BIG CREEK, Belize (12 Oct 2001) -- Shortly after lunch yesterday, the owners of the Peter Hughes Wave Dancer climbed through some portside windows to assess damage to their crippled vessel. What they found was the final victim of the tragedy that claimed 17 members of the Richmond Dive Club in the howling winds of Hurricane Iris on Monday night. The discovery of the body of Phyllis Cox ended any hope of finding any more survivors from the boat following the worst hurricane to hit Belize in four decades. Shortly before her body was discovered inside the 120-foot-long dive vessel, searchers found the body of her husband, Doug, in a stand of mangrove trees on shore several hundred yards away from where the crippled Wave Dancer lay after being capsized in the Category 4 hurricane. The dive expedition firm's supervisors climbed into the boat and brought out the body of Phyllis Cox. Once both bodies were recovered, men from the British Army's 1st Battalion Devonshire and Dorset regiments prepared them for transport, first to Belize City and eventually back to Richmond. It was the most gruesome aspect of an unusual mission for the soldiers, who found themselves trucking and boating food and other supplies to villages in the hurricane-damaged area of Belize. Several soldiers were joined by the supervisors and owners of the Peter Hughes Wave Dancer as they sat with the bodies at the end of a small dirt air strip just outside of the Big Creek port, waiting for a rescue plane from Ruritan International to fly the bodies back to Belize City. After a 45-minute wait, the plane came and took the bodies away. The owners and supervisors then returned to the Wave Dancer, where they went back in the boat, toting large plastic bags they used to gather up belongings of the victims. Investigators for the Belize Maritime Authority and various insurance companies began the task yesterday of trying to determine what went wrong Monday night. | | In the worst single accident in the history of recreational scuba diving, 20 people died when the Wave Dancer capsized in Belize. "We're just starting with the investigation right now," said Rafael Oliver, spokesman for the maritime authority. "Until we have some facts, everything else is speculation." The investigation started with the broken ropes used to tie up the Wave Dancer at Big Creek, one of Belize's main ports. But investigators and insurance adjusters climbed aboard boats and also visited several other boats that had been damaged in the hurricane by a runaway derelict tug, the Miss Pamela. Initial reports had indicated the Miss Pamela, which was beached nearby before the hurricane, also struck a crushing blow to the Wave Dancer when the storm surge hit the region. Subsequent information indicates that was not the case. The Miss Pamela "didn't have anything to do with our damage," said Peter A. McLauchlan, a lawyer representing Adams & Reese, the insurance adjusters with Lloyd's of London. Investigators focused on the damage to the side of the boat apparently caused when the tidal surge of the hurricane lifted the boat too high for its mooring lines. The left rear portion of the boat apparently was torn wide open. The insurance company's investigation is incomplete and the maritime investigation is just in its early stages, Oliver said. SOURCE - Channel 5 |
