The UK government’s Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) has launched a probe into the death of wreck-diver Paul Smith in Scapa Flow on the morning of 28 September – and it has now emerged that he had been struck while under water by a diving liveaboard.
A Royal Navy dive-team recovered the 70-year-old Greater Manchester diver’s remains near the Orkney island of Cava on 16 October, almost three weeks after he had embarked on a morning dive on the German battleship SMS Markgraf. He was named another nine days later.
MAIB, in its list of current investigations, has revealed that what it describes as “a passing support vessel”, identified as the dive-boat mv Karin, “struck a recreational diver making an underwater decompression stop… resulting in one fatality”.
The incident and its aftermath were reported on Divernet, but official announcements had not explained why a major air and sea search involving Coastguard and lifeboat teams and local boats had been halted at the end of the day of the incident but not resumed the following day. Smith's death had initially been subject to a police investigation.
The well-known 24m liveaboard Karin is operated by Kirkwall-based skipper and technical diver John Thornton, who was one of the first to offer dive charters in Scapa Flow.
MAIB investigations conclude with a published report, but there is no indication of the time-frame for its completion.
Another boat-diving death occurred in Scapa Flow more recently, on 27 October. The as-yet unnamed 58-year-old man was brought ashore but declared dead at the scene, while another diver was taken to hospital with suspected decompression illness. The incident was under investigation by Police Scotland.
