Even worse, a few months later the husband's dive slate was recovered washed ashore with message written on it saying
"Monday, Jan 26; 1998 08 am. To anyone who can help us: We have been abandoned on A[gin] Court Reef by MV Outer Edge Jan 25 1998 3pm. Please help to rescue us before we die. Help!!!”
Full article: https://historicflix.com/tom-and-eileen-lonergan/
They got the couples diaries. In the man’s he mentioned he felt he was done with life and would love to succumb to a painless death. His wife wrote about him being suicidal. They had marital problems. They tried to play the whole thing off like they intended to go out like that and broke away from the group on purpose. I highly doubt anyone would choose that as their preferred way to die.
That’s messed up, but even if they had broke away from the group intentionally, you’d think the tour company would at least do a fucking headcount once everyone was back on board.
They allegedly did but there was some confusion and they counted two people twice or something. There was some back and forth about who was responsible for the head count after they realized their mistake from finding the couples belongings and wallets left behind
I've seen something similar happen in the documentary Home Alone. Gotta be extra cautious when counting children in winter clothes and scuba divers, apparently.
If you're being serious, the user you replied to was making a joke. Home Alone is not actually a documentary, but instead a Hollywood feature film that includes a scene with an incorrect headcount resulting in 1 individual being left behind.
If you do want a (somewhat) documentary about it, watch Open Water. There is a few of them now, but the first one is the scuba diving incident. Those movies freak me out
> They allegedly did but there was some confusion and they counted two people twice or something.
The divers are supposed to actually sign their names when leaving and when returning.
Sounds like a terrible dive op.
This case was a while ago but I just re-listened to a great podcast on it (Casefile) and the dive company was prosecuted afterwards for not following its own safety protocol. They (Queensland) also made the laws a bit stricter after this also about responsibilities of dive operators.
There’s also another really interesting case (Gabe and Tina Watson) about a woman who dies scuba diving on the same reef at a shipwreck and some potential mistakes made by the dive company that led to it. Really interesting stuff imo
If I remember correctly, they tried to say that they left the designated area, and did not return to the boat on time. I don't really remember it as slander, but it was ages ago.
This was before, and what created the law of chip in, chip out in Australia, for dive boats. Every diver before getting in the water is given a numbered chip attached to their dive gear, they don't leave until every chip is back on the boat.
Sad truth about a lot of these types of "adventures" - hikes, white water rafting, cave exploring, mountain climbs, scuba - are run by very underpaid and overworked people. 90% of the time it's fine, but you don't want to be in that 10% the day it all catches up.
You probably aren't aware of the conditions, So the ocean can get insane near the barrier reef, like 6ft-9ft waves, on a dive boat that allows non-certified divers to make 2 dives (which is legal but crazy) you get a lot of people who aren't use to the ocean, don't know how to put on, or move in dive gear, and lots, and lots of vomiting. You've got people swapping gear, weights, BCDs, etc.. then you have people who hit the ocean and panic and get out or have be pulled out. So it is understandable that it is actually pretty hard to keep track of and manage 50 people in that situation.
> So it is understandable that it is actually pretty hard to keep track of and manage 50 people in that situation.
We're talking about counting though.. You look at the "before go" todo list, it says "count heads"..
They prefer to make a law of chip, instead of making laws to make this tourist trap safer?
I'm not sure what you are talking about, the chip system has made the system much safer. It is literally counting heads, and assign each head a unique numbered chip. So that if your count is off, you know exactly who is missing, and not "well cap, I got 49/50." it's "Passenger 38 still isn't onboard, there name is Joe smith, a 40 year old Asian male, traveling with his wife passenger 37."
Good or bad, I have a lot of respect for films that know they're working with an incredibly limited set of scenes and shots. The vast majority of the film is two people swimming in open water - it takes some creativity in script and shooting to keep that interesting.
Do you think they drowned or were attacked/eaten?
Not to be morbid, just curious about about the sea life and sharks. I guess I’m asking was it similiar to the shark infest water the USS Indianapolis was in. Totally different situations but…I’m a little stoned so that’s the best I can do with my words.
My best guess is that after a couple of days the lack of water, hunger, exposure to the water and unbelievable chaffing of their wetsuits/buoys might have led to a delirium where they ditched the wetsuits and drowned.
Yeah that I would like to think it went like that, rather than the other.
Second question we can never know but in a sotuation like that would it make sense to “stay put” or take your best guess and swim towards land. What is the protocol in that situation? Any guesses?
Gosh what a heart racing thing to think about for what others went through. All the thoughts and prayers. Thank you for the response
It's Australia! Of course their bodies were never found! Australia was the prison of choice during the English colonization - there's a reason for that. Over there, everything's hungry & everything is trying to kill you & eat you. That poor couple hadn't a clue what hit them. Feel sad for their families.
When I was scuba diving at the great barrier reef they reminded us that swimming by the reef was fine, but by the shoreline you'll find saltwater crocodiles and box jellyfish. So, unless you have a death wish, swimming to shore during summer would be a terrible idea if you could even physically do it before exhaustion and dehydration kicked in.
Yes but did your google search show you the topography for the ocean in that region? It’s reef, then deep water then land.
If you went straight west it’s roughly 150 miles. Swimming the English Channel is a fest of endurance with a follow crew and it’s 20-50 miles depending where you swim from. Plus Australia it’s deep water. Which means predators and waves so no. If they had a map and a compass they could try to reef hop and prey for something shallow enough but I doubt it. Honestly it’d be interesting for someone with a follow crew and resources to like bear grills it and see how to do it. But tourists with no supplies or prep no
Lost at sea is a thing for a reason. Kid who went to my high school was lost at sea in a fishing kayak and supplies less than a mile from home, he was prepared and educated and still lost.
Half a world away, no boat, no supplies, no prep. Sorry that’s no bueno
Believe me, there is no ‘staying put’ - tropical North Queensland, where this incident occurred, has very BIG tides and with that mount of water flow, if there’s no current running at the moment, thank your lucky starts because one will start running at any moment. The best course of action is always to try to get out of the water - whether that be to an island or a rocky outcrop of some sort, but try your best to get out of the water so you’re not being carried around by the currents.
You let the tide carry you. Swimming burns fuel. It also attracts predators. You’d also want to stay up and down and. Not flat on the water surface if possible.
Anyone looking for you who has a chance to find you would be able to math the current hopefully.
But you’re probably fucked tbh.
Also. I have no idea, which is weird because I’m a Coast Guard certified Captain. We never covered it. Hmm
Guessing you hadn’t seen the egypt tourist shark eating video (within the year) since you are so certain about your choice. Delirium all the way, baby.
Also, how much stamina would anyone need to stay afloat with the blue abyss right there, staring into them, I wonder...
In the movie, they tried to stay put, but realized quickly that the tide was moving them and they'd be near impossible to find - and that because of the tide, it would also be near impossible to figure out which way to swim.
