jh_MacLeod
Contributor
There is one simple thing to learn from this event...Take responsibility for your welfare and get a PLB.
I'm going to take issue with you on this one. I think there are other lessons which could be learned from this incident. Your equipment solution is nice but it ignores the fact that the divers made errors in judgement which could have prevented them being swept away. The main lessons I took from the incident are: know your dive site (or let someone who knows it lead), and plan your extraction point.
Judging from the second-hand reports, the currents underwater were not a problem. Surface currents, often moderately strong, at this site are normal. The typical scenario at this site goes something like this: the boat ties into one of the mooring lines (in a somewhat sheltered location) long enough to drop the divers, then moves off and away in the direction which the divers plan to travel. The divers drop down to get out of the surface currents and begin to circle the island. The direction of the currents determines where the boat drops the divers and which direction they circle (clockwise or counter-clockwise). The island itself is a big pile of large boulders; the closer you get, the more shelter it provides you from the flow. Since all the other divers were recovered without issue, I think it's pretty obvious that this group of divers made two mistakes. With their extra gas, they continued to circle all the way around to the north side of the island (out of sight of the boat which was busy retrieving its other divers, probably on the sheltered east side); and when they surfaced, they surfaced too far away from the rocks to get in protection from the surface currents. I have no personal knowledge of anyone involved (but I do know the site), and my guess is that by the time boats started circling the island looking for them, they had already been pulled too far out to sea to be spotted (with everyone searching focused inward). If they had known the site well, and with their extra gas, they could have planned their pickup for one of the shallow, sheltered coves near the rock walls on the north end of the island.
And it's the South China Sea, not the Gulf of Thailand