From: "Peter Herbst" <bigb@icon.co.za> To: Techdiver <techdiver@aquanaut.com> Subject: Fatality SA Date: Fri, 3 Jul 1998 17:27:29 +0200 This is all we have so far, inquest on Sat. I believe. Peter Herbst 083 250 8995 fax 011 314-4575 -----Original Message----- From: Ian Porter <iporter@npb.co.za> To: scuba@dbn.lia.net Date: Sunday, June 28, 1998 4:40 PM Subject: Tragic Death of Rehan Bouwer As you will see this is not a full report but a statement put together by the divers on the expedition. I will gladly pass any messages onto the group you may wish. Ian This report was compiled by Prof. JG van der Walt (Chairman of CMAS - ISA). *This report is compiled from the reports collected verbally from the immediate eyewitnesses to the tragedy. This is NOT the final report. Rehan Bouwer (46), the Training Director of CMAS - ISA, died on Friday 26th June 1998 while carrying out a deep trimix dive during the Wright Canyon Expedition. The purpose of this expedition is to collect biological and geological data from the edge of this underwater canyon that lies about 5 miles north of Sodwana bay. He was the dive leader of the expedition. A series of dives were successfully carried out at depths ranging from 80 to 120 m on the Wednesday (24th) and Thursday (25th) as well as the morning of the Friday (26th). The afternoon dive was lead by Rehan and was intended to collect specimens from 120 - 140 m. The dive followed its planned profile up to the end of bottom stay, when an apparent equipment failure caused Rehan to attempt an emergency ascent. He reached the surface successfully and requested extra nitrox and oxygen. He descended with a support diver, who could not stabilise their joint negative buoyancy and they sank back down to 65 m, at which point the support diver managed to inflate his BC before losing consciousness. Only the support diver surfaced. He was rescued by the attending doctor and treated. He has no long-term sequelae. A surface search was instituted and extra boats were requested. The area from the incident sight to 15 nautical miles downstream was searched in a parallel pattern from about 15h00 to 20h00. Nothing was found.* Additional searched were conducted on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th with no success.