Two brothers who claim that they were abandoned at sea by their dive-boat off the coast of Western Australia are taking legal advice about possible action against the operator, with their lawyer declaring that the incident was “clearly an issue of negligence”.
Local divers Ian Kensington and Ryan Chaudhry had been diving some 4km off Perth from the 12m catamaran Wildcat, operated by Perth Diving Academy of Hillarys.
The boat runs morning dive-trips to Marmion Marine Park, where unguided dives of up to an hour are offered. It accommodates up to 20 divers and was carrying 15 on the day of the incident, Sunday, 2 March.
The buddy-pair said they had been under water for some 35 minutes when they heard a boat engine start nearby. They had felt a strong surge and loss of visibility as the vessel moved away and reported being “pushed back quite aggressively”.
On surfacing, they reported seeing Wildcat heading back to shore. They shouted, waved and used a strobe mounted on an SMB in a bid to alert the crew, but to no effect.
The brothers have told ABC News that they seemed too far offshore to swim to safety and, feeling vulnerable to shark activity, had activated their ankle-mounted Shark Shield deterrent devices. They had also ditched all non-essential equipment.
Initial reports had suggested that the pair were adrift for several hours, but after a time now estimated as 40-60 minutes they saw in the distance the Rottnest Island fast ferry heading in their direction towards Hillarys Boat Harbour. Waving and shouting to attract attention, they were eventually spotted by the ferry captain.
Boarding the ferry
Kensington said that he had banged his head twice on the ferry’s hull while climbing its ladder, causing him to appear dazed and in shock once aboard.
Meanwhile Chaudhry experienced difficulty boarding the ferry because of the strength of its engines’ wash, and was eventually advised by crew to swim clear to avoid being sucked beneath the vessel.
At this point the Wildcat dive-boat had turned up, with one of its crew telling ferry crew over the radio that it was “coming back out” to pick up its divers.
The Wildcat crew-member reportedly suggested that Kensington be put back in the water so that the dive-boat could pick him up. Kensington declined the offer and returned to Hillarys on the ferry.
Chaudhry, who claimed to be ‘fried’ and with cramping legs, was recovered onto Wildcat to be taken back. The diver said that at that time one of the PDA staff had admitted responsibility for the separation and had repeatedly pleaded with him not to sue the company.
Investigating the incident
The brothers have now engaged Perth lawyer John Hammond to represent them, claiming that PDA provided no duty of care either during the dive or afterwards. Hammond described the boat separation as negligent.
Kensington has claimed that he did not see PDA staff conduct any head-counts or conduct roll-calls.
He also said that his request to PDA to arrange for an ambulance to be in attendance in Hillarys had been ignored, despite a head injury which he says later caused him to be “in and out of hospital” for treatment for delayed concussion. ”They basically treated the whole dive that day like a joke,” he told ABC News.
At the time of the incident Troy Lane, director of Perth Diving Academy since it opened in 2005, had told ABC that everyone was safe and “nobody died”. Later he stated that the authorities had been notified of the incident and that an investigation was ongoing.
The Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA), which is carrying out the investigation, said that it would “not hesitate to take swift and strong action should a breach of safety regulations or procedures be identified”.
Soon after the incident, Kensington had issued a statement urging “everyone to withhold judgment and wait for the full AMSA report. Despite the strict headcount and roll-call protocols taught by dive training organisations, incidents like this still happen.”
While acknowledging the possibility of human error or miscommunication, he said that “failing to account for every diver before leaving a site is unacceptable, and lessons must be learned from this. I trust that AMSA’s findings will help strengthen safety measures and prevent future incidents.”
”The safety of our customers is paramount to our business,” said PDA’s Lane. “We will be reviewing our procedures and will implement any preventative measures if needed.”
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