The diver who died after going missing on the wreck of the Zenobia in Cyprus on 26 October has been named as 66-year-old UK expatriate Dennis Reid, an experienced scuba instructor.
A former police inspector from Belfast, Reid and his wife Olecea had moved to the eastern Mediterranean island in 2008. They lived in Paralimini and ran a dive-school near Protaras called Scuba Den (formerly DGR Diving).
Reid had failed to surface following a penetration dive, and the discovery of his body in what was described as a less-visited part of the 172m-long ferry wreck was reported on Divernet on 27 October.
The Zenobia had been closed to recreational divers while professional dive teams combed the wreck and an air and sea search operation was conducted over a wider area.
Search co-ordinator Andreas Charalambides of the island’s Joint Rescue Co-ordination Centre had stated that Reid might have become disorientated and ended up in the part of the wreck where he was found by accident.
He also suggested that divers might need to be prohibited from visiting certain areas of the Zenobia in future.
Snorkeller was ‘overconfident’
Meanwhile a Spanish snorkeller has died in one of the Philippines’s most popular scuba-diving destinations, Moalboal in the south of Cebu island.
Jorge Oliva, 26, was found on the seabed at a depth of 14m at 3pm on 27 October, according to Moalboal police. He had arrived in the beach resort of Basdiot three days earlier, booked into a lodging house and the next day hired snorkelling equipment and a GoPro camera from a local dive-shop.
The store’s owner had recommended that Oliva go into the sea with a guide but he was said to have ignored the advice an gone out alone.
The owner and lodging-house proprietor had become concerned when Oliva failed to return that evening, and reported him missing the next morning (26 October). The Philippine Coast Guard organised a search and rescue operation, with expatriate scuba divers in the area volunteering to help.
According to the police there were no suspicious circumstances around the fatal incident. A spokesperson stated that Oliva had been overconfident of his abilities and was thought to have been badly affected by cramp.
