Russian tourist drowns at Phuket’s Naiharn Beach
Darawan Naknakhon


The man drowned after ignoring red flag warnings along Phuket's Naiharn Beach. Photo: Drarawan Naknakhon

PHUKET: -- A 28-year-old Russian tourist drowned at Naiharn Beach yesterday evening (June 30) after ignoring the red flag warnings placed along the shore.

Capt Wuthiwat Liangboonjinda of Chalong Police was called to investigate the reported drowning of a Russian tourist at Naiharn beach in Rawai at 6:30pm last night.

“We arrived at the beach with rescue workers from Rawai Municipality to find the Russian victim (name withheld until his family has been informed) lying face up on the beach. There were no signs of assault or injury on the body.

Full story: http://www.thephuketnews.com/russian-tourist-drowns-at-phuket-naiharn-beach-58080.php


-- Phuket News 2016-07-01

"PHUKET: A 28-year-old Russian tourist drowned at Naiharn Beach yesterday evening (June 30) after ignoring the red flag warnings placed along the shore. Capt Wuthiwat Liangboonjinda of Chalong Police was called to investigate the reported drowning of a Russian tourist at Naiharn beach in Rawai at 6:30pm last night. “We arrived at the beach with rescue workers from Rawai Municipality to find the Russian victim (name withheld until his family has been informed) lying face up on the beach. There were no signs of assault or injury on the body."

Odd. The Red flags and the lifeguards are usually packed up and gone by 6 PM at Nai Harn, so I'm not sure how he could have ignored the warning flags that are left in place all day and picked up before sunset. Obviously no lifeguards on duty. The article goes on to state:

“The victim called for help and his friend alerted other people on the beach that there was a problem whilst he tried to rescue him.

“More people joined the rescue effort and five minutes later they were able to bring the victim to shore and administer CPR, but they were unable to save him.

It seems like this is the usual face saving response from the local government officials...

"PHUKET: A 28-year-old Russian tourist drowned at Naiharn Beach yesterday evening (June 30) after ignoring the red flag warnings placed along the shore. Capt Wuthiwat Liangboonjinda of Chalong Police was called to investigate the reported drowning of a Russian tourist at Naiharn beach in Rawai at 6:30pm last night. “We arrived at the beach with rescue workers from Rawai Municipality to find the Russian victim (name withheld until his family has been informed) lying face up on the beach. There were no signs of assault or injury on the body."

Odd. The Red flags and the lifeguards are usually packed up and gone by 6 PM at Nai Harn, so I'm not sure how he could have ignored the warning flags that are left in place all day and picked up before sunset. Obviously no lifeguards on duty. The article goes on to state:

“The victim called for help and his friend alerted other people on the beach that there was a problem whilst he tried to rescue him.

“More people joined the rescue effort and five minutes later they were able to bring the victim to shore and administer CPR, but they were unable to save him.

It seems like this is the usual face saving response from the local government officials...

Indeed, they do pick up all the red flags before the call it a day while leaving punters to fend for themselves. Perhaps a bigger budget could be considered next year to pay for overtime for the lifeguards. The lifeguards do stick around quite often, but at that point it's adult beverage time and music being played as they are off duty and relaxing.

"PHUKET: A 28-year-old Russian tourist drowned at Naiharn Beach yesterday evening (June 30) after ignoring the red flag warnings placed along the shore. Capt Wuthiwat Liangboonjinda of Chalong Police was called to investigate the reported drowning of a Russian tourist at Naiharn beach in Rawai at 6:30pm last night. “We arrived at the beach with rescue workers from Rawai Municipality to find the Russian victim (name withheld until his family has been informed) lying face up on the beach. There were no signs of assault or injury on the body."

Odd. The Red flags and the lifeguards are usually packed up and gone by 6 PM at Nai Harn, so I'm not sure how he could have ignored the warning flags that are left in place all day and picked up before sunset. Obviously no lifeguards on duty. The article goes on to state:

“The victim called for help and his friend alerted other people on the beach that there was a problem whilst he tried to rescue him.

“More people joined the rescue effort and five minutes later they were able to bring the victim to shore and administer CPR, but they were unable to save him.

It seems like this is the usual face saving response from the local government officials...

