Krabi:- A 52-year-old Japanese woman visiting Krabi with nine friends drowned Tuesday while snorkeling near Koh Kai, police said.

Pol Captain Praphan Noochaikaew, a police officer on duty of Mueang Krabi police station, said Kato Akemi died at noon Tuesday.

After alerted of the incident at noon, Praphan rushed to the Krabi Hospital where the woman had been rushed to.

Praphan said Akemi was an owner of a cosmetic firm in Japan. She bought a tour package of Hello Tour Co Ltd and checked in with nine friends to the Rayavadee Hotel on the Railey Beach on Monday. She was scheduled to check out and return to Japan on Thursday

Praphan said Akemi and nine friends traveled on a speedboat of Ao Nang Orchid Tuesday morning to visit four spots – Thalay Waek, Koh Tub, Koh Kai and Railey Bay.

The accident occurred when the woman was snorkeling at the Koh Kai. She and her friends were properly dressed in life vest, the police officer said.

After they snorkeled for a while, Akemi's friends noticed that she was lying face-down for too long so they shook her body but she did not respond.

The friends alerted the staffs of the speedboat. The staffs provided her cardiac resuscitation before they rushed her to the Krabi Hospital.

Doctors gave her more cardiac resuscitation but failed to bring her back. Doctors concluded that she choked on the seawater and died probably on the way to the hospital.

Police are checking whether she had chronic diseases. The Japanese Embassy will be informed to contact her relatives to reclaim the body for funeral rite..

I know this is just a writer's interpretation but it makes me wonder if they continued to apply resuscitation without interruption until she was in the hospital. Sometimes people don't come around for a very long time. It says:

"The staffs provided her cardiac resuscitation before they rushed her to the Krabi Hospital."

"Doctors gave her more cardiac resuscitation but failed to bring her back."

Isn't this the second snorkeling death in as many weeks?

Isn't this the second snorkeling death in as many weeks?

I think it's the second. Chinese man on the 2nd April,.

"Doctors concluded that she choked on the seawater and died probably on the way to the hospital."

yep - being tossed into the back of a pickup thai ambulance is likely to kill you....

Snorkeling is a lot harder than it looks. It just takes a little salt water getting in the tube, a panic attack and that's the end of you. If someone is not very experienced, he/she should definitely wear a life jacket so that they can take off the apparatus and get their breath back before continuing.

It takes 5 minutes to drown, how could this possibly happen?

More like heart attack or stroke.

Sad, 52 isn't old.

It takes 5 minutes to drown, how could this possibly happen?

More like heart attack or stroke.

Sad, 52 isn't old.

How could this happen - inexperience and severe lack of supervision/training.

I have been out on these sort of tours a few times. They just hand over the flippers and snorkel, off you go, no supervision whatsoever. Only count heads when up anchor at the end of the tour.

She was wearing a life vest.. please re-read. As suggested most likely a heart attack.

RIP.

Kurt

With the amount of tourist coming in, its not surprising if you hear about deaths like this. Its just like during spring break in the US, you hear about kids dying in accidents every single year.