A 45-year-old man from Belgrade in Serbia, identified only by the initials ‘MB’, has been arrested by Montenegrin police in connection with the scuba-tank explosion at an Adriatic shore location that caused a teenager to lose a hand on 24 August.
The 14-year-old boy was reported to have been at least 50m from the source of the explosion on Ploče Beach when a piece of shrapnel struck his wrist, as reported on Divernet on 27 August. Another boy sustained minor injuries.
According to regional media reports, MB is suspected of serious offences including endangering public safety and conducting unauthorised business activities involving diving equipment, though charges have yet to be brought.
The Basic State Prosecutor’s Office in the nearby town of Kotor has been informed of the arrest, and a technical expert has visited Ploče Beach to assist with the investigation into the incident, though no more details of what happened are available as yet.
Investigators will consider issues such as cylinder maintenance, storage and testing and the possibilities of structural failure due to corrosion, fatigue or manufacturing defects.
A dive-shop, Diving Centre Plaža Ploče, has operated at Ploče Beach since 2011, offering a range of scuba and freediving services including equipment rental. It operates two compressors said to have capacity of 400l/min for trimix and nitrox mixes.
A lot of us would like to know: was the tank within hydro-testing, had it had it’s annual VIP, was there corrosion present, was MB trained to do maintenance, was he trained to fill tanks,… Who owns the operation an therefore the responsibility?