a little bit choppy, but still good to go down. There was a little current, normal on this divesite. Me and my diver descended and the visiblillity was not too good, around 5 meters but still ok if you know the pinnacle--no danger at all if you stay near to each other, as a good buddy team.

After a 30 min dive we went to the buoy rope to go to the surface, and at that moment the current suddenly picked up and brought a lot off jelly fish, thousands of them with long strings behind them. Between -12 m and 0 meters there was no way to ascend without touching the tentacles of the jellyfish. I had to do a safety stop with my buddy, we were wearing shorties, short sleeves, short legs....everywhere we looked there were stinging jellyfish. But we had no choice, 3 min at -5 m.

At the surface I saw a lot of diveboats and ours wasn't the only one any more, many divers were in the water. So at the moment I jumped on our boat, we saw a diver shooting up from underwater like a balloon, uncontrolled. Then once at the surface the diver went down again and disappeared in the current, and with a visibility of 5 meters, there was no chance of seeing where she was....

This colleague says the body was still missing as of the evening of the 25th.

[sbk]

Sad news indeed. It seems unlikely they will find her body then, unless she washes up onshore somewhere. Condolences to her family, it must be difficult not knowing what happened to her.

[H2oDunc]

I spoke to a friend who was on the boat that day It seems that they were diving as said on Chumphon pinnacle and after about 5 mins she decided to head up to the surface after telling her partner she was going back to the boat. The rest of the people continued on with the dive with nobody informing the instructor or noticing the missing woman. It was only during the safety stop that the missing woman as noticed and the partner informed the instructor at that point that she had returned to the boat She was never seen again. To date there is still no sign of the body. There was a lot of jellyfish around that day along with a number of sharks. Its not sure what made her panic. Condolences to the family.

[mikethevigoman]

I spoke to a friend who was on the boat that day It seems that they were diving as said on Chumphon pinnacle and after about 5 mins she decided to head up to the surface after telling her partner she was going back to the boat. The rest of the people continued on with the dive with nobody informing the instructor or noticing the missing woman. It was only during the safety stop that the missing woman as noticed and the partner informed the instructor at that point that she had returned to the boat She was never seen again. To date there is still no sign of the body. There was a lot of jellyfish around that day along with a number of sharks. Its not sure what made her panic. Condolences to the family.

This would have done it for me !.."There was a lot of jellyfish around that day along with a number of sharks. Its not sure what made her panic." Condolences to the family. ditto

[thai_narak]

rip. she may have panicked upon seeing the sharks that i would have enjoyed taking photos with if i was there.

i remember my spanish colleague that he is so stubborn, doesn't listen to anyone, do anything he wants, touch anything he can underwater, push you away when taking photos, throw his equipment at sea and wear it there, doesn't do buddy check, ascent when air is only 20 bar, never follow the RDP table, forget to do safety stop, forget about his buddy as he swims alone in the front without looking back, etc... i will never buddy with this freaking guy for the reast of my life. he is an accident waiting to happen.

[dellboy]

I spoke to a friend who was on the boat that day It seems that they were diving as said on Chumphon pinnacle and after about 5 mins she decided to head up to the surface after telling her partner she was going back to the boat. The rest of the people continued on with the dive with nobody informing the instructor or noticing the missing woman. It was only during the safety stop that the missing woman as noticed and the partner informed the instructor at that point that she had returned to the boat She was never seen again. To date there is still no sign of the body. There was a lot of jellyfish around that day along with a number of sharks. Its not sure what made her panic. Condolences to the family.

Hi guys

Just to clear up couple of wrong facts on this matter....gossip still alive on the island as always even when it is wrong...

The diver in question was diving with her boyfriend who was a divemaster working for the diving company. Apprently the diver who lost her life was arguing with the b/f about diving and did not really want to dive however, after a heated argument they went in, into the middle of the diver she experianced mask issues and decided to surface, the boyfriend decided not to ascend with her to the surface, or she told him to say..<this bit is not clear at this time> the divemaster who was leading the dive asked him where she had gone, he said it was all ok and that she was fine, the d/m reinstated that they should surface with her, however the boyfriend said no due to the fact that they were both experianced divers, the divemaster continued the dive.

At the surface there was indeed alot of stinging jellyfish < i know i got stung myself that morning > there were also sharks swimming about 5 meters from the surface as well. The diver was apparently seen by the dive boat and signaled then she vanished on the way back. So no one actually knows what was going on..the visability was very good that day I could see 20m + The currents were heading towards the barracuda pinnicle from what I remember.

As for what happend this is what I heard as a working diver on the island however, there has been no official release as of yet due to the investigation. As for the gossip or the assumption of guilt on the divemasters part who was leading this will be upto the investigation.

Divers being lost on Koh toa is very rare, and I have only seen one case which was this one in the last year, diving is safe if you follow the precedures otherwise it can lead to loss of life. my deepest sorrows to the familiy of the lost diver.

[Totster]

A body has been recovered in the last 24hrs & is currently with the Thai authorities. The Spanish Embassy have been notified and are contacting next of kin.

Topic closed so as to prevent any further anguish to the family.

Totster