British Tourist Dies In Diving Incident Off Koh Samui

[sriracha john]

British tourist dies after dive

(Surat Thani) A British man died and his diving mate was injured during a diving expedition near the Erawan oil rig south of Koh Samui on Tuesday. A marine rescue team went to the oil rig to rescue the divers and their group, underwater treasure sightseers.

The body of Frederick William, 51, was retrieved and returned on a yacht which arrived at Koh Samui yesterday morning, together with five other divers and six crew.

Theerawat Namsrithan, Koh Samui tourist police chief, said nine tourists from Britain chartered the yacht from Koh Tao to the Erawan oil rig. They had set off to explore an ancient shipwreck dating back to the early Rattanakosin era.

Two of the diving team, William and his diving mate Paul Wilson, 30, went missing during the dive. They were later found floating unconscious on the surface and rushed to the Erawan rig platform for treatment. William died on the way.

Pol Lt-Col Theerawat said the two men apparently surfaced too quickly.

Chanchote Piriyasathit, chairman of Koh Phangan tourist business association, said the divers may have experienced decompression sickness caused by an abrupt change of water pressure from surfacing too fast.

William's body was transferred to Koh Samui hospital for autopsy.

- BP

[Samuian]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

[chuchok]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

I would say that this tells you nothing untill all the facts are released.

[suegha]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

I would say that this tells you nothing untill all the facts are released.

I agree with chuckok, we are not being informed in any detail here, let's wait and see.

This one doesn't smell too good...

[Donz]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

I would say that this tells you nothing untill all the facts are released.

I agree with chuckok, we are not being informed in any detail here, let's wait and see.

This one doesn't smell too good...

no details no smell

[suegha]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

I would say that this tells you nothing untill all the facts are released.

I agree with chuckok, we are not being informed in any detail here, let's wait and see.

This one doesn't smell too good...

no details no smell

no details big smell

[britmaveric]

Ancient wreck site? Mostly likely remnants - seriously doubt there would be much danger, not exactly the same as wreck diving one of the steel monsters. Regardless we don't know exactly what happened apart from the abrupt ascent which caused the bends.

[rio666uk]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

theres nothing to support that these guys werent highly experienced techie divers - no mention of dive deapths, if they were on air, nitrox or tri-mix...

either way if these guys had chartered their own boat for this trip - i would guess theyre not fresh off the bubblemaker course...

i hope we get some more details on this unfortunate story

[sbk]

Before all the conspiracy theorists dive in remember one thing: sh!t happens. Accidents do occur. That is why they are called accidents. So, before we all weigh in with our theories why not wait and see if more FACTS come out?

[rio666uk]

Before all the conspiracy theorists dive in remember one thing: sh!t happens. Accidents do occur. That is why they are called accidents. So, before we all weigh in with our theories why not wait and see if more FACTS come out?

pun intended or not ?

[britmaveric]

Waiting for the Samui critics to weigh in....

[sbk]

Before all the conspiracy theorists dive in remember one thing: sh!t happens. Accidents do occur. That is why they are called accidents. So, before we all weigh in with our theories why not wait and see if more FACTS come out?

pun intended or not ?

OOH, no, sorry

[suegha]

Before all the conspiracy theorists dive in remember one thing: sh!t happens. Accidents do occur. That is why they are called accidents. So, before we all weigh in with our theories why not wait and see if more FACTS come out?

pun intended or not ?

OOH, no, sorry

I thought you meant it!!!

[Donz]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

I would say that this tells you nothing untill all the facts are released.

I agree with chuckok, we are not being informed in any detail here, let's wait and see.

This one doesn't smell too good...

no details no smell

no details big smell

SO your assuming its the instructors fault before details are released

[suegha]

Sad, but what does this story tell us again?

wreck diving is very, very dangerous and should ONLY be done with highly experienced dive instructors.

I would say that this tells you nothing untill all the facts are released.

I agree with chuckok, we are not being informed in any detail here, let's wait and see.

This one doesn't smell too good...

no details no smell

no details big smell

SO your assuming its the instructors fault before details are released

Certainly not! Why would you assume such a thing?

There's been "something" that we have not yet heard. I have no idea as to what it may be!!! Wait and see...

ps the original article doesn't even mention instructors.

Edited April 6, 2006 by suegha

[limbos]

If the guy had a rapid ascent, he probably had a lung over expansion injury of some sorts rather than the bends.

As already mentioned previously, if these guys were on a chartered boat than most likely they were very experienced.

Other than that, with the information available, everything is pure speculation, including my comments.

[LaoPo]

SO your assuming its the instructors fault before details are released

Right....I almost died myself in a diving accident once, off the coast of Mallorca/Spain.

There could be thousands of causes/reasons. In my case it was failure of equipment

Diving can be very dangerous; there is a German study into causes why divers die later in their career...(not during diving) frightening! (air in their bloodstream...)

2 good friends of mine died relatively young; 1 killed himself, the other died under suspicious circumstances.

