Diver takes off tank and drowns while wreck diving in Thailand
A diver drowned earlier today (Saturday 20th February) while diving the the wreck of the HTMS Chang at Hin Rab-Hin Luk Bat, a popular dive site near Koh Chang in Thailand.
The diver, who is believed to be a 63 year-old Russian tourist, was diving with Chang Diving Co., said Ananya Nolthenius, 39, a representative of the tour firm.
The man, who has yet to be named, and his friend – who is also Russian – boarded the firm’s boat with the rest of their dive group and headed for the HTMS Chang this morning. According to Ms Nolthenius, people were snorkelling and wreck diving at the site. At around 11.30am, the dive instructors signalled all the tourists to return to the boat so the dive group could continue on to another site. But when they did a head count, they discovered that one of the members of the dive group was missing. Once they realised who was missing, they asked the boat captain to survey the area to look for the missing Russian.
Another dive boat later spotted the body of the man floating about 200 metres away from the dive site.
Police are still investigating the cause of the accident. They believe the man may have entered the wreck without his air cylinder.
Source: www.bangkokpost.com
