Note: The following account is based on a report submitted to the National Speleological Society by members of the recovery team. It does not have complete information, including the name of the victim. I was unable to find news accounts, possibly because I was unable to search by the victim's name. I was unable to find the incident reported in any of the scuba forums I checked. Anyone having further information is invited to provide it.
On June 16, 2018, 10 non-divers contracted with a local independent instructor and dive guide to conduct a Discover Scuba course. That local instructor found 3 individuals, supposedly an instructor and 2 DMs, to conduct the class for the 10 students. He was present but did not participate in the class himself. The chosen site was Cenote Manati, north of Tulum. This is a long cenote formed by the collapse of a cave that is part of the outflow of the huge Sac Actun cave system. The cenote ends near the bay, with the water exiting through a cave that empties out into the bay. This forms what is called a siphon, a cave that has water flowing in through the cave entrance. Siphons are only dived with great care because of the potential difficulty of returning to the entrance against the water flow.
Because of recent heavy rains, conditions were not good in the cenote. Horizontal visibility was about one meter. The water flow was particularly strong, and a whirlpool was noted on the surface near the entrance to the cave. Soon after the students submerged for the dive, several returned to the surface and quit the dive because of the conditions. The rest completed the dive.
When the dive was over, two students were missing, and the DMs looked for them. They were found struggling in the current near the cave. One of them managed to hold onto the BCD of a DM, but the other could not maintain the grip and was pulled into the cave by the current. The DM took that one student to the surface, but there was no attempt to enter the cave to find the student, which would have been very dangerous. It would have been possible for the student to swim through the cave with the current and get to the bay, but he would not likely have known that, and that exit is not visible until near the end.
Local cave divers were summoned, but they arrived too late for a rescue and were not able to locate the body. The next day a larger group of cave divers was able to locate the body wedged in a crack in the ceiling of the cave and recover it.
The instructor and two DMs who conducted the class left the scene quickly, and the reporting divers did not know their names or if they were even fully certified professionals. The instructor who had arranged the dive was expelled by PADI a few weeks later. There are no other expulsions from that area and time listed on the PADI list of expelled members, suggesting that either PADI did not know who they were or they were not PADI members.
On June 16, 2018, 10 non-divers contracted with a local independent instructor and dive guide to conduct a Discover Scuba course. That local instructor found 3 individuals, supposedly an instructor and 2 DMs, to conduct the class for the 10 students. He was present but did not participate in the class himself. The chosen site was Cenote Manati, north of Tulum. This is a long cenote formed by the collapse of a cave that is part of the outflow of the huge Sac Actun cave system. The cenote ends near the bay, with the water exiting through a cave that empties out into the bay. This forms what is called a siphon, a cave that has water flowing in through the cave entrance. Siphons are only dived with great care because of the potential difficulty of returning to the entrance against the water flow.
Because of recent heavy rains, conditions were not good in the cenote. Horizontal visibility was about one meter. The water flow was particularly strong, and a whirlpool was noted on the surface near the entrance to the cave. Soon after the students submerged for the dive, several returned to the surface and quit the dive because of the conditions. The rest completed the dive.
When the dive was over, two students were missing, and the DMs looked for them. They were found struggling in the current near the cave. One of them managed to hold onto the BCD of a DM, but the other could not maintain the grip and was pulled into the cave by the current. The DM took that one student to the surface, but there was no attempt to enter the cave to find the student, which would have been very dangerous. It would have been possible for the student to swim through the cave with the current and get to the bay, but he would not likely have known that, and that exit is not visible until near the end.
Local cave divers were summoned, but they arrived too late for a rescue and were not able to locate the body. The next day a larger group of cave divers was able to locate the body wedged in a crack in the ceiling of the cave and recover it.
The instructor and two DMs who conducted the class left the scene quickly, and the reporting divers did not know their names or if they were even fully certified professionals. The instructor who had arranged the dive was expelled by PADI a few weeks later. There are no other expulsions from that area and time listed on the PADI list of expelled members, suggesting that either PADI did not know who they were or they were not PADI members.