Drowned solo diver had ‘dangerous’ reg set-up

UPDATED 5 November: Diver was using PFD

A solo diver who died off the North Wales coast last year had no alternative air supply and was using a regulator with a makeshift mouthpiece attachment, a coroner heard at an inquest in Caernarfon this week.

Imrich Magyer, 53, a Slovakian human resources assistant living in Warrington in Cheshire, was said by family-members to have been a keen underwater photographer.

He went missing during a shore dive off the Llyn Peninsula on 28 November, 2024. The alarm was raised after a member of the public had spotted what appears to have been his surface-supplied diving system. 

UPDATE 5 November: Diver was using PFD

Initial reports of the inquest into the death of Imrich Magyer did not make clear the nature of the equipment he was using when he went missing, but Coroner Sarah Riley has now kindly supplied Divernet with two images of what was, as suspected, a personal flotation device or PFD incorporating a compressor to supply air to the diver via an umbilical hose.

In the circumstances, if the regulator mouthpiece were to become detached in rough waters / poor visibility while at depth it could prove difficult to recover the second stage.

Magyer’s car and personal effects were found near a shore-diving beach near Tudweiliog, an area known to present challenging conditions, especially in winter. He had been wearing a wetsuit, and had not informed anyone of his dive-plan.

His body was washed up in a storm near Llangwnnadl on 7 December following extensive sea and land searches, as reported at the time on Divernet.

Assistant coroner for North-west Wales Sarah Riley described Magyer’s dive-gear as unsuitable for British waters, adding that it had not been professionally serviced and lacked the redundancy features appropriate for coldwater solo diving, according to a BBC report on the inquest.

Describing the regulator set-up as “quite dangerous”, Home Office pathologist and scuba diver Dr Brian Rodgers said that the mouthpiece was “held on with cable-ties and builder’s mastic” and could be dislodged by currents, waves or a passing boat’s wake. “That’s almost certainly what happened here,” he said.

Divernet has learnt from a source in the area that Magyer was diving beneath a floating raft carrying a petrol-engine-powered compressor to supply him with air via an umbilical hose and regulator.

Members of a local dive-club who retrieved the apparatus had reportedly encountered Magyer using the hookah rig before during the summer, and had questioned him about its safety.

Recording a verdict of misadventure, the coroner concluded that Magyer had been diving without the recommended buddy and, having no back-up air-supply, had drowned after losing his air supply.