If you're interested:

http://www.google.nl/search?hl=nl&q=scuba+...rs+deaths&meta=

LaoPo

[BattyBatty]

"Before all the conspiracy theorists dive in remember one thing: sh!t happens. Accidents do occur. That is why they are called accidents. So, before we all weigh in with our theories why not wait and see if more FACTS come out?"

Well said.

What is it with this forum..... only takes one or two posts and allready we have "oh, smells fishy." Or "the facts dont add up".... fark me, it was an accident! I need no facts or proof - a guy went diving and died. SImple as that.

By the way, any details on the ship wreck? What is so special about this particular wreck? Old i presume?

[game4shame]

a sad story but lets not jump to conclusions or dive in with accusations......

.......d'oh, sorry, puns are hard to avoid in this case.

Waiting for the Samui critics to weigh in....

wheres taxexile and KJ when they're expected most?

Edited April 6, 2006 by game4shame

[Rooo]

Must be the Samui Mafia.

[Rooo]

Sriracha the roving reporter , he wishes.Mate leave it to the media ( The real ones to report).I hear , I want to report, you have ADS mate lmao.Why in the world would you bother reporting anything like that?As SBK said, accidents do happen.In my honest opinion SRIRACHA get a Bl....dy life.

[Plus]

One of the divers survived, he must have told the police and his friends what happened exactly. Now it's up to the media to get the facts out, but I won't bet on it.

The best way is for someone's from Samui's/Koh Tao diving community to tell the story.

[skippybangkok]

Well,

If I am correct, Fred is not a "tourist". I was in the same group as him on 2 trips to the vertical wreck when it was still vertical ( one to tell the grand kids one day ). If its the same Fred, well, he used to go down to about 50 - 55 meters, take off all his gear, and then penetrate the wreck with a long hose in the crew area / engine room etc. Used to come back with coins ( since he had long deco and we were not deco diving, it gave plenty of time to eat his lunch ).

If its the same Fred, I can tell u he was an extremely experienced diver, so lung expansion etc..... I dont think so. If 2 of them got into trouble and they were together ( Fred used to dive alone ), I doubt it was equipment related. Currents / Upwellings / pushed up?....I guess we will see sooner or later.

If it was a different Fred, or this is the same one..... may he rest in peace.

Tech diving is dangerous no matter what they say, and being an ex-engineer, we had a simple rule with design

1. The more complex it is, the more liekly it is to go wrong

2. The more you push the envelope, the more like you are to find your self on the other side.

I have deco-ed a few times, but quite frankly, I never ever felt comfortable with the idea of not being able to surface no matter what. Tech divers are free to lambast me as ignorant ( 1000+ divers, but never went Techie ), but....well, just not my cup of tea.

I know 2 guys who got stuck in the 80m hole near the Hardeep...... they can tell you stories about mountain climbing out of there, and ending up with the bends because of over exertion.... fortunately they lived to tell the tale.

[sriracha john]

Must be the Samui Mafia.

Sriracha the

*against-forum-rules-flaming post deleted*

Hitting the bottle heavy tonight?

A man has died, please show some decorum.

Thank you.

[limbos]

Having gathered a bit more information, the kind of trip these divers were on, they should've been highly trained and experienced tech divers, before even having a chance to get on to the trip.

In tech diving accidents do happen and even the most experienced and famous tech divers unfortunately have fatal accidents.

In this case there's a survivor so he must've been able to tell the relevant authorities what happened.

Tech diving is a very specialised form of diving and is practiced by a relatively small amount of people compared to recreational diving.

[taxexile]

wheres taxexile and KJ when they're expected most?

reading and keeping quiet !

sounds like a sad accident to me , could happen anywhere.

[skippybangkok]

1. If you diving a wreck from the Rattanakosin period, the wooden wreck would be almost / totally gone leaving behind hard items such as pots / jars / metal etc. so I doubt it could be classified as a "wreck" ( meaning penetration ).

2. People who dive such sites, which are typically off the beaten track are typically not tourists. The way they are typically found are through talking with fishermne who trawl up bits and pieces - tourists would not even know where to start on such an endevour.

3. Tech divers are highly trained / expereinced , far more than I am or ever want to be. U/W Photography at 10 m can keep me as happy as a pig in S.... . It would be relatively clear that if 2 Tech divers were diving together, they probably would have gotten through most equipment issues. I seriously doubt it was a "incompetence issue" / mafia or what ever.

Lets wait for the verdict, and hope that the guy who "survived" survives without any long term effects i..e paralysis.

[britmaveric]

What was the depth of this dive? 30M+ if its a tech dive....by Padi standards that is.

[limbos]

PADI max depth is 40m if you're trained as a Deep Diver.

PADI's tec diving allows for 54 meters, other organisations may allow deeper or pending on what gas you dive, you can go deeper.

This was most likely deeper than 30m.

[britmaveric]

Right might do deep water cert myself, no interest in the technical diving. Anyone know the location of the site where they were diving? - checked around and I can't see any mention of it, so my assumption not a well known site.