Missing diver made mistakes

Bianca Clare - 

A Swiss diver who spent three hours lost at sea last week failed to activate his personal signalling alarm, a spokesman for Scubaworld said.

The 62-year-old was swept away from his group by strong currents near HMAS Brisbane last Wednesday.

The coastguard, police and the AGL Action Rescue Helicopter Service were called in to help locate the man.

Scubaworld managing director Ian McKinnon said the incident could have been avoided had the diver followed standard procedure.

“The gentleman was experienced, in fact he had 32 recorded dives,” he said.

“But he made several vital mistakes that day.

“The first was that he lost control of his buoyancy.

“This meant he did not come to the surface at the right place.”

Secondly, he did not launch his signalling alarm, Mr McKinnon said.

“Nor did he wave his arms or a fluoro flipper to get attention.

“If he did he would have been spotted by the crew before drifting and the search would not have happened.

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