It was a bleak movie.
Your best bet is kinda like your "stay put" idea. The coast guard is going to base their search area on where you would have drifted in the intervening time. It slowly gets larger as your position uncertainty grows. You can reliably swim at about 2 knots for a few hours. If the current is heading that way you might make it to shore if you start within about 12 nautical miles.
I live in the area and the sun is absolutely brutal. I can't imagine anyone being able to last long in the water out there. Dehydration and sunburn would absolutely nail you in a short time
Exposure induced hypothermia is the most likely cause. It doesn’t matter what ocean you’re in or where; relative to your body temperature it’s cold enough to cause entropy. Spend long enough in the water and your core temperature will eventually drop to the point you begin experiencing hypothermia.
There are world record swimmers who have crossed the English channel in *very* cold water, but that’s only because they were supported with food, water, and were able to stay moving to the point their bodies generated heat faster or at the same rate of entropy.
Suffice it to say, these people died of exposure if not exhaustion.
I can answer based on experience from my family. My uncle drowned at sea similarly. Him and a buddy went fishing in the gulf of Mexico and then their boat sank but they were both wearing life jackets when they abandoned ship. Eventually the coast guard was able to find my uncles body, his friend was found the day before and lived. Based on the autopsy, they believe after 3 days at sea with no food or water and exposed to the elements he started to hallucinate that he was home with my aunt and was taking off his work jacket not realizing it was his life jacket. He drowned but thankfully didn't realize it was happening.
how could they possible come to such a conclusion from an autopsy? that isnt what autopsy's do they determine cause of death.
They wouldnt speculate wildly about what fantasy he may have had they would just give you a cause of death to the best of their knowledge lmao
Lol when I read the part where he “hallucinated that he was at my aunts house” I audibly chuckled at the absurdity. Like some coroner looked at a bloated corpse and was like “yep so it appears he hallucinated that he was doing keg stands at the bar and that’s why his belly was full of sea water”. Ridiculous story but pretty funny to imagine.
I think you just wrote a great new primetime buddy cop show.
psychic coroner can speak with the dead to determine who killed them but he has to feed these hints to his gruff detective connection to avoid suspicion hijinks ensue.
i want 15% for the first 3 seasons and residuals to match for any syndication in perpetuity
There is no way to know for certain but according to locals the St.Crispin's reef has a lot of Tiger Sharks which are among the types of sharks most likely to attack humans in the water (Bull, Tiger & Great Whites being the top 3). It would not be a good place to be abandoned overnight when they are hunting. The sharks that were in the waters where the USS Indianpolis went down are not properly known but are believed to mainly be a mix of Oceanic White Tips & Tiger Sharks.
The only evidence in this case is it that some of their diving gear was found a month later without damage indicative of a shark attack but that may have been because they ditched it in order to try swim more efficiently and/or raise the alarm.
When I was a kid my family went to the French Polynesian island of [Rangiroa.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangiroa) We were on a boat taking us across the interior lagoon, and the waves were pretty freaking big, big enough that we lost sight of the horizon on every swell. My dad spotted something on the backside of one wave and after a couple seconds jumped up and ran to the captain. Turns out he had spotted a couple who, in a similar situation, was separated from their diving boat. The storm came on fast and split them up, and they said they had been floating for nearly four hours.
The captain told my dad when we made it to our destination that he had absolutely saved their lives. It was a wild thing to witness, especially as a kid. Can only imagine how relieved those people were.
I have no idea, we weren’t out to dive but were heading across the lagoon to a different location (a part of the atoll called Sauvage). My understanding was that the waves got bad somewhat suddenly but this was 20 years ago and I could be wrong!
No! But moderate winds and waves and currents are OK for experienced divers and guides and boat crews but the weather can change pretty quick on the sea.
Plus, me as a scuba diver as well as probably any guide prefer small diving groups like 8 person max plus guide that way it’s almost impossible to lose a client but that’s not how it is handled everywhere.
Squalls can come out of nowhere. Everything is fine and calm with a cloudless sky then bam a storm forms within a few minutes. I grew up at the beach in NC, and I’ve witnessed it.
My husband and I also went to Toronto and went out on one of the tall ships. The course was to go out the harbor around the side of an island off the harbor into Lake Ontario and back. It was a warm June day with almost no clouds, and everyone was enjoying raising the sails by rope and watching the shoreline and suddenly it got so cold and the water got really choppy. Then it started to rain. The captain and tour guides told everyone that it wasn’t safe to go out on Lake Ontario and would be even colder so we had to go back. No one complained because we were freezing.
We all ran for different shops when we got back on the docks to warm up. Within an hour the rain stopped, and it was warming up. It was a gorgeous evening. My husband had brought a light jacket because we lived in Detroit and knew that the weather could change suddenly. So we huddled under his jacket but were still freezing.
The tall ship refunded everyone’s money so that was nice.
For me, the saddest part is that likely one of them died before the other, and the other had to watch. I can't imagine being in this situation, and then watching my partner die or realising they're dead, and being left alone knowing that you're probably going to die too.
Imagine you roll off while you're both asleep and you can't get back up on your own or can't catch up to it. You scream to wake your heavy sleeper partner as they float away, oblivious to your need until they're out of sight.
Considering that they most likely died due to exposure to sun and sea water, they would both have died in the state of delirium and exhaustion. I doubt the one that died later would be able to think and feel much
I’ve read anything under 95 degree water will eventually cause hypothermia because no matter how small the temperature difference, if you’re warmer than the water, you’re losing heat to it. Go below 95 degrees and you’re becoming hypothermic.
this is bullshit. you'll die from sun exposure and lack of drinking water long before 95 degrees water gives you hypothermia. also, you'd absolutely overheat from 95 degree water, your body needs to let off heat to maintain homeostasis.
I don’t think so, I’m more talking about if you spent 12 hours in waist deep water on the beach. 95 is definitely the cutoff because it’s the medical definition for hypothermia and you need to think about humidity and wind and all that in the scenario but like 90 degree water? I don’t know. I think if I went to the beach on an 85 degree day and stood waist deep in 90 degree water for 12 hours I’d be hypothermic even though it’s warmer than “room temp” and warmer than the air. The ocean is a huge heat sink and if you’re warmer than it and inside of it, it’s taking heat from you.
Edit- scuba divers have wetsuits to keep them warm and not lose body temp to the water.
If at any time you experience environmental equilibrium you are dead. 95 degree water is cooler than the core temperature of a human, therefore heat loss will occur. Over time, as your temperature decreases, your body works harder to produce heat. If you are not moving, eating, or drinking to replenish energy stores your body will eventually become hypothermic and you will die.
That’s entropy for you.
