[News] Lucky scuba divers found after 18 hour search

[DeeperBlue.com]

Two scubadivers have been discovered alive after spending the night stranded off theGreat Barrier Reef in Australia. Britishdiver Richard Neely, 38, and American Allison Dalton, 40, had gone missing on Friday afterresurfacing some 200 metres f...

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[DavidWarshaw]

The couple was on the TODAY show this morning. []Divers survive in shark-infested waters - People: Tales of survival - MSNBC.com They did not give any detail on why they were left behind... although Matt Lauer tried to get them to say they had "broken the rules" of the dive. Only at the end did they say that it was the diver operator that bore major blame for leaving the area. And that was in response to "claims" that they should pay for the rescue. They said that DAN insurance would pay some of the costs (I've never heard that as part of DAN's package... true????), but that the dive operator should be liable. They also did everything right during their time in the water... stayed together... conserved body heat... etc. They were also tarred for having sold their story to Australian media... for about $10K. Not a big pay day. What are Aussie news media saying?
DWAR.

 

[josh909]

After initially implying that the Dive Operators were at fault, the last few days have seen a change of tack with facts surfacing such as the pair in question taking bottled water with them and uing their camera to take photos of themselves floating in the darkness yet not using the camera's flash as an improvised strobe to attract attention.

Another American diver who was on the boat was interviewed on TV and when asked if she felt that the pair may have intentionally gone missing, she answered 'yes'.

 

[island_sands]

Why would two divers intentionally go missing?

 

[josh909]

Why would two divers intentionally go missing?

take a look at Media feeding frenzy earns rescued dive couple a fortune - and Australian anger | World news | The Guardian

 

[island_sands]

take a look at Media feeding frenzy earns rescued dive couple a fortune - and Australian anger | World news | The Guardian

I don't doubt that they might have had that scheme planned, but why would someone want to risk their life in "shark-infested waters", risking hypothermia, injury, drowning etc just for a few 1000 bucks? And even if they sold their story to the Sunday Mirror for an untold amount, how much do you think their story is worth? Realistically. There have been umpteen divers drifted and searched for in Egypt and other places around the world in the last couple of years.

Of course it's news worthy, but from a Sunday Mirror stereotype reader's point of view, a story of a lost couple diving and then one survives to tell the gory tale (remember the story that came out with a tourist's photograph of his wife lying unconscious in the background) where Gabe Watson was actually accused of murdering his wife, is a far juicier read.

Inquest continues for death of Tina Watson by Sara-Lise Haith on DeeperBlue.net - Fanatical About FreeDiving, Scuba Diving, Spearfishing & Technical Diving

If this couple Neely and Dalton really wanted to make a world scoop for the tabloid readers, they might have added an "Open Water" movie feel for it. (No disrespect to anyone meant).

Sorry to be cynical. If media attention was what they wanted for any price, then the Aussie rescue operation should be refunded for their efforts for these time wasting people.

Thanks for the link Josh. Interesting read.