American missing off of Batangas - Philippines

[Dan]

A tagalog language page said the victim was living in Manila for six years now.

The writing is a bit hard to understand, but having read it a number of times this is what I get from it:
1 - instructor sees victim out of control of some sort but is able to get to him
2 - sees the gear problem
3 - also sees he's out of gas, so gives him the "travel gas"
4 - instructor keeps ascending, but victim is now unable to ascend further and unable to deal with current, for whatever reasons

Practically speaking I don't know if any of that makes sense. I'm not a good diver and never used a wing etc. But that's what it seems to me the writing is trying to convey. Those of us who've spent time in this forum though know writers often don't know how things work and make mistakes, so maybe it's off.

Thanks for clarifying the writing.

One problem I see with back plate with wing BCD is there is not much dive weights to dump when the diver is in trouble.

 

[DandyDon]

Sad news. The news reports are contradictory, was he American or Australian?

Several news articles online referencing him as one or the other. I suspect the locals there only knew that English was his primary language and guessed.

Also just noting a tagalog language page said the victim was living in Manila for six years now.

 

[Centrals]

No smb or lift bag to aid the victim? Incredible!

 

[CWK]

Instructor knows that he is in trouble and does not “rescue” him. No report of assistance other than donating travel gas.

According to some news reports, they went diving at about 4pm but the Philippine coast guard (SAR) was only informed the next morning.

Quite troubling.

 

[Fibonacci]

Searches are continuing in the Philippines for an Australian diver who went missing while reportedly undertaking trimix training at a depth of 100m.
Andrew Kilbride, 49, was diving off the coast near Mabini in the Batangas province of Luzon.

According to local reports, Kilbride had been a guest at the Aquaventure Reef Club in nearby Anilao and was diving with an instructor connected with the resort.

They submerged at 3.45pm on Wednesday (2 May), but the instructor was said to have lost contact with Kilbride about 30 minutes into the dive, and learnt that he had not resurfaced only when he came up at around 6am.

Other divers in the group were said to have searched for Kilbride without success for the following two hours.

A search and rescue operation was launched by Mabini Coast Guard the following day, after the local resort owners’ association had informed police that a diver was missing.
Strong currents were said to be running in the search area.

Diver missing in Philippines

 

[Fibonacci]

UPDATE: Unfortunately this ended in tragedy

MANILA, Philippines – The body of an Australian diver was found near a popular Batangas resort on Saturday afternoon, May 5, or 3 days since he was reported missing.

Australian national Andre Kilbride went into a deep-sea dive with a French instructor earlier on Wednesday, May 2, when they were separated underwater. He failed to surface.

His body was retrieved not far from the popular Aquaventure Dive Resort on Saturday early afternoon, after 3 days of search operations that involved the Philippine Coast Guard and local fishermen.

"It was his dive partner who found him. His body was submerged," said Coast Guard spokesperson Armand Balilo on Saturday.

The diving instructor who went deep-sea diving with Kilbride was identified as French national Daniel Borgaud.

Based on a report filed with the Coast Guard, Kilbride was unable to surface after his wing type bouyance compensator device was detached from the back plate.

Borgaud supposedly assisted Kilbride when he found him ascending uncontrollably, giving his "25% travel gas" when he found his oxygen tank empty.

But it wasn't enough and the strong current didn't help. Kilbride reportedly ascended slowly. He tried to wait for him at 21 meters below the surface, but he was unable to surface.

Body of Australian diver missing in Batangas found 3 days later

 

[Jack Hammer]

Thanks for posting the articles. There is a thread on this already.

https://www.scubaboard.com/community/threads/american-missing-off-of-batangas-philippines.560865

 

[Fibonacci]

Ah right thanks... I saw the diver listed as an American in the first post and thought it was another incident at the same location!

 

[DandyDon]

Ah right thanks... I saw the diver listed as an American in the first post and thought it was another incident at the same location!

It could have been, but both name the same diver. Andrew Kildride

 

[Seaweed Doc]

Trying to piece this together, I wonder if the sequence events went something like this:

Wing detaches from backplate (?).
Diver can't ascend.
Diver drops lead to gain buoyancy.
Diver starts rising uncontrollably
Instructor intervenes as noted.

However, I'm not sure why the body doesn't then float to the surface as opposed to being difficult to find?