- Messages
- 53,721
- Reaction score
- 7,922
- # of dives
- 500 - 999
Sorsogon is the southernmost province in Luzon
2 Australian divers, Filipino guide missing in Donsol waters | Inquirer Global Nation
---------- Post added January 21st, 2013 at 11:18 AM ----------
Missing Australian divers, Filipino guide rescued off Masbate | Inquirer Global Nation
2 Australian divers, Filipino guide missing in Donsol waters | Inquirer Global Nation
NAGA CITY, PhilippinesThree diversan Australian couple and their Filipino dive guide were declared missing when they failed to surface eight hours after they went down in the waters off Donsol town in Sorsogon. Major Angelo Guzman, public information officer of the Philippine Army based in Camp Elias Angeles in Pili, Camarines Sur, said Lance McDonald and his wife Nicole went diving at around 1 p.m. on Sunday but failed to return.
The McDonalds were with Donsol-based local diver identified as Bobby Adrao, said Guzman, quoting reports from the Philippine Navy in Bicol.
The three went diving in Ticao Pass, the body of water between Ticao Island in Masbate and Sorsogon province.
The brother of Adrao reported the disappearance of the three and requested for a search and rescue operation, he said.
---------- Post added January 21st, 2013 at 11:18 AM ----------
Missing Australian divers, Filipino guide rescued off Masbate | Inquirer Global Nation
NAGA CITY, Philippines – The three divers who were reported missing in the waters off Sorsogon province on Sunday evening were rescued Monday morning in Monreal town in Masbate, the chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP)in the island-province said.
Senior Superintendent Heriberto Olitoquit, Masbate PNP director, identified the divers lost at sea as husband and wife Lance and Nicole McDonald, both Australian nationals, and their Filipino dive master Bobby Adrao, a resident of Donsol, Sorsogon.
The McDonalds and Adrao were found holding on to each other and drifting off Barangay (village) Guinhadap in Monreal at about 6 a.m., Olitoquit said.
Joint police operatives led the search and rescue operation that scoured Ticao Pass, the body of water between Sorsogon and Ticao Island, one of the three primary islands that compose Masbate province.
Ticao Pass is a well-known dive site and jump off point for interaction with whale shark, locally known as butanding, and manta ray.
Initial investigation said the three went for a dive along the Ticao Pass from on board a chartered boat that came from Donsol but they separated from their fellow divers after the seas become rough.
The three were brought to the San Jacinto District Hospital on Ticao Island for medical examination, said Olitoquit.