BERMAGUI, Australia (31 Oct 2007) — Sven Paepke's dive buddy could tell something was wrong as soon as the pair slipped down into the deep sea. He watched as his buddy slipped into unconsciousness as he descended down the line anchored at the wreck of the Iron Knight that sits in 125 metres of water. The technical dive that took weeks to plan but that ended in tragedy took place on Saturday morning 14 kilometres off Bermagui. Water police say the 42-year-old from Sydney, who leaves behind a wife, died well before reaching the bottom with equipment failure one possible explanation for the accident. Four other technical divers from the Sydney Project dive club had already been to the bottom and to the wreck and were ascending when Mr Paepke, who was expedition leader, started his descent with his buddy. Fellow club member Paul Garske was the last and carried a dive scooter as all three encountered strong currents mid water that bowed the shot line that trailed from a buoy on the surface to a piece of railway line dropped to the bottom close to the wreck. By the time they all reached the bottom together there was nothing they could do to recover their dive buddy as the body was too heavy with all the gear and the shot line was moving. Mr Paepke's body is still on the bottom somewhere near the wreck. "We had to decided whether to go and grab him and do a blue water ascent and risk our lives," he told the Narooma News. "It was a horrible decision but I was thinking about my (life) and buddies' lives." Mr Garske has also written an explanation of the accident on the Dive-Oz website. "While descending with his buddy, Sven appeared to lose consciousness. "Despite his buddy's repeated attempts to control Sven's buoyancy and re-establish his breathing, Sven and his buddy sank to the bottom in approximately 125m of water. "Further attempts by his buddy and (Mr Garske) failed to re-establish Sven's breathing and consciousness, and could not achieve positive buoyancy. "With the shot line dragging in the high current, and the divers planned bottom time being exceeded, the difficult decision was made by the two divers to begin their 3.5 hour ascent." At these depths despite breathing mixed gases through a rebreather, the divers only have around 15 minutes bottom time and have to spend up to four hours stopping and decompressing on the way up. Mr Paepke was an experienced diver with the deep diving club known as the Sydney Project and as expedition leader would have spent four to six weeks preparing the team and logistics for the dive. It was the Sydney Project that in 2006 first dived on the Iron Knight, an iron ore carrier sunk by the Japanese during World War II. | | He had also dived on the SS Wear discovered off Montague along with the wreck of Bega also located by Bermagui charter boat operator Keith Appleby who uses the knowledge of local trawlers. Mr Appleby was on deck of his boat Binjarra and had to wait around three hours while all the divers decompressed their way back to the surface. The divers were able to send a note back to the surface breaking the dreadful news with Mr Garske saying the ascent knowing they had left behind their club mate was one of the worst experiences. "None of us wanted to be there," he said. Investigating the accident is Senior Constable Alex Barrell of the Eden water police. Police are waiting to get specialised side-scan sonar equipment that will allow them to try and locate Mr Paepke's body. Sydney Project members are keen to go back down and recover the body themselves, although Mr Appleby has another team of deep divers from Victoria scheduled to dive on the Iron Knight this weekend. The Victorians earlier this year went down and dropped a special plaque on the wreck for the relatives of a merchant mariner that went down with the ship after it was torpedoed. Deep diving is inherently a very dangerous activity and a Sydney Project member diving off his own boat in 75 metres of water off the city died over a year ago. Mr Garske said finding the body and checking over the equipment was the only way to find out what happened although the rebreather he was using was state of the art. The other club also made fun his German background and stereotype of attention to detail with his buddy saying he would have checked his equipment very rigorously. "The Sydney Project is deeply saddened to lose one of its most enthusiastic and active members," Mr Garske wrote on the Dive-Oz website. "Our condolences and thoughts are with Sven's family at this difficult time." 
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