American missing - Southern Leyte, Philippines

[DandyDon]

Coast Guard searches for missing American in Southern Leyte dive

MAASIN, Southern Leyte — The Coast Guard District Eastern Visayas (CGDEV) has been searching for an American tourist who went missing after he went diving in San Francisco town, Southern Leyte.

Max Quinn, 28, was last seen diving at Napantao dive site on Feb. 4 and had not been seen since.

Commander Lawrence Roque, Coast Guard Eastern Visayas spokesperson, said Jundino Razon, manager of the Peter’s Dive Resort where Quinn was billeted, reported that the American was last seen at the seawaters off south wall of Barangay Napantao, in San Francisco about 1:50 p.m.

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Quinn was diving with another guest, Jeofrey Mayer, 27, a French national.

Roque said the two foreign nationals left the resort and started their dive about 10:30 a.m.

The two were supposed to go for a 7-meter recreational dive but Quinn wanted to go deeper and signaled Mayer’s to do the same.

Mayer refused, leaving Quinn to go deeper into the waters.

Roque said Mayer resurfaced at 11:05 a.m. without Quinn.

After learning that the victim failed to ascend , resort divers and the Coast Guard immediately searched for Quinn.

The resort divers went down to as far as 25 meters but failed to find Quinn.

Since the dive site has a depth of 90 meters, the resort owner requested for technical divers from the Coast Guard to conduct the search and rescue.

Roque said that a team of technical divers from the Coast Guard national office in Manila were heading to Southern Leyte to join in the search and rescue.

Roque said Quinn might still be alive since the American was a known professional diver and might have drifted to nearby islands. SFM

 

[chillyinCanada]

Wow. Hoping for the best.

 

[cephalopod2]

Was there a dive guide? Strange that none was mentioned in this article.
Could be an omission, or perhaps the pair separated from the guide.
Those who have dived Sogod - is this site accessible as a shore dive, or commonly dived with no guide?

Coast Guard searches for missing American in Southern Leyte dive
The two were supposed to go for a 7-meter recreational dive but Quinn wanted to go deeper and signaled Mayer’s to do the same.

Mayer refused, leaving Quinn to go deeper into the waters.

Roque said Mayer resurfaced at 11:05 a.m. without Quinn.

 

[Centrals]

1. Where is the dive guide?
2. Napantao is on the other side of the large bay from Peter's so I assumed a boat is a must.
3. A 7m dive on a deep wall? Very strange.

 

[dirtfarmer]

I was just there a few weeks ago and dived Napotano 3 dives. There can be some crazy currents, down currents included.

 

[chillyinCanada]

The reporting must be off again. Why would they have planned a 7m dive at that site then?

 

[xrcjdx]

I'll learn more next week when I'm there, but 5-7 meters is the top of the Napantao wall. Great place for a very long safety stop. Not for a planned dive. So that can't be right.
Assuming the dive guides were with people who needed hands held. So withholding any other assumptions until I know more. But I will assume this article is devoid of facts.
Napantao is usually an easy dive. But not always. See above. But for an experienced diver to get so banged around early in the dive to be unable to recover seems unlikely as well. Nothing to be learned here at this point.

 

[Bernita]

Wow, hoping he is found soon!

 

[chillyinCanada]

It has been a week; hasn't anyone heard the latest? Search continues? Search called off? Anything?

 

[Steve_C]

According to the article, for what that is worth, the American was a professional diver. He wanted to go deeper. Buddy said no and American went off deeper himself.