Indeed, they do pick up all the red flags before the call it a day while leaving punters to fend for themselves. Perhaps a bigger budget could be considered next year to pay for overtime for the lifeguards. The lifeguards do stick around quite often, but at that point it's adult beverage time and music being played as they are off duty and relaxing.

More often than not, it seems like farangs rescue and perform CPR at Nai Harn than the "lifeguards." I always though they were more window dressing than anything else. I know I can out bodysurf any of them and I'm over 60! I caught the biggest wave of a large set a couple of years ago, they were all amazed and asked me what kind of swim fins I had. Like that has anything to do with knowing where to take off on a wave bodysurfing... As they say, you get what you pay for...

RIP russian guy

Flags or not, its about time people take their own responsibility when it comes to certain things.. Many tourist drown in Oz, nobody blames the life guards....

Flags or not, its about time people take their own responsibility when it comes to certain things.. Many tourist drown in Oz, nobody blames the life guards....

If they pulled up the "no swimming" signs when they went home, maybe they should get some heat.

....wow....I see no red flags in the picture.....

...but you would think that with 2 Trillion Baht revenue....they could do a little better than that....

How high are the waves in that pic, 30cm?. If you cant swim then dont go out pass your knees IMO

The times reported are incorrect; I arrived at about 5.45 and the guy was already covered up in towels, dead, with emergency vehicles on the scene. The lifeguards were still on duty and, so I'm told by a person who witnessed it, had brought the man in and performed CPR. The guy had been in the water a long way from the yellow flag safe swimming area, 100m or so outside this "safe" area. Red flagged no swimming areas are clearly displayed along the beach every day, all day. In my opinion hotels/guest houses need to hand out multi-lingual swimming-advisory-warning notices to each and every guest every single day. The lifeguards are there and doing their job to the best of their ability.

Thanks for the clarification FforestFach. In regards to someone else asking about the height of the waves, there has been a swell recently and at times the waves are double overhead.

Flags or not, its about time people take their own responsibility when it comes to certain things.. Many tourist drown in Oz, nobody blames the life guards....

If they pulled up the "no swimming" signs when they went home, maybe they should get some heat.

Flags or not flags, nobody is forced to swim, we all take a chance, so when flags are up in Oz, and a shark rips someone to pieces, who's at fault, life guard ! Come on, its the sea, currents, best not to enter when seas are rough, if you have no idea.. Chinese tourist drown often here, lifeguard or no life guards, they arent to blame.....

Flags or not, its about time people take their own responsibility when it comes to certain things.. Many tourist drown in Oz, nobody blames the life guards....

If they pulled up the "no swimming" signs when they went home, maybe they should get some heat.

Flags or not flags, nobody is forced to swim, we all take a chance, so when flags are up in Oz, and a shark rips someone to pieces, who's at fault, life guard ! Come on, its the sea, currents, best not to enter when seas are rough, if you have no idea.. Chinese tourist drown often here, lifeguard or no life guards, they arent to blame.....

I pulled out a russian a few years back, in Nai harn, i asked him why he went in if he can swim well, seas were pretty hectic, even i wouldnt enter, and i have been surfing a long time..

Flags or not, its about time people take their own responsibility when it comes to certain things.. Many tourist drown in Oz, nobody blames the life guards....

If they pulled up the "no swimming" signs when they went home, maybe they should get some heat.

Flags or not flags, nobody is forced to swim, we all take a chance, so when flags are up in Oz, and a shark rips someone to pieces, who's at fault, life guard ! Come on, its the sea, currents, best not to enter when seas are rough, if you have no idea.. Chinese tourist drown often here, lifeguard or no life guards, they arent to blame.....

I don't disagree with you there. But if there had been a shark attack in the morning, and someone stole the "No Swimming, Sharks Sighted" signs for their collection, don't they have some culpability if someone is subsequently eaten?

By that same line of reasoning, if the lifeguards take down the "No Swimming" signs (or flags) when they go home, don't they have some culpability if someone is caught up in an unseen riptide?

Doesn't seem to be the issue in this case, based on excellent info in the later post #10.

On an aside, where I come from in Texas, red flags mean "no shrimp available" at the bait shops. White flags mean there is shrimp. I'm not sure what they do for "no swimming". In 40 years, I've never seen them close the beach. Even when a hurricane is blowing in, there's surfers until the last minute. To be clear, I'm not one of them.