PEMBA ISLAND, Zanzibar, Tanzania (22 July 2005) -- Officials have called off the search for a PADI scuba diving instructor and four Danish tourist divers who went missing one week ago off Pemba Island in Zanzibar. Police identified the missing Danes as Dannie Schov and her two sons, Gabriel and Simon Lowestan, and Lisse Lotte who disappeared while participating in a PADI scuba diving certification course taught by Canadian scuba instructor Neil Clark of Swahili Divers, a PADI Gold Palm resort. The missing group was diving from a Swahili Divers boat in an area that has strong currents. Police speculate the group may have been swept away and by the time they surfaced, were too far from the dive boat to signal the captain. Although the region has no official marine emergency response system that can be quickly deployed to search for missing divers, Swahili Divers owner Farhat Jah organized a search team comprised of volunteers with private light aircraft and fishing boats. Later, police and an anti-smuggling unit joined the search. In a press release, Jah said he was at a loss to explain how the accident happened. | | PADI scuba diving instructor Neil Clark who went missing with four Danish tourists participating in a PADI Gold Palm scuba certification course at Swahili Divers. "The circumstances surrounding their disappearance remain a complete mystery," Jah said. "Conditions on the day were excellent, sea calm and current light, and our expert dive instructor was equipped with all of his usual safety and recognition equipment." Scuba diving accidents in which divers are swept away by strong currents have increased sharply in recent years, often in areas where dive safety infrastructure such as hyperbaric chambers and missing diver emergency response preparedness lags far behind tourism development. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