I can't remember the name, but I once saw a movie of a couple that was left behind just like this one... In the end, one of them is still alive, and the movie just ends... I could never forget that movie
In the movie, the wife watches her dead husband’s face-down body start bobbing harshly, indicating he’s being eaten by a shark. Underneath her are a whole bunch of sharks. She eventually closes her eyes and just sinks herself into the water - presumably, down below to all the sharks circling so she can get it over with and have them kill her too
I remember that too, I think the ending is left open to interpretation. The sharks are all around her, and she's looking around wondering what to do. If she knew what was good for her, she'd have sunk down and forced herself to intake water into her lungs, rather than be eaten alive by sharks...horrifying!
Fuck I was like 9 when I saw this, that's horrible.
The last scene in a movie that really got me was the sound of a child drowning in The Shadow In my Eye that depicts the bombing in operation Carthage 1945
The Shadow in My Eye https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/11fszdlq9c&hl=en-AR&q=The+Shadow+in+My+Eye&kgs=b6fc9e7efc78d722&shndl=17&source=sh/x/kp/osrp/m5/4
We just came back from a Cruise a few months ago which had a lot of excursions at each stop.
Every single time we stopped or did an event or excursion there was a minimum of 2 guides always counting heads and writing things down. I deeply appreciate them for doing that, even if it took a few extra minutes each time they did it.
Something like that, woulda saved these two. Rip :(
My fiancé and I did a snorkeling tour last fall and after everyone got back on the boat the 6 staff members on board all did their own head counts and made sure everyone was back. Such a simple thing to keep everyone safe.
IIRC there were supposed to be multiple headcounts for this group as well, but some of them just signed off without counting, and when they first noticed the numbers didn’t match, they just decided someone made a mistake earlier.
If memory serves, a diver had gotten into trouble and a guide had brought them back to the boat and gone back down. That threw the count off. They realized it a couple of days later when they noticed the couple’s gear had been left on board. Oops. I think there were criminal prosecutions over it as well.
I studied to be a guide and if there is ONE THING that is always highlighted is that you need to count double with two people. It still happens but damn you can be sure.
This might be a similar story or different but I remember one situation where two divers were missing, person on boat who were counting realized that. Unbeknownst to the counter, two others hopped off to go look for them, after a while with no luck searching, they climbed aboard. Counter saw two more come aboard and told captain we’re good to go.
Couple ended up never being found. Some time later, a shark was caught and inside the belly a camera was found of the two forgotten divers.
There was a movie made about this story sometime in the early 2000’s called Open Water.
Had the opposite effect on me. It was when I realized some movies are just not for me. I spent weeks pissed off at what I thought was a stupid ending. Of course, I had no idea it took inspiration from a real story and I was like 11 with not much empathy in me
In 11yo you's defense, the portrayal of the main characters was extremely unsympathetic. I was a grown person, knowing it was based on a true story, and found it hard to have empathy because of the way they were played.
what do you mean? i remember them behaving a bit irrationally in the water but i think thats understanable given they knew their death was coming and they knew sharks were around, if im correct i think in the movie the man got bitten on the leg
They bickered and picked at each other from the first moment we saw them on the plane. Even the crisis of realizing they were in danger was totally overshadowed by their relationship problems. They were really cruel to each other.
I know why the filmmakers did that - it was supposed to make them seem realistically flawed and relatable. But it came across as if they were just incredibly petty and shallow.
If it were supposed to be based on my family members, I'd be really offended by the portrayal.
You know, it's all subjective. It might not strike other people that way, but it's the main thing I remember about the movie.
I fucking hated this movie so much. I still talk about it fairly frequently. For youngsters me, it was pretty good up until the end, when they brought up the screen saying “Hey yeah this is roughly based on a true story but after the first 5 minutes on screen we have no idea what happened.”
Not to be callous, but if he didn’t notice actual people missing don’t you think he would have noticed his equipment for 2 people missing at the very least?
I can see how it could happen. They had done this thousands of times and got complacent. Which isn’t really uncommon, some of the worst work injuries happen to guys who should have known better.
Doesn’t excuse it, tragic event. But they weren’t monsters (at the time, I can’t imagine the PTSD they suffered afterwards).
Yes, and Australia ended up changing some of the laws regulating diving companies. This story could have demolished their tourism/travel industry, so they needed to demonstrate that they were making changes.
“The coroner dismissed suggestions that the Lonergans had died by suicide or faked their own disappearance and formally charged Geoffrey Ian "Jack" Nairn, skipper of the dive boat, with their unlawful killing.[13] He was later found not guilty,[14] but his company Outer Edge Dive was fined after pleading guilty to negligence and folded. Queensland's government also introduced stiffer regulations, including the requirement that captains and dive masters independently confirm passenger headcounts.[9]”
Oh this is the stuff of nightmares. Those poor ppl. What an incredibly cruel way to go.
I did watch a doc about this years ago. It was really interesting, until … it implied that the couple were religious nuts & planned it all. Yeah made no sense?
Bc some of their scuba gear was found in good condition / “had been removed” rather than torn off or corroded by sea water. It was claimed it was suss or a set up?
Edit ~ So many typos & just rubbish grammar. Prob still is tbf 🫣
If you go diving, always bring a surface marker buoy - it will make you more visible and improve your chances of rescue if you're in an emergency situation like this
Bring an EPIRB too, they only cost a couple hundred bucks and if you get into trouble you would much rather have rescuers know precisely where you are than just have a buoy that they still have to mount a massive search for.
an SMB is such a useful tool. Not only so others can see you, but a fully inflated one helps you float better if your BCD fails to hold air.
Whistles, EPIRBs, mirrors, etc. there's a few other incredibly valuable tools that divers should consider carrying for their safety.
i could never do diving because i feel like incidents like this are just too common. I was camping right by a beach before and an ambulance and dive team turned up, turned out a woman diving had drowned.
>i could never do diving because i feel like incidents like this are just too common.
They really aren't though. If you're not a diver then you never hear about all of the successful and fun diving trips that don't end in horrible deaths.
My beloved father used to purchase a certain low-grade 'man's magazine,' of the type that virtually always had a semi-nude woman in ragged clothes being tortured by Nazis or something similar on the cover--you know the ones.: "Men's True Argosy Crime Adventure Something-Or-Other.' The issue that I remember, however, had a photograph of a fellow in a wetsuit and full diving gear that had, um, been in the water just a BIT too long, and had, um, lost a GREAT deal of weight. Including his face. It's still the stuff of nightmares, and the reason that I've never had an interest in diving.
I was thinking that too... all in all, that boat had less than 30 people on it, someone must have noticed that 2 people were missing, especially a couple, how did no one notice and say anything??
Yeah, this. I've been on short tours like this and if it's people I don't know and haven't been talking to at all, and there were a couple dozen people, I wouldn't notice they were missing
Yeah even if you'd made conversation with them on the way in, you probably just assume they're on the other side of the boat sitting next to someone else on the way back.
