Hong Kong tourist dies during dive near Sipadan

[wKkaY]

Hong Kong tourist dies during dive near Sipadan

SEMPORNA: A tourist from Hong Kong died during a dive at Barracuda Point off Sipadan Island here yesterday.

Ng Chi Ming, 40, went for a dive with 10 other people who were part of a diving company at about 6.40am yesterday.

After 10 minutes of diving and resurfacing, the dive master realised that a member of his group was missing, and searched for Ng in the area for about 45 minutes.

The dive master lodged a report with the authorities at 8.15am, and the Sabah Parks requested help from the army to conduct a search.

Eastern Sabah Security Command (Esscom) was also notified of the incident.

Ng was found at 8.55am and his body was brought to the Semporna hospital here.

District police chief Superintendent Peter Umbuas confirmed the incident and added that a post-mortem will be conducted at the Tawau hospital here today.

 

[Saldiac]

This article gives a bit more info, apparently his body was found at 55 meters.
HK man in tragic dive accident

 

[Land Fish]

There are some local medias citing down current and/or empty tank when he was brought to surface. Not sure how accurate they were.

I'm curious to know if I were pushed into the deep by down current with a relatively full cylinder, would I have a chance to wait out and ascend when the current eases/moves on? Ditching weight and shooting up sound just as bad...

 

[Steve_C]

There are some local medias citing down current and/or empty tank when he was brought to surface. Not sure how accurate they were.

I'm curious to know if I were pushed into the deep by down current with a relatively full cylinder, would I have a chance to wait out and ascend when the current eases/moves on? Ditching weight and shooting up sound just as bad...

If you are waiting at 165 ft besides the fact that you are sucking air much faster you would probably be either narced out of your skull or ox-toxed depending on our mix.

Either go up the wall or move out away from the wall.

 

[Saldiac]

There are some local medias citing down current and/or empty tank when he was brought to surface. Not sure how accurate they were.

Could you please name the local media sources? I'm in Kuala Lumpur and was in Sipadan just three weeks ago. I'd really like to find out more about it.
If it's true that he dove in a group of 11 with just one dive guide then that's a big red flag. I've also seen some dubious diving behavior at Sipadan but I won't elaborate since I don't know how experienced this diver was.

 

[Land Fish]

If you are waiting at 165 ft besides the fact that you are sucking air much faster you would probably be either narced out of your skull or ox-toxed depending on our mix.

Either go up the wall or move out away from the wall.

Err...Narcosis and oxygen toxicity... I didn't think that :/

 

[Land Fish]

Could you please name the local media sources? I'm in Kuala Lumpur and was in Sipadan just three weeks ago. I'd really like to find out more about it.
If it's true that he dove in a group of 11 with just one dive guide then that's a big red flag. I've also seen some dubious diving behavior at Sipadan but I won't elaborate since I don't know how experienced this diver was.

Some local papers in Hong Kong and I doubt they'd come in English. But if you're interested, I'll get the link/s for you

 

[Saldiac]

Some local papers in Hong Kong and I doubt they'd come in English. But if you're interested, I'll get the link/s for you

Ah, I thought you meant local Malaysian papers. A bit surprising that the Hong Kong papers have more to report than the local Malaysian papers, hmm.

 

[Land Fish]

Unfortunately the ethical standards varies among the local papers, and some of them have questionable tactics to get first-hand info, and those have no shame in retracting from what they reported wrong if caught.

 

[dmaziuk]

I'm curious to know if I were pushed into the deep by down current with a relatively full cylinder, would I have a chance to wait out and ascend when the current eases/moves on? Ditching weight and shooting up sound just as bad...

A "relatively full" cylinder implies "relatively little" tissue loading, so I'd say shooting up does not sound quite as bad. Of course, there may be previous dives and all that... but as they say, you can survive bends.