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Reported here (in French):
Trente ans apres leur disparition au large de Nice: deux plongeurs retrouves par 100 metres de fond
Google translated:
Trente ans apres leur disparition au large de Nice: deux plongeurs retrouves par 100 metres de fond
Google translated:
lefigaro.fr
Thirty years after their disappearance off the coast of Nice, two divers found 100 meters deep
By Nicolas Daguin
STORY - Daniel and Christian, 38 and 40 years old, had perished during a winter outing on December 4, 1993, in the so-called American fall. A spot that is both “mythical and cursed”, known to all diving enthusiasts on the Côte d’Azur.
Richard Vial well remembers December 4, 1993, the opening day of the 33rd edition of the Paris Boat Show. The head of the Nice International Diving Center (CIP) did not miss this high mass for sea lovers. It was therefore from the capital that he learned of the tragedy which had just occurred off the coast of the Bay of Angels, in the so-called American drop-off. “A mythical and cursed place,” he sums up. Daniel V. and Christian T., aged 38 and 40 respectively, had not resurfaced after a winter dive in this area located halfway between the Cap de Nice and the harbor of Villefranche-sur-Mer. Only Philippe, a 22-year-old amateur diver, narrowly escaped death. “The affair hit the headlines, we talked about it a lot at the Paris Salon,” recalls Richard. Thirty years later, their bodies were discovered on the Mediterranean floor, more than a hundred meters deep.
On the day of the tragedy, the weather conditions were optimal. The sea is calm and the sky clear when the three friends board the Poseidon, the ship which takes them to the American Falls. “It was named that because the Americans started building a hospital on the waterfront during World War II and it was bombed and destroyed by the German army. But for a while it has been renamed Orlamonde drop,” explains and corrects the head of the Nice CIP. Very popular with divers, this underwater rock wall begins at 45 meters and declines steeply to a depth of approximately 140 meters. “Rare are those who stoop so low! Apart from the lobsters, quips Richard. We mainly organize dives at sixty meters.”
This is undoubtedly what Daniel, Christian and Philippe also aspired to when they jumped into the water that Saturday in 1993. The group moved easily forty meters below sea level. Then fifty. And even up to 72 meters. “This is the level that will be displayed on the survivor’s dive monitor,” Richard remembers. It is therefore, according to him, during the ascent that things go wrong. One of the three men is in difficulty. “It’s a safe bet that he was the victim of narcosis, which causes a partial then total loss of intellectual and motor functions,” analyzes the professional. A syndrome that laypeople know better, thanks to Commander Jacques Yves Cousteau, under the name “drunkenness of the depths”.
It was while trying to help his friend that a second diver in turn fell victim to the same problems. Philippe, the third, manages to climb back up urgently, without respecting the decompression stops. When he breaches the surface, he instantly loses consciousness. “I remember him. He came to train with us to pass level 4 diving. But he didn’t get it because of problems he encountered at forty meters,” recalls Richard.
The fall does not give any favors. Since the 1960s, around fifteen divers have died there and have not been found
Richard Vial, head of the International Diving Center, in Nice
Quickly taken care of, the young man was taken to the hyperbaric chamber of the Pasteur hospital in Nice. He will get through it. At the same time, emergency services are organizing to come to the aid of the two prisoners of the drop-off. Every minute counts. A device is triggered by CROSS Med. A Civil Security helicopter is even mobilized. After hours of fruitless research, we had to face the facts: Daniel and Christian were dead. Only the sea will now return them to their loved ones so that they can say goodbye. “The fall does not give any favors. Since the 1960s, around fifteen divers have died there and have not been found,” assures the head of the CIP.
Days pass, months and finally years, without the bodies emerging. A stele in their memory was installed for a time in front of the drop-off, before disappearing in turn, swallowed by the abyss. Little by little, the whole story is falling into oblivion.
In the world of diving, only the “old hands” maintain a few snippets of more or less murky memories, like Richard. “Especially since there have been accidents but no deaths in this sector for all these years,” he observes.
Three decades later, the fallen Orlamonde decided to release the two unfortunate people. In mid-October 2023, technical divers - who are used to pushing the limits of recreational diving - saw a silhouette in a wetsuit at a depth of 120 meters. It is covered in a layer of silt and appears to have been there for a long time. The group does not have time to linger, they must begin their ascent towards the surface. “Everything is timed. You should know that each additional minute at this depth requires 15 minutes of additional relief. With the risk of an air shortage before finding open air,” explains Warrant Officer Yann Bessac, of the Nice maritime gendarmerie.
The BSAD (support, assistance and depollution building) Jason, an imposing tugboat of the French Navy. Maritime Gendarmerie.
Information about this mysterious discovery was immediately transmitted to the local authorities. The public prosecutor is informed and decides to organize searches. But the task promises to be complex. The gendarmes call on the Expert Center for human diving and underwater intervention (CEPHISMER). This body of the National Navy has substantial resources and in particular a robot equipped with hydraulic arms and cameras, capable of carrying out investigation missions up to 2000 meters deep.
We see a silhouette appear at a depth that does not correspond to that indicated. It is defined by the neoprene suit, the stabilizer vest, the bottle and the fins. Warrant Officer Yann Bessac, from the Nice maritime gendarmerie. This was embarked on November 7 aboard the BSAD (support, assistance and depollution vessel) Jason, an imposing tugboat of the French fleet. “A cage containing the robot is lowered from the boat. Once in the area that interests us, the robot is released and connected to the cage by a 100-meter leash,” explains the non-commissioned officer. Despite the rather precise indications of technical divers, the body was only found after six hours of prospecting. “We see a silhouette appear at a depth which does not correspond to that indicated. It is defined by the neoprene suit, the stabilizer vest, the bottle and the fins. And it is by gravitating around that we discover the second body,” adds the gendarme. One is unearthed at 103 meters, the other at 113 meters below sea level.The cage containing the robot, ready to be put in the water to carry out research. Maritime Gendarmerie
We must now manipulate the two bodies, of which little more than bones remain under the suit, with the greatest dexterity. Yann Bessac continues: “Repetitions of movements are first made blankly by the three operators who manipulate the robot from the surface. And when a movement is deemed correct, we start. Obviously, nothing goes as planned at first, but we end up securing catches and the two divers come back up.” Mission accomplished.
The emotion of loved ones
But is it just Daniel and Christian? Richard Vial doubts it. After all, aren’t fifteen bodies lost for decades wandering in the murky waters of the mythical drop-off? “The archives we have do not record any fatal accidents on this site apart from that of 1993,” defuses Warrant Officer Bessac. And to continue: “We found people from the time to obtain descriptions of the equipment. And that before recovering the bodies. We have a connection.” Finally, DNA samples were taken from the relatives of the missing for comparison. Relatives “seized by emotion” when they heard the news, reports the gendarme. “DNA assessments are underway for confirmation but the first elements collected suggest that these bodies may be those of the divers who disappeared in 1993,” confirms the Nice public prosecutor, Damien Martinelli.