If I go scuba diving, I'm going to have a buddy system. Hi, fellow couple on this expedition! Can you make sure I make it back into the boat, and I'll do the same for you? Please and thank you.
> They told the press that Tom and Eileen had insisted on going off on the last dive themselves, telling tour guides they were ‘experienced divers’.
Yeah, and so what if they did. They still got missed and left behind to die. What a horribly lame excuse.
My wife and I went diving in the DR one time and on a drift dive the boat driver went the wrong way and then couldn’t find us. We were left for about 3 hours before we were found. Fortunately we were close enough to the shoreline that we would have made it there in another hour of swimming. It was still a very unsettling experience. They gave us a free 3XL T-Shirt for the hassle. 1/5 would not recommend that company.
I was nearly left behind on a snorkeling trip to the Great barrier reef. They made us do a buddy system and supposedly counted before taking off. But when I got to the boat, they had pulled up anchor and were just about to take off. The crew didn't seem to give a shit and I don't know why they didn't count or didn't realize they were missing one. If I had been a minute later, I'm guessing I would've died out there although in my case, there was another tour boat out there so maybe I could've gotten to that boat before it took off but who knows. Pretty scary. Australia can be a pretty loose place.
But they did survive the first night and into the morning, hence the note on the husband's dive slate in the article above. Anything after that yeah all bets are off on how they passed.
Australia is the country where the Prime Minister once went for a swim, and was never seen again. They never found a trace of him, and they aren't going to find these people either. They're shark food.
I just watched this for the first time a week ago. Seems a bit old-timey the way it was filmed but I think they meant to film it that way to make it more documentary-style. I enjoyed the film.
I believe it's because it was extremely low budget, like only a few people on the whole crew and they went out on a boat every weekend over the course of months and filmed a little bit at a time, iirc
There’s a case file true crime podcast about this incident. Episode 133 for anyone interested
https://casefilepodcast.com/case-133-tom-eileen-lonergan/
Divers have what is called a BCD (buoyance control device) that fills up with air and allows you to float on the surface. This floating is a typical part of a dive when getting on the boat. One of it's jobs it to make sure you don't get tired while waiting to get onboard. It's hooked up to the air tanks, so inflates with a button push and even has an emergency manual air-filling method:
https://www.oceanicworldwide.com/product-category/bcds/
In addition, it holds your air tanks, so it's something every diver has.
Reminds me of that movie about pretty much the same thing but it goes on to say sharks ate them, I always watched the movie as a kid I wonder if it was based on them?
I dove with that company shortly after this happened. I was reading about the incident while on the flight over, and while booking the dive I almost joking said “you’re not the guys who left that couple on the reef are you?”
Their new protocol at the time was for you to leave your shoes at the dock. If they came back and had extra shoes they knew they left someone behind. Not very helpful since the reef was like a 45 min ride from the dock.
While tragic, I feel the world still did not deserve the movie "Open Water" that was based on this incident. The rest of us were not complicit in this event, so why make us experience that terrible film?
My coworker’s daughter and hubby went parasailing on their honeymoon and the guys steering the boat kept dipping them in the water (which sounds customary?) but then seemingly kept forgetting about them because the entire time both of them came close to drowning. They got their money back afterwards but that’s enough for me, I’ll never parasail. I’ve already decided a long time ago that I’d never scuba dive. Props to the folks who can handle that stuff but I’d probably have a full blown panic attack underwater and either drown or die on the boat from the bends.
Even worse, a few months later the husband's dive slate was recovered washed ashore with message written on it saying "Monday, Jan 26; 1998 08 am. To anyone who can help us: We have been abandoned on A[gin] Court Reef by MV Outer Edge Jan 25 1998 3pm. Please help to rescue us before we die. Help!!!” Full article: https://historicflix.com/tom-and-eileen-lonergan/
Even worse the scuba company worked hard to slander the victims of their mistake.
How would you even begin to slander them? Like what could you possibly say to justify abandoning them at sea?
They got the couples diaries. In the man’s he mentioned he felt he was done with life and would love to succumb to a painless death. His wife wrote about him being suicidal. They had marital problems. They tried to play the whole thing off like they intended to go out like that and broke away from the group on purpose. I highly doubt anyone would choose that as their preferred way to die.
That’s messed up, but even if they had broke away from the group intentionally, you’d think the tour company would at least do a fucking headcount once everyone was back on board.
They allegedly did but there was some confusion and they counted two people twice or something. There was some back and forth about who was responsible for the head count after they realized their mistake from finding the couples belongings and wallets left behind
I've seen something similar happen in the documentary Home Alone. Gotta be extra cautious when counting children in winter clothes and scuba divers, apparently.
11...92...12
Buzz, is that you?
Buzz, don’t be a moron
The documentary home alone. Hahahaha oh man that got me.
Any chance you can share a link? Love documentaries and I’m struggling to find this one
If you're being serious, the user you replied to was making a joke. Home Alone is not actually a documentary, but instead a Hollywood feature film that includes a scene with an incorrect headcount resulting in 1 individual being left behind.
Oh I’m sorry. Thank you for explaining. I feel silly.
If you do want a (somewhat) documentary about it, watch Open Water. There is a few of them now, but the first one is the scuba diving incident. Those movies freak me out
> They allegedly did but there was some confusion and they counted two people twice or something. The divers are supposed to actually sign their names when leaving and when returning. Sounds like a terrible dive op.
This case was a while ago but I just re-listened to a great podcast on it (Casefile) and the dive company was prosecuted afterwards for not following its own safety protocol. They (Queensland) also made the laws a bit stricter after this also about responsibilities of dive operators. There’s also another really interesting case (Gabe and Tina Watson) about a woman who dies scuba diving on the same reef at a shipwreck and some potential mistakes made by the dive company that led to it. Really interesting stuff imo
They obtained their diaries and then made them public? That's some of the scummiest shit I've ever heard. Fuck them.
"they did it on purpose you see, and so we decided to give them a honest go of it by waiting 48 hours before trying to find them or alert authorities"
How did they get the diaries
If I remember correctly, they tried to say that they left the designated area, and did not return to the boat on time. I don't really remember it as slander, but it was ages ago. This was before, and what created the law of chip in, chip out in Australia, for dive boats. Every diver before getting in the water is given a numbered chip attached to their dive gear, they don't leave until every chip is back on the boat.
The chip is back…but where is he!?!!!! The Chip in theatres this Halloween.
One chip#13 went in, two chips#13 came back. Who's the imposter? The Chip 2 In theatres next Halloween
Hmmm this bag of chips is overcooked, can I get a refund? The Chip 3: the burning
> and what created the law of chip in, chip out in Australia, for dive boats. So counting.. *is* hard?
Sad truth about a lot of these types of "adventures" - hikes, white water rafting, cave exploring, mountain climbs, scuba - are run by very underpaid and overworked people. 90% of the time it's fine, but you don't want to be in that 10% the day it all catches up.
