COCOS ISLAND, Costa Rica (24 May 2003) -- What should have been an idyllic 10-day diving trip to remote Cocos Island turned to tragedy this week for two men missing since last Friday and suspected dead. U.S. retiree Bruce Rubin, 56, and Brazilian Israel Ostrowiecki, 55, disappeared Friday morning during a dive at the "Dos Amigos Pequeños" site on the southwest side of the uninhabited island, some 530 kilometers (300 miles) southwest of Costa Rica's Pacific coast. The divers were discovered missing after the conclusion of the dive, family members said. An exhaustive search headed by the U.S. Navy and Coast Guard has failed to locate the missing divers, and at press time, authorities were evaluating whether or not to call off the search, which has covered some 2,400 square-miles since last Friday, according to U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Marcia Bosshardt. In a Wednesday meeting with U.S. Embassy officials, family members of the two missing men persuaded authorities to continue searching, hoping against odds that the divers are alive and drifting at sea. Search crews on Monday found one of the divers' empty air tanks and an orange floating location device, known as a "sausage," some 12 miles southwest of the site. "I'm going to do everything I can to bring the most comprehensive search and rescue operation possible," Rubin's wife Sondra told The Tico Times on Wednesday. "If anyone could survive this, my husband could." But family members began to lose hope yesterday that the divers, who have been lost for more than 150 hours, would be found alive. Rubin and Ostrowiecki were on their second day of a 19-person dive expedition aboard the 120-foot Okeanos Aggressor, based in the Pacific port of Puntarenas. A Costa Rican franchise of the Louisiana-based Aggressor Fleet, the Okeanos Aggressor is one of three companies that charters trips to the uninhabited island, located some 36 hours away. Cocos Island, a protected national park accessible only by ship, is known worldwide for an abundance of marine species, including dense populations of the hammerhead shark. Strong currents, cold temperatures and the area's isolation can create difficult conditions even for experienced divers. Speaking by phone from Louisiana, Aggressor Fleet founder Wayne Hasson said he is "heartbroken." "This is the first time this has ever happened to us in 20 years of diving," he said. "We have all the security procedures in place, and everyone on that boat is thoroughly trained in what to do." In Costa Rica, franchise operations manager José Pastora would not release details of the accident, saying an investigation would be conducted when the dive boat returns to port, most likely today. He said this week's accident was the first in the company's 15-year history. According to initial reports from family members of both men, Rubin, his 19-year-old daughter Lilith and Ostrowiecki were part of a smaller nine-member group that departed for the Friday-morning dive on the island's south side in one of the company's two smaller boats. Lilith Rubin and Ostrowiecki allegedly descended in a first group of four divers, while Bruce Rubin followed in a second group of five. It is unclear whether the two men - apparently in different dive groups - disappeared together or separately. It is also unclear whether the divers were utilizing the standard "dive buddy" safety system of diving in pairs. | | According to family members, one dive master accompanied the two groups, although neither family members nor Pastora could confirm the information until the ship returns today. "There are many unanswered questions regarding security issues," said Ostrowiecki's 24-year-old son Alexandre, who arrived this week with other relatives from his home in Sao Paulo, Brazil. "We just want a thorough investigation. If (employees) were doing their job, fine. If there was negligence, we want to know, so that my father and Bruce are the last two people this happens to." Both family members and company officials praised U.S. authorities for what they said has been an intense and impressive search and rescue effort. Directed by a U.S. command center in San Francisco, California, Coast Guard and Navy officials have conducted 24 searches totaling more than 140 hours, from aboard the U.S.S. O'Bannon destroyer, a C-130 plane equipped with state-of-the-art sonar and radar equipment, and an SH-60 search helicopter. Costa Rican officials have also participated in the search aboard a boat assigned to the Cocos Island ranger station. Search crews have logged more than 140 hours, Bosshardt said. Questions also remain about whether Rubin, whose knee had been operated on 26 times, was fit for the dive. Information distributed to divers by the company warned that the trip "is not recommended to new divers or handicapped divers." But Rubin - a third-degree black belt, Sensei and Nisei Goju Ryu instructor - had significant dive experience, diving off five different continents during the last 18 years. According to his wife, he had also trekked "nearly every major mountain range on the planet, and lived with almost every primitive tribe left on earth." Rubin and Ostrowiecki - both Jewish - had never met before last week's tragic expedition. But their disappearance was marked by strange coincidences that have helped family members find strength. Ostrowiecki was born in Germany to Polish parents who both survived Hitler's concentration camps. Shortly after his birth, the family migrated to Brazil, where his 80-year-old parents live today, struggling with the news of his disappearance. Rubin - a tough-as-nails educator and philanthropist who spent 25 years teaching math and science in one of New York's toughest Bronx neighborhoods - spent much of his time traveling the world with his two daughters, many times seeking out obscure indigenous tribes with suspected ancient Jewish ties, his wife said. The family retired to New Mexico 10 years ago. Ironically, the two disappeared in a dive site known as "Dos Amigos," meaning "two friends" in Spanish. "We are a very strong family," said Sondra Rubin. "Our philosophy is not unlike the third chapter of Ecclesiastes - unto every season there is a time. I just don't yet know which time it is for Bruce and Israel." The divers' disappearance is the second accident on Cocos Island in less than two years. In January 2002, 38-year-old U.S. diver William Bradley Hunt drowned during a diving expedition with a different company. In the 1980s, a cruise-ship passenger failed to return from a group hike through the craggy and thickly-vegetated territory of Cocos. No trace of her was found. SOURCE - Tico Times |
