KOREA (16 Mar 2004) -- Renowned technical diver and deep diving record holder John Bennett is missing and presumed dead after a scuba diving accident in Korea. Bennett went missing on Monday afternoon at a depth of 45 meters while trying to detect oil leakage on a Korean wreck located 22 kilometers southwest of Wangdeung Island off North Jeolla Province. According to reports, a second diver on the salvage job noticed that Bennett was experiencing difficulties and signaled for both divers to ascend. Bennett returned the ascent signal but the two divers separated as they moved towards an ascent line attached to the wreck. Although there was no current, visibility was less than two meters at depth. After failing to relocate Bennett on the wreck, the second diver ascended to the surface support vessel and notified the boat crew of a missing diver emergency. The onboard support team spotted bubbles at the surface near the boat and assumed Bennett was ascending off the line. But when the bubbles stopped a few minutes later, a third diver was sent down to search for the missing diver followed by a surface search that continued until dark. | | John Bennett Bennett, 45, was best known for setting depth records and on November 6, 2001, became the first diver to reach a depth of 1000 feet (305 meters) on scuba. In November 2003, Scuba Diving International and Technical Diving International (SDI/TDI) announced the appointment of John Bennett as a member of its Training Board. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
