A female sailing instructor has been arrested after a scuba diver was struck by a boat’s propeller in Hong Kong’s Clear Water Bay yesterday afternoon (4 July), causing life-threatening head injuries.
The diver, a 27-year-old man, was thought to have been part of a group of at least 10 divers, according to local press reports. They had been shore-diving in the bay’s shallow waters but shortly after 3pm had been making their way back to Little Palm Beach amid increasingly rough sea conditions.
The boat is reported to have struck the diver when he was only about 15m from the beach, in water about 2m deep. According to local reports, he had deployed an SMB at the time.
The diver sustained severe head and facial injuries and lost a considerable amount of blood, but he had remained conscious. Paramedics provided first aid at the scene before he was transferred to Queen Elizabeth Hospital for urgent specialist treatment. He was later reported to have fallen into a coma.
Hong Kong police officers investigating the cause of the incident arrived at a nearby sailing club and made the arrest. They alleged that the 44-year-old woman had been piloting a small inflatable boat while leading a youth sailing class, and had been heading back to shore as the weather had deteriorated.
She was detained on suspicion of endangering the safety of others at sea, and the investigation was handed over to the regional crime unit of the Marine Police.
Little Palm Beach is a popular mainland shore-diving and snorkelling site. Because it slopes very gradually to a maximum of 14m and is sheltered it is popular with Hong Kong dive-schools for scuba training, and is otherwise used mainly by local recreational divers.
An amber rainstorm warning had been in force at the time of the incident, with people urged to stay away from the shoreline and cease any water activities.
Initial reports that a 32-year-old woman had also been injured by the boat propeller proved incorrect. Police later said that she had suffered minor facial injuries but after being struck by a windsurfing board while swimming in Clear Water Bay in a separate incident.
Young diver dies on dive with father
The previous day (3 July) in the USA a young diver on a trip with his father died following the pair’s recreational dive south-west of Alligator Point on Florida’s Gulf Coast.
According to the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), the teenager had become distressed under water and subsequently failed to resurface, causing an emergency call to be made. Few details were available about the incident.
A multi-agency search involving the FWC, US Coast Guard and Franklin County Sheriff’s Office was launched using divers, boats and aircraft, with efforts concentrated around Dog Island, just off Alligator Point where the missing diver had last been seen.
FWC divers recovered the boy’s body at around 9.30pm, several hours after the operation had begun, and the commission confirmed that a standard active investigation was underway.
Also on Divernet: Speardiver prop deaths in Bahamas and Bali
