Stuff That Hardly Ever Happens At Burton's Training

[Terry]

British divers were abandoned (http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007400406,00.html) for five hours in shark-infested waters after instructors failed to notice they were missing.The terrified pair, holidaying in Antigua, drifted for miles in the Caribbean after the party left the site for lunch without them.

Their group even continued to scuba dive elsewhere in the afternoon ? not realising the men were missing until their wives searched for them when the boat arrived back at the dock.

[Neil]

Well now I have a reason to not be the last diver back on the boat!

Scary.

[owlbill]

Here is the text of the article................


Dive boat left 2 Brits to sharks
By VIRGINIA WHEELER
August 30, 2007


TWO British divers were abandoned for FIVE hours in shark-infested waters after instructors failed to notice they were missing.


The terrified pair, holidaying in Antigua, drifted for miles in the Caribbean after the party left the site for LUNCH without them.


The group even continued to scuba dive elsewhere in the afternoon ? not realising the men were missing until their wives searched for them when the boat arrived back at the dock.


One diver became panic-stricken when he suddenly realised the incident mirrored the 2003 horror movie Open Water.


In that film, a dive couple were eaten by sharks after being left stranded in the water.


The men, one ?crying like a baby?, were bleeding from being swept into razor-sharp coral reefs in waters that are home to great white, tiger and bull sharks.


One was saved by helicopter and the other by a rescue boat from the choppy waters whipped up by Hurricane Dean.


They were miles from their original dive spot on Cades Reef, having been in the water for up to five hours ? and they were on the verge of drowning.


Chopper pilot Gregory Scott, 47, said he was ?amazed? the two survived, adding: ?Nothing excuses a qualified diving team returning to dock without realising they are missing two people.?


The Brits ? known to dive pals only as Ian and Colin ? were rushed to hospital. Rescuers described student diver Ian as ?badly burnt and passing in and out of consciousness? when he was found.


Bosses of the dive crew, operated by the Sandals Grande Antigua Resort, immediately fired four staff but have reportedly reinstated two. Furious rescuers yesterday slammed the dive team as ?breathtakingly irresponsible?.


Pilot Gregory added: ?Ian was a mess when he was pulled to safety. He was crying like a baby and covered in stings and cuts. He thought he was going to die.


?He remembered the film Open Water and thought he would be eaten.? Gregory claimed he was told the Sandals dive team had not carried out the proper head-count procedures.


He said: ?Lax isn?t the word ? these men are lucky to survive.?


The tour party was made up of 13 guests, one dive instructor and two dive masters. A fellow diver said: ?The 30-minute dive was cut short and the boat moved to calmer water for lunch.


?No one noticed anyone was missing but that?s the instructors? job. There was no head-count.


?When we docked, two women asked where their husbands were. The colour drained from the faces of the instructors.?


Sandals, which operates resorts throughout the Caribbean, yesterday refused to comment.

[Terry]

On a single trip to Roatan, we had two lower key "0pen Water" incidents.

On one dive of about twelve folks, one of the divers broke his fin strap just before entering. The DM was already putting divers in the water for a guided dive, told the diver to wait this one out, and took the last of his group down. Minutes later, the diver managed to jury rig a fin strap and jumped in on his own. He never found our group, which resurfaced. The DM counted people who had entered the water and people who left the water, got the same number, and our boat took off. The last diver surfaced at the buoy, couldn't find the boat, and tried to swim to shore. He got washed onto the reef, and was quite dramatically (though not deeply) cut up by rough coral by the time a later dive boat hear him yelling and picked him up.

About two days later we were out on a night dive, when the sea came up during the dive and snapped the boat's line. Rather than churn around in high waves looking for divers, the boat took off. We surfaced quite disoriented, and had to swim through a break in the reef back to shore. Everyone was fine, but it was a bit unnerving.

So while it may not be as dramatic as Open Water, it does happen.

[owlbill]

REFUND......REFUND........I wanna refund please!!!!!

[rwhitbread]

REFUND......REFUND........I wanna refund please!!!!!

To hell with that. I would want the entire cost of my current trip refunded AND a future freebie for Judy and I, and even with that, the thoughts of lawsuit would be wiming "like sharks to a floating diver" around my head.

It does make you think twice about just jumping on a charter while on vacation though.

[Tom Falardeau]

Bonaire.... shore diving only... problem solved

[Terry]

Pffft. Don't give me that, Falardeau. You LOVE that kinda stuff. Nothing would make you happier than being washed out to sea for a week with nothing to eat but your fins. I can just see you contentedly fighting off sharks and sighing happily to yourself..."Finally, a little fun around here. It's not caving, but it's not bad..."

[blee]

Someone posted the following link over on Scubaboard, with the resort's response.

http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=464631108409052007&an=302522108909052007&ac=Local

[rwhitbread]

"Sandals Dive instructors are trained to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) international industry standards, which is the most respected and preferred diving accreditation in the world."

Things that make you go hmmmmmmm:roll:

Funny I must have missed the "leave divers out there so they can get a really long drift in" part of the certification course.

[blee]

Funny I must have missed the "leave divers out there so they can get a really long drift in" part of the certification course.

I think you have to take that as a separate specialty.

:biggrin:

[Terry]

Yes, I understand that the divers in question were billed by PADI for this "experienced-based open water navigation module".

[owlbill]

Someone posted the following link over on Scubaboard, with the resort's response.

http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=464631108409052007&an=302522108909052007&ac=Local (http://www.antiguasun.com/paper/?as=view&sun=464631108409052007&an=302522108909052007&ac=Local)


Sandals issues statement on diving incident
Thursday September 06 2007

Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa has broken its silence on the incident in which two of its guests were inadvertently left at sea during a scuba diving trip last month.
The two men, British nationals vacationing in Antigua with their wives, had been part of an excursion led by a Sandals dive team. The alarm was reportedly raised by the men?s waiting wives when the group returned to the dock without them.
The tale has spread across the Internet, after a dramatic account of the incident was carried by the Cyber Diver News Network. Members of the British press have since picked up on the story, adding to Sandal?s potential exposure to bad publicity.

In its statement on the incident, Sandals International said that it deeply regrets the events of 16 Aug., in which the two guests of Sandals Grande Antigua Resort & Spa who were part of scheduled diving trip ?did not return with the rest of the group.?
According to the hotel chain?s account of the incident, the trip was led by four dive team members and the hotel management team reacted quickly when notified that the two guests have been left behind, dispatching Sandals boats as well as air and sea rescue teams immediately to the dive site.
Sandals fired the four members of the dive team immediately following the incident, but it defends the qualifications of its dive staff, stating that ?Sandals Dive instructors are trained to the Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) international industry standards, which is the most respected and preferred diving accreditation in the world.
?The four (4) members of the dive team who led the dive on August 16th and who breached the company?s and PADI?s standard diving procedure, which requires that all divers be accounted for prior to departing a dive site, are no longer employed at the resort,? the statement continues.
Sandals said that its Antigua management team was deeply compassionate towards the guests? misfortune and ?extended every possible courtesy to them in an effort to ensure that the rest of their vacation was as comforting and pleasurable as possible. In fact, both guests along with their spouses went snorkelling, just days after the occurrence, at the Resort.
?The two couples received a full refund on their vacations. They have also accepted invitations and made bookings to return to the resort, courtesy of Sandals, at their convenience.?

[scubagirl]

They're going back to that resort? I call that giving the staff a second chance to kill you.