> are run by very underpaid I mean we know why, there's 10 people waiting for the job usually
You probably aren't aware of the conditions, So the ocean can get insane near the barrier reef, like 6ft-9ft waves, on a dive boat that allows non-certified divers to make 2 dives (which is legal but crazy) you get a lot of people who aren't use to the ocean, don't know how to put on, or move in dive gear, and lots, and lots of vomiting. You've got people swapping gear, weights, BCDs, etc.. then you have people who hit the ocean and panic and get out or have be pulled out. So it is understandable that it is actually pretty hard to keep track of and manage 50 people in that situation.
> So it is understandable that it is actually pretty hard to keep track of and manage 50 people in that situation. We're talking about counting though.. You look at the "before go" todo list, it says "count heads".. They prefer to make a law of chip, instead of making laws to make this tourist trap safer?
I'm not sure what you are talking about, the chip system has made the system much safer. It is literally counting heads, and assign each head a unique numbered chip. So that if your count is off, you know exactly who is missing, and not "well cap, I got 49/50." it's "Passenger 38 still isn't onboard, there name is Joe smith, a 40 year old Asian male, traveling with his wife passenger 37."
Self Contained Underwater Bullshit Apparatus
There was a movie based on this called Open Water in 2003. Very eerie and heart breaking. Not an easy watch but I thought it was well done.
Good or bad, I have a lot of respect for films that know they're working with an incredibly limited set of scenes and shots. The vast majority of the film is two people swimming in open water - it takes some creativity in script and shooting to keep that interesting.
I went to the movies to see that when it came out. Every time I've seen it on TV since, I can only watch a minute or two, if that.
Do you think they drowned or were attacked/eaten? Not to be morbid, just curious about about the sea life and sharks. I guess I’m asking was it similiar to the shark infest water the USS Indianapolis was in. Totally different situations but…I’m a little stoned so that’s the best I can do with my words.
My best guess is that after a couple of days the lack of water, hunger, exposure to the water and unbelievable chaffing of their wetsuits/buoys might have led to a delirium where they ditched the wetsuits and drowned.
Yeah that I would like to think it went like that, rather than the other. Second question we can never know but in a sotuation like that would it make sense to “stay put” or take your best guess and swim towards land. What is the protocol in that situation? Any guesses? Gosh what a heart racing thing to think about for what others went through. All the thoughts and prayers. Thank you for the response
I just can't imagine swimming in open water with no landmarks would be productive. You're at the mercy of the sea.
I imagine if they were experienced enough they had good dive watches. Don’t those usually contain a compass?
Some. Not all.
I would think that would be an incredibly important feature.
Wouldn’t even need a compass, per se. If the watch works it can be used to determine direction, like a compass. Good to learn this skill.
How?
Any watch is a compass if you know how to use it and can see the sun.
It's Australia! Of course their bodies were never found! Australia was the prison of choice during the English colonization - there's a reason for that. Over there, everything's hungry & everything is trying to kill you & eat you. That poor couple hadn't a clue what hit them. Feel sad for their families.
I really doubt they were eaten by anything. Maybe long after they died.
When I was scuba diving at the great barrier reef they reminded us that swimming by the reef was fine, but by the shoreline you'll find saltwater crocodiles and box jellyfish. So, unless you have a death wish, swimming to shore during summer would be a terrible idea if you could even physically do it before exhaustion and dehydration kicked in.
Damn that last line goes hard asf
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Yes but did your google search show you the topography for the ocean in that region? It’s reef, then deep water then land. If you went straight west it’s roughly 150 miles. Swimming the English Channel is a fest of endurance with a follow crew and it’s 20-50 miles depending where you swim from. Plus Australia it’s deep water. Which means predators and waves so no. If they had a map and a compass they could try to reef hop and prey for something shallow enough but I doubt it. Honestly it’d be interesting for someone with a follow crew and resources to like bear grills it and see how to do it. But tourists with no supplies or prep no Lost at sea is a thing for a reason. Kid who went to my high school was lost at sea in a fishing kayak and supplies less than a mile from home, he was prepared and educated and still lost. Half a world away, no boat, no supplies, no prep. Sorry that’s no bueno
Cool now do it yourself to really shame these victims lol
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I didn’t view it as victim shaming dw. I appreciated the quick reminder on how to orient using the sun.
Believe me, there is no ‘staying put’ - tropical North Queensland, where this incident occurred, has very BIG tides and with that mount of water flow, if there’s no current running at the moment, thank your lucky starts because one will start running at any moment. The best course of action is always to try to get out of the water - whether that be to an island or a rocky outcrop of some sort, but try your best to get out of the water so you’re not being carried around by the currents.
Not only this, but as I stated in another comment entropy will eventually induce hypothermia and will kill you. Get out of the water, 100%.
You let the tide carry you. Swimming burns fuel. It also attracts predators. You’d also want to stay up and down and. Not flat on the water surface if possible. Anyone looking for you who has a chance to find you would be able to math the current hopefully. But you’re probably fucked tbh. Also. I have no idea, which is weird because I’m a Coast Guard certified Captain. We never covered it. Hmm
Interesting. Why up and down in water?
Predators look up for prey. That’s why most sharks go after surfers. They look like seals. And fish
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Well yeah when you put it like that
Guessing you hadn’t seen the egypt tourist shark eating video (within the year) since you are so certain about your choice. Delirium all the way, baby. Also, how much stamina would anyone need to stay afloat with the blue abyss right there, staring into them, I wonder...
In the movie, they tried to stay put, but realized quickly that the tide was moving them and they'd be near impossible to find - and that because of the tide, it would also be near impossible to figure out which way to swim. It was a bleak movie.
Your best bet is kinda like your "stay put" idea. The coast guard is going to base their search area on where you would have drifted in the intervening time. It slowly gets larger as your position uncertainty grows. You can reliably swim at about 2 knots for a few hours. If the current is heading that way you might make it to shore if you start within about 12 nautical miles.
I live in the area and the sun is absolutely brutal. I can't imagine anyone being able to last long in the water out there. Dehydration and sunburn would absolutely nail you in a short time
Exposure induced hypothermia is the most likely cause. It doesn’t matter what ocean you’re in or where; relative to your body temperature it’s cold enough to cause entropy. Spend long enough in the water and your core temperature will eventually drop to the point you begin experiencing hypothermia. There are world record swimmers who have crossed the English channel in *very* cold water, but that’s only because they were supported with food, water, and were able to stay moving to the point their bodies generated heat faster or at the same rate of entropy. Suffice it to say, these people died of exposure if not exhaustion.
I can answer based on experience from my family. My uncle drowned at sea similarly. Him and a buddy went fishing in the gulf of Mexico and then their boat sank but they were both wearing life jackets when they abandoned ship. Eventually the coast guard was able to find my uncles body, his friend was found the day before and lived. Based on the autopsy, they believe after 3 days at sea with no food or water and exposed to the elements he started to hallucinate that he was home with my aunt and was taking off his work jacket not realizing it was his life jacket. He drowned but thankfully didn't realize it was happening.
