A 70-year-old military veteran from Aberdeenshire who died after going missing on a dive trip to a marine park off the coast of Murcia in Spain has been named.
Experienced diver Phillip Evans, who lived in Balmedie, had been on a dive excursion with Club de Buceo Islas Hormigasto the famous Hormigas Islands, near Cabo de Palos on Thursday 23 May when he didn’t return to the surface.
A large-scale search was carried out after the alarm was raised, involving two helicopters, Spanish Navy vessels, coastguards and the Red Cross, and his body was recovered from the seabed at 52m more than a mile offshore on Friday 24 May by expert Civil Guard divers.
Mr Evans’ family put out a statement to confirm his death in a social media post: ‘To our family and friends, we are devastated to let you all know Phillip went diving and didn't come home. He died doing something he loved’.