Diver 'probably had correct mix'

Rhonda Mark - 

A master diver "more than likely" correctly filled the tanks he used on a fatal dive to the Holmglen wreck – even though the coroner was earlier told the opposite.

The evidence about-turn came at yesterday's reconvened inquest into the death of Blenheim man Kevin Winston Bailey, 63, exactly two years after he went missing while diving on the wreck of the Holmglen, 22 nautical miles from Timaru. His body was recovered by a boat trawling the area three days later.

The three divers spent about half an hour on the wreck. They were on their way back to the surface with the ship's bell attached to a buoy and clipped to the diver's ascent line, when it dropped from the surface, dragging the line with it. The divers got clear. Mr Bailey disappeared a short time later.

At an inquest in February, coroner Richard McElrea was told the police dive squad arranged for Environmental Science and Research to test the gasses in Mr Bailey's diluent cylinder.

It contained only 1 per cent oxygen when the tri-mix he should have been using for the 68-metre dive required 18 per cent oxygen, 50 per cent helium and the balance of nitrogen.

Mr Bailey's family raised a number of matters covered in the police dive squad report, and as a result issues including the gas mix were reconsidered.

Giving evidence yesterday, dive squad member Constable Paul Ferguson said he went back to the ESR and found they had not carried out a physical inspection of the cylinder's interior as requested. Another company has since found corrosion on the tank interior. The rusting would have consumed any oxygen.

In light of that finding and witness accounts, Mr Ferguson said it was more than likely the gas was correctly mixed and had not contributed to Mr Bailey's death.

Based on the new information he also withdrew earlier comments about incorrect gas mixing and labelling.

The February hearing found there was a problem with the batteries in Mr Bailey's secondary dive computer which controlled the alarms relayed to the diver.

Without it, he would have been unaware of any changes to his system unless he was constantly monitoring his primary computer.

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