How did they know his hallucinations from the autopsy?
They had a psychic come in and do readings to see his past visions before death.
how could they possible come to such a conclusion from an autopsy? that isnt what autopsy's do they determine cause of death. They wouldnt speculate wildly about what fantasy he may have had they would just give you a cause of death to the best of their knowledge lmao
Lol when I read the part where he “hallucinated that he was at my aunts house” I audibly chuckled at the absurdity. Like some coroner looked at a bloated corpse and was like “yep so it appears he hallucinated that he was doing keg stands at the bar and that’s why his belly was full of sea water”. Ridiculous story but pretty funny to imagine.
I think you just wrote a great new primetime buddy cop show. psychic coroner can speak with the dead to determine who killed them but he has to feed these hints to his gruff detective connection to avoid suspicion hijinks ensue. i want 15% for the first 3 seasons and residuals to match for any syndication in perpetuity
There’s a movie called open water, scared me to the bone about water
There is no way to know for certain but according to locals the St.Crispin's reef has a lot of Tiger Sharks which are among the types of sharks most likely to attack humans in the water (Bull, Tiger & Great Whites being the top 3). It would not be a good place to be abandoned overnight when they are hunting. The sharks that were in the waters where the USS Indianpolis went down are not properly known but are believed to mainly be a mix of Oceanic White Tips & Tiger Sharks. The only evidence in this case is it that some of their diving gear was found a month later without damage indicative of a shark attack but that may have been because they ditched it in order to try swim more efficiently and/or raise the alarm.
Hard to say. In the movie wife drowns herself I think.
Check out *Open Water*
Whoa. I’ve been diving on that reef, it’s way out there and the seas are rough
When I was a kid my family went to the French Polynesian island of [Rangiroa.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rangiroa) We were on a boat taking us across the interior lagoon, and the waves were pretty freaking big, big enough that we lost sight of the horizon on every swell. My dad spotted something on the backside of one wave and after a couple seconds jumped up and ran to the captain. Turns out he had spotted a couple who, in a similar situation, was separated from their diving boat. The storm came on fast and split them up, and they said they had been floating for nearly four hours. The captain told my dad when we made it to our destination that he had absolutely saved their lives. It was a wild thing to witness, especially as a kid. Can only imagine how relieved those people were.
"My dad's a SUPERHERO!"
Haha I was ten so I think I was *slightly* past that vibe, but yeah I was really proud of him after I got over the morbidity of it!
Absolutely terrifying. Your dad really is a hero.
Is it common to go for diving when the winds/waves are so bad?
Get that eyelash off my phone screen right this instance.
Dude it took me forever to figure out what you were referring to, and now it’s driving me insane
What is it? The slash between wind and wave?
OkTower4998’s profile picture. I would’ve done the same if I wasn’t using dark mode!
I have no idea, we weren’t out to dive but were heading across the lagoon to a different location (a part of the atoll called Sauvage). My understanding was that the waves got bad somewhat suddenly but this was 20 years ago and I could be wrong!
Weather changes. Could have been fine when they went out and the diving boat ended the excursion when the weather started to turn.
No! But moderate winds and waves and currents are OK for experienced divers and guides and boat crews but the weather can change pretty quick on the sea. Plus, me as a scuba diver as well as probably any guide prefer small diving groups like 8 person max plus guide that way it’s almost impossible to lose a client but that’s not how it is handled everywhere.
Squalls can come out of nowhere. Everything is fine and calm with a cloudless sky then bam a storm forms within a few minutes. I grew up at the beach in NC, and I’ve witnessed it. My husband and I also went to Toronto and went out on one of the tall ships. The course was to go out the harbor around the side of an island off the harbor into Lake Ontario and back. It was a warm June day with almost no clouds, and everyone was enjoying raising the sails by rope and watching the shoreline and suddenly it got so cold and the water got really choppy. Then it started to rain. The captain and tour guides told everyone that it wasn’t safe to go out on Lake Ontario and would be even colder so we had to go back. No one complained because we were freezing. We all ran for different shops when we got back on the docks to warm up. Within an hour the rain stopped, and it was warming up. It was a gorgeous evening. My husband had brought a light jacket because we lived in Detroit and knew that the weather could change suddenly. So we huddled under his jacket but were still freezing. The tall ship refunded everyone’s money so that was nice.
For me, the saddest part is that likely one of them died before the other, and the other had to watch. I can't imagine being in this situation, and then watching my partner die or realising they're dead, and being left alone knowing that you're probably going to die too.
Wow, I hadn't thought of that until I read your comment. That adds a whole new level of horror to the experience.
I remember in open water. The couple found something to float on and fell asleep, when the wife woke she was by herself
Imagine you roll off while you're both asleep and you can't get back up on your own or can't catch up to it. You scream to wake your heavy sleeper partner as they float away, oblivious to your need until they're out of sight.
Ahhh you like to torture yourself by thinking pov of people in the worst moment imaginable too. This pattern takes your mind to some dark places right
Considering that they most likely died due to exposure to sun and sea water, they would both have died in the state of delirium and exhaustion. I doubt the one that died later would be able to think and feel much
Yes, even in tropical water, you will eventually get hypothermia and fade away.
I’ve read anything under 95 degree water will eventually cause hypothermia because no matter how small the temperature difference, if you’re warmer than the water, you’re losing heat to it. Go below 95 degrees and you’re becoming hypothermic.
this is bullshit. you'll die from sun exposure and lack of drinking water long before 95 degrees water gives you hypothermia. also, you'd absolutely overheat from 95 degree water, your body needs to let off heat to maintain homeostasis.
I don’t think so, I’m more talking about if you spent 12 hours in waist deep water on the beach. 95 is definitely the cutoff because it’s the medical definition for hypothermia and you need to think about humidity and wind and all that in the scenario but like 90 degree water? I don’t know. I think if I went to the beach on an 85 degree day and stood waist deep in 90 degree water for 12 hours I’d be hypothermic even though it’s warmer than “room temp” and warmer than the air. The ocean is a huge heat sink and if you’re warmer than it and inside of it, it’s taking heat from you. Edit- scuba divers have wetsuits to keep them warm and not lose body temp to the water.
If at any time you experience environmental equilibrium you are dead. 95 degree water is cooler than the core temperature of a human, therefore heat loss will occur. Over time, as your temperature decreases, your body works harder to produce heat. If you are not moving, eating, or drinking to replenish energy stores your body will eventually become hypothermic and you will die. That’s entropy for you.
You can say the same thing about air less than 95 degrees, it’s just a slower heat loss, so I’m not sure that argument is correct.
Guess there's an upside to the 100+ degree water off of Florida last year. You won't die of hypothermia in that!
