Kategorie: News
Judgement on the diving accident in Rangiroa
A dive centre from Rangiroa and a diving instructor were sentenced in the Criminal Court of French Polynesia after the fatal accident of a Japanese tourist in 2014.
In May, the criminal court sentenced the dive center and one of its instructors. For more than two hours, the court tried to understand how the diving accident occurred in which a Japanese tourist lost her life on the afternoon of July 27, 2014.
At that time, before the dive, the instructor warned the tourist, who was traveling with her husband, not to exceed the 29-meter mark. However, some sharks probably lured the couple down to 36 meters. After the instructor calls them both back, the accident occurs.
According to the defendant's lawyer, however, the accident had nothing to do with the exceeded diving depth: "The accident occurred 16 minutes later. Therefore, there can be no causal connection with this drama."
Did carelessness and lack of safety play a role?
At least that is denied by the accused diving instructor, who after 15 years in Rangiroa has 15,000 dives completed. He had not made a careless mistake. According to him, a Velcro closure of the diver had loosened. Water would have then entered the mask. The additional current would then have caused her to panic so much that she would have swallowed water.
A judicial investigation was already initiated on September 11, 2014. All of the diving center's equipment was confiscated. An expert opinion followed by a second opinion pointed to errors in the maintenance of the equipment. As a result, the diving center was temporarily closed.
Now the diving instructor was nevertheless sentenced to 1 year probation. The diving center was sentenced to a fine of 5 million francs - without probation.
Review - What happened in July 2014?
On July 27, the 40-year-old Japanese couple who had arrived at Fenua the day before were on their third dive when the tragedy occurred.
While checking in at the dive center and talking to the instructor in charge of the group, the wife and husband stated that they had already logged 160 dives and held an Open Water Brevet (Level 1 Brevet). The husband also said that he was a passionate underwater photographer. The instructor then planned the first two dives as easier dives on the one hand to be able to judge the abilities of the couple himself and on the other hand to allow the two to adapt to the local conditions with partly strong currents; in this respect it was probably a kind of extended check dive.
Before and also during the third dive the instructor warns the two that they should not go below 29 meters (this is the maximum that was allowed at that time in Fenua for level 1 divers). The current that day was relatively strong, but "normal" according to people familiar with the site.
Lured by a wall with sharks at depth, the man and his partner go down to - 36 m, despite the previous prohibition, before the instructor calls him to order.
A little later, the accident occurred at the entrance to an underwater canyon. The instructor dives in front. The couple follows him. When he turned around to make sure everything was okay, he saw the woman hanging at the entrance of the canyon, face down - in the current. Bubbles are coming out of her mask. She panics and loses her regulator. After a few seconds, the instructor is with her and tries to give her his primary regulator. In the hectic situation and the panic of the diver, this does not succeed; he brings her - who has lost consciousness in the meantime - to the surface. Despite the immediate cardiac massage on the boat and the resuscitation of a rescue team on land, the woman loses her life.
Official closure of the diving center
Already on August 21, at the request of the prosecutor's office, the diving center was temporarily closed for twelve months. The decision was appealed by the company in early September in summary proceedings. The drama and the decision caused a stir in the diving community. An online petition was even started in support. A few days after the closure, the club reopened. On September 10, the Ministry of Youth and Sports lifted its injunction against the club.
On September 11, 2014, a judicial investigation was launched. All of the base's equipment was subsequently confiscated. An expert opinion and subsequently a counter-opinion point to errors in the maintenance of the equipment. For its part, the club defends itself by pointing to regular renewals and speaks of normal average wear and tear with no impact on reliability.
In this case, the technical manager of the base and the diving center itself were also charged yesterday with endangering other people. The fact that the man went down to 36 meters additionally "constitutes an obviously intentional violation of an official duty of safety or care," the prosecutor said yesterday as such. For his part, the diving instructor stated that it was the diving photographer who had exceeded the reference depth of 29 meters before he could ask him to return.
According to Mr. Quinquis, the lawyer of the defendants, the exceeding of the depth limit established before the dive can not be blamed on the instructor, who after all told the man several times to respect the maximum depth when the latter had exceeded the allowed depth, attracted by the wall with gray sharks. "The accident also occurred 16 minutes after exceeding the maximum allowable depth. Therefore, there can be no causal relationship with the tragedy", he said. As for the condition and maintenance of the equipment, this was excluded from the indictment, he recalled, before requesting the release of the instructor and the company.
Source: actu.fr/polynesie-francaise/rangiroa_98740/noyade-en-plongee-a-rangiroa-le-moniteur-de-plongee...