PETAWA, Ontario (1 Oct 2008) — Alex Padulo's body was located in the Petawawa River face down on a pile of debris almost 40 metres off shore, the jury at a coroner's inquest into his death heard Tuesday. This according to the testimony of Constable Steven Salmon, of the Ontario Provincial Police Underwater Search and Recovery Unit (USRU), who pulled Mr. Padulo's body from the water after 10 a. m. April 9, 2006. Three days earlier the diver went missing while attempting to complete his third open-water dive as part of certification from the Barracuda Scuba Club in Petawawa. Mr. Padulo was found in more than three metres of water with his regulator out of his mouth and inflator hose disconnected from his buoyancy compensator, Const. Salmon said. He was wearing his wet suit, gloves and face mask, but was missing his right fin, which had been located in a different section by military divers the previous day, the inquest heard. The jury also heard Mr. Padulo's body was initially found by military diver Bradley Montgomery, who secured a line to the body so he would not be lost again. After the discovery he returned to shore as the military and OPP divers had agreed that members of USRU would recover the body. When he reached Mr. Padulo's body, Const. Salmon reconnected the hose in order to inflate the buoyancy compensator to assist in the recovery. Mr. Padulo's air tank was nearly half full at the time he was found. "I had no difficulty reconnecting the hose," he told the jury. "The equipment worked as it should." After the connection was secured it took only a few seconds to inflate the buoyancy compensator, Const. Salmon demonstrated for the jury. He said it would have been difficult for Mr. Padulo to remain at the surface because of the disconnected hose, missing fin and amount of weight around his waist, he said during cross-examination from the Padulo family's lawyer Pradeep Chand. | | Joan Padulo is holding one of her favourite pictures of her son, Alex, who died during the third open water dive of a PADI entry-level scuba diving course. An inquest into the fatal scuba diving accident heard testimony that PADI scuba instructors Dustin Proper and Bruce Proper overweighted the victim and conducted their entry-level diver certification course in conditions that were not suitable for novice divers. For the dive, Mr. Padulo was wearing 35 pounds, which Const. Salmon felt was too heavy for his body size. The jury has heard that Mr. Padulo weighed between 185 and 200 pounds and the general rule is for divers to wear 10 per cent of their body weight, although it is trial and error depending on a number of other factors. According to the officer's dive log the day of the search, the water temperature was 34 degrees Fahrenheit. He also testified that during his initial search dive on April 7, he found the strong current in the centre of river to be challenging. |