I can't remember the name, but I once saw a movie of a couple that was left behind just like this one... In the end, one of them is still alive, and the movie just ends... I could never forget that movie
Open Water! It was based on this couple.
the one left alive drowns themselves iirc
In the movie, the wife watches her dead husband’s face-down body start bobbing harshly, indicating he’s being eaten by a shark. Underneath her are a whole bunch of sharks. She eventually closes her eyes and just sinks herself into the water - presumably, down below to all the sharks circling so she can get it over with and have them kill her too
I remember that too, I think the ending is left open to interpretation. The sharks are all around her, and she's looking around wondering what to do. If she knew what was good for her, she'd have sunk down and forced herself to intake water into her lungs, rather than be eaten alive by sharks...horrifying!
Fuck I was like 9 when I saw this, that's horrible. The last scene in a movie that really got me was the sound of a child drowning in The Shadow In my Eye that depicts the bombing in operation Carthage 1945 The Shadow in My Eye https://www.google.com/search?kgmid=/g/11fszdlq9c&hl=en-AR&q=The+Shadow+in+My+Eye&kgs=b6fc9e7efc78d722&shndl=17&source=sh/x/kp/osrp/m5/4
We just came back from a Cruise a few months ago which had a lot of excursions at each stop. Every single time we stopped or did an event or excursion there was a minimum of 2 guides always counting heads and writing things down. I deeply appreciate them for doing that, even if it took a few extra minutes each time they did it. Something like that, woulda saved these two. Rip :(
My fiancé and I did a snorkeling tour last fall and after everyone got back on the boat the 6 staff members on board all did their own head counts and made sure everyone was back. Such a simple thing to keep everyone safe.
IIRC there were supposed to be multiple headcounts for this group as well, but some of them just signed off without counting, and when they first noticed the numbers didn’t match, they just decided someone made a mistake earlier.
If memory serves, a diver had gotten into trouble and a guide had brought them back to the boat and gone back down. That threw the count off. They realized it a couple of days later when they noticed the couple’s gear had been left on board. Oops. I think there were criminal prosecutions over it as well.
Jesus Christ. What is the point of doing the head count if you aren't going to care when a discrepancy comes up?
I studied to be a guide and if there is ONE THING that is always highlighted is that you need to count double with two people. It still happens but damn you can be sure.
This might be a similar story or different but I remember one situation where two divers were missing, person on boat who were counting realized that. Unbeknownst to the counter, two others hopped off to go look for them, after a while with no luck searching, they climbed aboard. Counter saw two more come aboard and told captain we’re good to go. Couple ended up never being found. Some time later, a shark was caught and inside the belly a camera was found of the two forgotten divers. There was a movie made about this story sometime in the early 2000’s called Open Water.
So…at least one of them was eaten by a shark
This is where the movie open water came from.
I watched that movie when I was far too young to be. I was listless for days after, completely crushed. I’ll never watch it again.
Had the opposite effect on me. It was when I realized some movies are just not for me. I spent weeks pissed off at what I thought was a stupid ending. Of course, I had no idea it took inspiration from a real story and I was like 11 with not much empathy in me
In 11yo you's defense, the portrayal of the main characters was extremely unsympathetic. I was a grown person, knowing it was based on a true story, and found it hard to have empathy because of the way they were played.
what do you mean? i remember them behaving a bit irrationally in the water but i think thats understanable given they knew their death was coming and they knew sharks were around, if im correct i think in the movie the man got bitten on the leg
They bickered and picked at each other from the first moment we saw them on the plane. Even the crisis of realizing they were in danger was totally overshadowed by their relationship problems. They were really cruel to each other. I know why the filmmakers did that - it was supposed to make them seem realistically flawed and relatable. But it came across as if they were just incredibly petty and shallow. If it were supposed to be based on my family members, I'd be really offended by the portrayal. You know, it's all subjective. It might not strike other people that way, but it's the main thing I remember about the movie.
Apparently in their diaries they were found to be having marital problems. Still sounds like a terrible portrayal.
Oh, man. That's really disrespectful that a filmmaker would use that info that way.
I fucking hated this movie so much. I still talk about it fairly frequently. For youngsters me, it was pretty good up until the end, when they brought up the screen saying “Hey yeah this is roughly based on a true story but after the first 5 minutes on screen we have no idea what happened.”
Did the scuba company get sued to high heaven?
I'm not sure but I remember reading that the owner or one of the owners who was on the boat was haunted by it for the rest of his life.
He bloody well should be...
Yeah, I mean 2 days later? Wtf how do you not know who you took out to dive?
Not to be callous, but if he didn’t notice actual people missing don’t you think he would have noticed his equipment for 2 people missing at the very least?
Right? Like "Hey I wonder whose clothes or duffels these are?"
I can see how it could happen. They had done this thousands of times and got complacent. Which isn’t really uncommon, some of the worst work injuries happen to guys who should have known better. Doesn’t excuse it, tragic event. But they weren’t monsters (at the time, I can’t imagine the PTSD they suffered afterwards).
They were abandoned a day before a national holiday. That probably contributed to the delay.
(Slaps forehead) “I KNEW I forgot something!”
Yes, and Australia ended up changing some of the laws regulating diving companies. This story could have demolished their tourism/travel industry, so they needed to demonstrate that they were making changes.
Yep. I think they are actually now required to archive the signed entry/exit logs (on waterproof paper) for 7 years.
“The coroner dismissed suggestions that the Lonergans had died by suicide or faked their own disappearance and formally charged Geoffrey Ian "Jack" Nairn, skipper of the dive boat, with their unlawful killing.[13] He was later found not guilty,[14] but his company Outer Edge Dive was fined after pleading guilty to negligence and folded. Queensland's government also introduced stiffer regulations, including the requirement that captains and dive masters independently confirm passenger headcounts.[9]”
Oh this is the stuff of nightmares. Those poor ppl. What an incredibly cruel way to go. I did watch a doc about this years ago. It was really interesting, until … it implied that the couple were religious nuts & planned it all. Yeah made no sense? Bc some of their scuba gear was found in good condition / “had been removed” rather than torn off or corroded by sea water. It was claimed it was suss or a set up? Edit ~ So many typos & just rubbish grammar. Prob still is tbf 🫣
If you go diving, always bring a surface marker buoy - it will make you more visible and improve your chances of rescue if you're in an emergency situation like this
Bring an EPIRB too, they only cost a couple hundred bucks and if you get into trouble you would much rather have rescuers know precisely where you are than just have a buoy that they still have to mount a massive search for.
an SMB is such a useful tool. Not only so others can see you, but a fully inflated one helps you float better if your BCD fails to hold air. Whistles, EPIRBs, mirrors, etc. there's a few other incredibly valuable tools that divers should consider carrying for their safety.
i could never do diving because i feel like incidents like this are just too common. I was camping right by a beach before and an ambulance and dive team turned up, turned out a woman diving had drowned.
