VITI LEVU, Fiji (4 Sep 2004) -- Fiji police and volunteers continue to search for a PADI dive center owner and his student diver four days after they disappeared. Five boats are searching Vatu-I-Ra Passage off Rakiraki where Crystal Divers owner Dan Granier, 54, and Danielle Gibbons, 26, went missing on Tuesday during a training dive. Officials in Fiji told CDNN Gibbons had been in Fiji for two months training with Granier to become certified as a PADI scuba diving instructor. Details of the accident are still unclear but according to initial reports, a dive boat dropped Granier and Gibbons in strong currents at one end of a reef in Vatu-I-Ra Passage and waited downcurrent at the other end of the reef for the divers to resurface at a predetermined time. When the divers failed to resurface as planned, the dive boat crew started a search but after failing to find Granier and Gibbons, the boat captain informed Fiji police of a missing diver emergency. Joined by local villagers and other professional divers, police launched a full-scale search, however, the divers remain missing as of Saturday (Fiji time). Meanwhile, the parents of Danielle Gibbons have arrived in Fiji to join the search for their missing daughter. Janice Gibbons has appealed to the Australian government to deploy aircraft based in the nearby Solomon Islands to help search for her daughter. "At the moment, we're pleading with their authorities to use all their resources available to assist in the search," Mrs Gibbons told reporters. | | Danielle Gibbons and Crystal Divers owner Dan Grenier went missing off Viti Levu. "I just want everyone to help, in particular the Australian Navy and Air Force. Apparently they are in the area, they're in the Solomon Islands, and they can come over, but we have to plead with the authorities for that to happen." Although the search continues, Fiji police told CDNN that while they remain hopeful, "chances are slim" the divers will be found alive after so many days in the sea. © CDNN - CYBER DIVER NEWS NETWORK |