>i could never do diving because i feel like incidents like this are just too common. They really aren't though. If you're not a diver then you never hear about all of the successful and fun diving trips that don't end in horrible deaths.
My beloved father used to purchase a certain low-grade 'man's magazine,' of the type that virtually always had a semi-nude woman in ragged clothes being tortured by Nazis or something similar on the cover--you know the ones.: "Men's True Argosy Crime Adventure Something-Or-Other.' The issue that I remember, however, had a photograph of a fellow in a wetsuit and full diving gear that had, um, been in the water just a BIT too long, and had, um, lost a GREAT deal of weight. Including his face. It's still the stuff of nightmares, and the reason that I've never had an interest in diving.
So did the other the people on board not notice either?
I was thinking that too... all in all, that boat had less than 30 people on it, someone must have noticed that 2 people were missing, especially a couple, how did no one notice and say anything??
If it’s 30 people that you don’t know, then I could easily see that happening
Yeah, this. I've been on short tours like this and if it's people I don't know and haven't been talking to at all, and there were a couple dozen people, I wouldn't notice they were missing
Good reason for passengers to count heads as well.
Yeah even if you'd made conversation with them on the way in, you probably just assume they're on the other side of the boat sitting next to someone else on the way back.
I always wondered about this as well, but I'm the kind of person who notices everything about my immediate environment. I guess most people don't?
I've been on crowded dive boats. Totally believe that the other divers (not the staff/divemaster) wouldn't notice.
If I go scuba diving, I'm going to have a buddy system. Hi, fellow couple on this expedition! Can you make sure I make it back into the boat, and I'll do the same for you? Please and thank you.
Home Alone taught me that people can forget their own kids sometimes
They'll come back for us ^They'll ^come ^back ^for ^us ^^They'll ^^come ^^back ^^for ^^us ^^^They'll ^^^come ^^^back ^^^for ^^^us ^^^^They'll ^^^^come ^^^^back ^^^^for ^^^^us
> They told the press that Tom and Eileen had insisted on going off on the last dive themselves, telling tour guides they were ‘experienced divers’. Yeah, and so what if they did. They still got missed and left behind to die. What a horribly lame excuse.
I remember that story as well just like that. no excuse to be left behind, however.
Reminds me of the movie Open Water. I wonder if it was based on this true story.
Yes, Open Water was based on this real life tragedy
I think it was
It absolutely was
I believe the movie Open Water was based on this story. They explain more about how they were misplaced on the roster
Screw that, I’m not doing anything where I rely on other people to make sure to pick me up, or I die. Not taking that chance, thanks.
My wife and I went diving in the DR one time and on a drift dive the boat driver went the wrong way and then couldn’t find us. We were left for about 3 hours before we were found. Fortunately we were close enough to the shoreline that we would have made it there in another hour of swimming. It was still a very unsettling experience. They gave us a free 3XL T-Shirt for the hassle. 1/5 would not recommend that company.
I was lost at sea and all I got was this lousy t-shirt
I was nearly left behind on a snorkeling trip to the Great barrier reef. They made us do a buddy system and supposedly counted before taking off. But when I got to the boat, they had pulled up anchor and were just about to take off. The crew didn't seem to give a shit and I don't know why they didn't count or didn't realize they were missing one. If I had been a minute later, I'm guessing I would've died out there although in my case, there was another tour boat out there so maybe I could've gotten to that boat before it took off but who knows. Pretty scary. Australia can be a pretty loose place.
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But they did survive the first night and into the morning, hence the note on the husband's dive slate in the article above. Anything after that yeah all bets are off on how they passed.
About to watch Open Water based on this story
I can't believe "Open Water" is from 2003. I think it's based on this case.
Australia is the country where the Prime Minister once went for a swim, and was never seen again. They never found a trace of him, and they aren't going to find these people either. They're shark food.
There's a movie about it open water (2003)
I just watched this for the first time a week ago. Seems a bit old-timey the way it was filmed but I think they meant to film it that way to make it more documentary-style. I enjoyed the film.
I believe it's because it was extremely low budget, like only a few people on the whole crew and they went out on a boat every weekend over the course of months and filmed a little bit at a time, iirc
This is terrifying man
How in the everloving fuck does this even happen?!
There’s a case file true crime podcast about this incident. Episode 133 for anyone interested https://casefilepodcast.com/case-133-tom-eileen-lonergan/
I LOVE casefile!! Thanks for the recommendation, I didn't know about this episode.
Good episode too
It's crazy, I was literally just listening to that episode and this post popped up on my recommended page.
Were they treading water the whole time?
Divers have what is called a BCD (buoyance control device) that fills up with air and allows you to float on the surface. This floating is a typical part of a dive when getting on the boat. One of it's jobs it to make sure you don't get tired while waiting to get onboard. It's hooked up to the air tanks, so inflates with a button push and even has an emergency manual air-filling method: https://www.oceanicworldwide.com/product-category/bcds/ In addition, it holds your air tanks, so it's something every diver has.
All scuba diver have floatation device but getting exposed to sea water and sun even for a couple hours could easily dehydrate and kill you.
With a buoy device yes I think
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Prove it!
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Reminds me of that movie about pretty much the same thing but it goes on to say sharks ate them, I always watched the movie as a kid I wonder if it was based on them?
Without that good explanation in the title, I would have assumed the photo was "serial killer poses with latest unsuspecting victim"
Between this post and the one of Geraldine Largay a couple days ago, I feel like Scary Interesting must be getting a lot of traction.
https://preview.redd.it/rjkt4nxdqhyc1.jpeg?width=408&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=df49c3c0d21ff7599af27ad90f5c373b0c422895 Mom...
The movie Open Water is loosely based on this.
You ain't ever gonna get me 'Cuba diving, mm-mm. I'll go 'norkeling though
Isn’t this the basis of the movie Open Water?
I dove with that company shortly after this happened. I was reading about the incident while on the flight over, and while booking the dive I almost joking said “you’re not the guys who left that couple on the reef are you?” Their new protocol at the time was for you to leave your shoes at the dock. If they came back and had extra shoes they knew they left someone behind. Not very helpful since the reef was like a 45 min ride from the dock.
While tragic, I feel the world still did not deserve the movie "Open Water" that was based on this incident. The rest of us were not complicit in this event, so why make us experience that terrible film?
My coworker’s daughter and hubby went parasailing on their honeymoon and the guys steering the boat kept dipping them in the water (which sounds customary?) but then seemingly kept forgetting about them because the entire time both of them came close to drowning. They got their money back afterwards but that’s enough for me, I’ll never parasail. I’ve already decided a long time ago that I’d never scuba dive. Props to the folks who can handle that stuff but I’d probably have a full blown panic attack underwater and either drown or die on the boat from the bends.
The movie Open Water based on this story scarred me as a kid